With Apple Inc.’s September event on a fast approach, the rumor mill meter is hitting a white hot pitch right about now. Will there be an iPhone 5 to coincide with iOS 5? What about an iPad 3? Oh, and I hear the Magic Mouse is being discontinued, is that true?
We can’t answer any with certainty, but here’s what is being batted around:
Magic Mouse being discontinued? Nope. I found out from John Gruber’s link to a short forkbombr.net recap – which relayed Cult of Mac‘s Alex Heath eating claim chowder: Our source in Apple inventory has followed up with us, and it appears that Apple has instead discontinued the Magic Mouse’s old part number in favor for a new one. This move may indicate an update to the Magic Mouse, with the most logical prediction being better integration with advanced gestures in OS X Lion.
iPhone 5 – Every Apple watcher knows the product schedule Apple follows: Every year their entire line of products get a refresh: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Macbook Air and all other Macs. iPad update in January, iPhone in July, iPods in September for Back-To-School… and so on.
This year was a tad different though – the iPhone 4S (the temporary name) did not debut in July as normal. It is generally agreed that the cause may have been the Tsunami in Japan and thus a shortage of parts. But it may also have to do with iOS5 and iCloud; some say that they were not fully ready by July, so September is the natural substitute.
I can safely say that yes, a new iPhone will make its debut in September/October. It’s best to hold off upgrading until then if you can. What I can’t be safe about is…
iPad 3 – Possible… anything’s possible when you want it bad enough! The rumor is this iPad will be for Pro users, with a close to Retina screen. This to me feels like a stretch though. Yes, 9to5 Mac released some photos of dock connecter part that differs from the iPad 1 and 2, but that doesn’t prove much. There are dozens of shots like this that have been floated around as proof before – iPod Nano case with camera hole anyone?
I would wait until September 15 before purchasing an iPad 2 – you never know what Apple has up it’s sleeve. I’m waiting – and I’ve waited a long time to get my iPad!
