Location Tracking Fix in iOS 4.3.3 Solves Bug Ahead of iPhone 5 Release

Apple seeks to clear away iPhone privacy issues by fixing the location tracking bug with iOS 4.3.3, thus clearing away some of the recent bad press that could mar the launch of the iPhone 5 in September.
No company likes bad press, but Apple has a particular aversion to it — especially when it comes to the iPhone.
Copious amounts of time, money, and resources have been poured into forging an image of the iPhone as a product leader, even in the midst of a sea of other smartphones that combine to dominate the market. This is precisely why the steady trickle of middling press surrounding the iPhone 4 over the past year or so has been particularly troubling to Steve Jobs and Apple.
Not that it has affected sales or anything.
In fact, the iPhone 4 continues to hum along as Apple’s most successful iPhone iteration by far, with well over 40 million units sold. Now, with the iPhone 5 release date pushed well off into the late summer, fiscal year 2011 for Apple will be dominated by iPhone 4 sales, in spite of the leaked prototype, antennagate, late arrival of the white iPhone 4, Greenpeace’s eco-sucker-punch, and, most recently, the privacy issue over the iPhone’s location tracking feature.
In case you didn’t hear about it, Apple has fixed the problem with the version of iOS 4 — iOS 4.3.3.

And from what I’ve read, independent sources have confirmed that the new update in fact neutralizes the tracking feature on iPhones. PC Mag has a really convincing article that I encourage you to check out. Click here to read it.
It goes without saying that Apple could have easily dealt with the privacy problem using next month’s WWDC and the purported launch of iOS 5. However, this very pro-active move by Apple to stem the tide of privacy concerns by fixing the issue immediately speaks to the potential gravity of the situation, both for iPhone 4 sales in the near future as well as iPhone 5 sales in the long run.
As we had discussed in a previous article, fixing current bugs on the iPhone 5 isn’t something that can be touted: going back to an internal antenna, for example, isn’t a cool, new feature like NFC. Instead, it’s an admission that the previous model had a flaw. Because the antenna is a hardware issue, there’s really nothing Apple can do about it other than keeping the bumper up on their site for sale for the iPhone 4 and changing course with the antenna on the iPhone 5.
But since the location tracking feature is a software issue, bumping up iOS 4 was kind of a no-brainer for Apple.
For most iPhone users, this news is far from groundbreaking. It may, however, give rise to some speculation about the iPhone 5: if Apple is so concerned about reassuring iPhone users that their privacy is secure, could this mean that privacy-oriented features may be making their way onto the iPhone 5? I am thinking in particular about NFC, Air Sync, and even Android-style over-the-air (OTA) software updates, all of which will or may involve keeping our details private.
For as much as updating iOS 4.3.3 may seem re-active to the privacy issue, it may in fact be Apple’s way of remaining pro-active in paving the way for a successful iPhone 5 launch.

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White iPhone 4 Not Quite The Same As iPhone 4

A little tweak: the white iPhone 4's camera sensor is ever-so-slightly tweaked to compensate for the white iPhone 4's light exposure.

iPhone 5 News Blog lead columnist Charles Moore reports on the subtle differences between the white iPhone 4 and its original counterpart.
The Japanese site Macotakra’s danbo reports that the white iPhone isn’t quite the exact clone of the black one save for the color change.
Specifically, danbo, based on what he’s gleaned from Twitter posts, says it appears that the white model’s camera lens and proximity sensor are different than the corresponding parts in the black iPhone 4. As he puts it, courtesy of Google Translation, “The sensor is similar, the magnitude of the incident light, in black and white are different in size,” and that from studying photo comparisons of the respective models it seems that the rear-facing camera lens is set farther back on the white iPhone 4 than on the black one.
These differences are probably not in aid of a performance tweak, but more likely have been required to address a stubborn light leakage issue that’s thought to have been the main reason why the white-un’s consumer release was delayed by nearly 10 months after the black model went retail. Even so, I’ve seen reports from white iPhone 4 users that even with the modified proximity sensor, its not as efficient at its job of blanking the screen when the phone is held up to the face as the black model is when screen protectors are fitted.
Of course, if you’ve been keeping up with the white iPhone in the blogosphere, you’re probably aware that there’s allegedly a more widely-known difference in the iPhone 4, to wit that it’s reportedly .02 millimeters thicker in section than the black model. That would be more or less inconsequential functionally, if the iPhone were not a product that a probable strong majority of users will want to protect in transit and storage with some sort of case, and in some instances a fatter white model may not fit in cases designed to accommodate the black iPhone 4, and that manufacturers of rigid case designs especially may have to release a separate case model to fit the white iPhone. That is, if the white iPhone really is fatter.
Consumer Reports say they compared a white iPhone 4 with a black iPhone 4 in their lab using high-quality calipers and found they were both the same thickness — the 9.3m (0.37 in.) that Apple specifies both black and white iPhone 4 models measure.
On the other hand, certain independent measurers are reporting the discrepancy, backing up their claims with what they say is photographic evidence. The precise reason for the evident difference is a matter of speculation. Apple (Phil Schiller again) has insisted that there isn’t one. it’s been suggested that the white coating itself and/or a UV inhibitor agent that’s been mentioned obliquely by Apple COO Phil Schiller, might have greater thickness. Paint and other coatings do have physical thickness.
Anyway, it’s prudent if you’re having difficulty cramming your new white iPhone 4 into your old iPhone 4 case to not try and force it as, you may risk scratching or cracking the iPhone’s enclosure or even breaking the glass back.
One operative question is whether the thickness difference, if it exists, will carry over to the iPhone 5, which presumably will be available in both black and white variants.

CAZE claims to have a case that accommodates the new white iPhone 4.

In the meantime, one case manufacturer that’s been quick out of the blocks in getting a white iPhone 4 compatible case to market is CAZE, who have just released a new Polka Dot and Leopard/Zebra print case for white iPhone 4 in its Spring/Summer 2011 lineup.

The new CAZE collection for the white new phone includes two sets of products: the Duetto case-back Polka Dot and Duetto case-back Zebra & Leopard, featuring a changeable back plate structure and a matching home button sticker.
The Duetto case-back Polka Dot offers a black background with white polka dots back plate and a hot pink background with white dots back plate while the Duetto case-back Zebra & Leopard features a Leopard back plate and a Zebra back plate.
The case is a bit raised to protect the iPhone screen from scratching when laid on a flat surface. Each package comes with a bumper and two back plates and a home button sticker printed in fashionable Polka dots or zebra stripes and leopard spots. To ensure all-around protection, the package also comes with a free screen protection kit (front & back films) for added shielding.
Note: we have not tested the CAZE case, so we cannot independently verify their claims. But you are welcome to explore their site for more information.

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Recent Arrests at Chinese Apple Supplier Could Squelch Leaked iPhone 5 Photos, Specs Until Release

iPhone 5 components supplier Foxconn recently turned over staffers to Chinese authorities for leaking iPad 2 specs to case designers in 2010, well ahead of its official release this year. With this in mind, is there any chance of leaked authentic iPhone photos or specs making their way to the internet this summer?
Do you love critiquing leaked photos of purported iPhone 5 components and prototypes? There’s no doubt that every new and credible photo or video that appears on the internet ratchets up the buzz and excitement over the next iteration of the iPhone. Is the photo real, or is it a fake?
Given what recently transpired at Foxconn, one of Apple’s primary components manufacturers, chances are that few if any authentic photos of new iPhone 5 equipment will be making their way out of Foxconn’s factory in China.
The Register has reported that Foxconn turned over two of their own staffers to Chinese authorities for allegedly leaking specs of the iPad 2 to case and accessories designers in 2010, well ahead of its recent release in 2011. Writer Richard Chirgwin reported that, “The design leak allowed the third party manufacturers to build iPad 2 cases that were the right thickness and accommodate the location of the camera on the rear of the device.”
The tech community did indeed do a double-take at how rapidly the top case case designers rolled out fresh, tight-fitting iPad 2 cases, given the fact that the second iteration of the iPad 2 did see some changes to its dimensions. But considering the form-factor of the iPad 2 is relatively similar to its predecessor, most tech pundits assumed that it was simply easier to adjust base iPad case designs the second time around, versus having to “inflate” the dimensions of iPhone cases to accommodate the first iPad, as they did in 2010.
Little did we all know that Foxconn employees were leaking the iPad 2 specs — and for lots of money, no doubt, especially given the mammoth size of the consumer electronics accessories sector worldwide.
We’ve reported before in an earlier article how case designers for the iPhone and iPad struggle to keep pace with Apple’s famously tight-lipped product release schedule. Thanks to Cupertino’s legendary “Worldwide Loyalty Team,” secrets are kept close to Apple’s belt, with the idea being that, the fewer the leaks, the bigger the splash when CEO Steve Jobs walks out onto that stage with whatever newfangled gadget he’s come up with. Take, for example, original iPhone: it is well-documented that it was kept a total secret from the public for 30 months from the time of its inception. Even the CIA couldn’t hold a secret for that long.
Gizmodo has a great exposé on how the Worldwide Loyalty Team works. And Gizmodo should know, considering that their own Jason Chen found himself in their crosshairs last summer when he obtained a prototype of the iPhone 4.
But for as much as Apple is resoundingly solid in containing leaks from within the U.S., controlling the security situation at their components manufacturers overseas is another story. There is no doubt that Apple’s contractual relationship with companies like Foxconn includes a security and non-disclosure clause that is probably unlike anything else in the tech industry, requiring its partners to conform to strict security standards that must be followed in order to keep the working relationship in good standing. It can also be assumed that Apple “operatives” — even from the Worldwide Loyalty Team — spend a fair share of time slinking around Foxconn’s facilities (they are a worldwide organization, after all).
But they cannot keep their finger on the pulse of every aspect of security at Foxconn or other manufacturers, which is why the iPad 2 specs were able to be leaked last year.
How The Foxconn Bust Impacts the iPhone 5
Given the now delicate nature of the iPhone 5′s release date and purported features (or lack thereof), all eyes are going to point toward Foxconn, looking for any signs that the iPhone 5 has gone into production. But any information we gain over the summer about the iPhone 5 is most likely going to be circumstantial at best; it’s hard to imagine that anyone at Foxconn would risk leaking iPhone 5 photos, prototypes, or specs, all while two of their comrades are being sweated down by the Chinese police.
One could also imagine that there are some case manufacturers shaking in their boots as well, who, up until the arrests last week, may have been feeling out the prospect of getting an advance peek at the new iPhone 5 dimensions, so that they could once again be first to market with their iPhone 5 cases.
All of that seems unlikely now.
So, the next time a shady website claims to have new parts, photos, or specs of the iPhone 5, think of those ex-Foxconn employees under the hot lamp of the Chinese investigators and ask yourself: would anyone risk leaking this stuff to the media?

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Insider Reports That The iPhone 5 Essentially A Tweaked iPhone 4

Will features like an 8 megapikel camera, A5 chip & iOS 5 be enough for the iPhone 5?

It would stand to reason that the iPhone 5‘s features would match or even surpass current Android smartphones and excite iPhone users enough to buy in to the new model. But as iPhone 5 News Blog columnist Charles Moore reports below, credible tech and financial media outlets are citing sources that suggest lackluster improvements to the iPhone 5.
As Michael noted in his editorial, the white iPhone 4 turned out to be, well, a white iPhone 4 — nothing more, nothing less. No A5 chip; No iOS 5; No 8 megapixel camera. The good news is that those three features are pipped to appear in the iPhone 5 by a couple of financial analysts with insider contacts. What may be bad news for some is that those features may be the most significant changes distinguishing the iPhone 5 from the present iPhone 4, and those hoping for a more radical revision may well have to wait for the iPhone 6 sometime in 2012.
iPhone 5 Release Date Rumors Remain In Flux
In terms of a release update, other tech media outlets remain wildly divided on when both production and launch will begin for the iPhone 5. A widely cited Avian Securities research note earlier this month, excerpted by BusinessInsider’s Jay Yarow, maintains that, based on conversations with a key component supplier, iPhone 5 mass production won’t begin until September, leading them to deduce that the launch is to be in very late 2011 or more likely 2012.
Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a note to investors posted Monday, April 18, concurs roughly with Avian Securities on the probable production startup and launch time frames (he anticipates some sort of announcement at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), to be held June 6 through 10 with a product launch possibly as early as October).
Lackluster Features Coming to the iPhone 5?
Kuo also says he’s been told by his supply chain sources that the iPhone 5 will not be an all-new design but rather a refreshed and enhanced iPhone 4, incorporating only what Kuo calls “slight modifications” from the iPhone 4 specs, including the faster A5 processor, an 8 megapixel rear camera, a switch to a Qualcomm baseband for both GSM and CDMA variants, and an improved antenna design.
Most alarming is that Kuo expects iOS 5 will be a “main selling point” of the iPhone 5, and will have already been released or at least announced before the fifth-generation phone itself.
You can read the entire AppleInsider report here.
Some of us might quibble with Kuo’s characterization of those changes as “slight”, but what he’s predicting does fall well short of expectations for those anticipating a major redesign with a completely new form factor, as we have discussed on this blog.
For that, Kuo says we’ll probably have to wait for the iPhone 6, which he says is in the works with a new design and greatly improved hardware specifications. According to a new rumor from Japanese newspaper Nikkan, cited mid-week by Appleinsider, one of those improved specs could be new displays constructed from poly silicon, or p-Si, thinner than the displays used in the iPhone 4.
Current iOS 5 Testing May Dispel iPhone 4s Rumors
In addition, The Mac Observer’s Jeff Gamet reports that Apple and AT&T are apparently already testing iOS 5 for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in real-world conditions, citing crash reports courtesy of developer FutureTap, which also indicate that the iOS 5 tests are being conducted on currently available iPhone, iPod touch and iPad models, and not on the rumored prototype iPhone 4s.

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iPhone 5 News Blog Editorial: How The Tech Media Overthought the White iPhone 4

The white iPhone 4 is finally here, and guess what — it’s white.
No A5 chip. No IOS 5. No 8 megapixel camera, or any other purported feature that will most likely find its way onto the iPhone 5. Instead, the white iPhone 4 lived up to its name flawlessly: nothing more or less than a white version of the original iPhone 4. And yet, when you compare the end result of weeks of rumor-milling in the tech world, what we ended up with is far from what all the speculation promised us.
Here on the blog, the white iPhone 4 was quite obviously not going to be a game-changing device. As I explained in a previous article, the purpose of the white iPhone 4 is simply to buy time in lieu of a later-than-usual iPhone 5 release and give the iPhone 4 lifecycle an extension. While it may be true that few people remain in the marketplace that are true white iPhone 4 holdouts, whatever number that “few” represents is certainly a large enough number to substantiate Apple’s move to pour some white paint into their plastic molds and churn out a few million units of the white iPhone 4. In the end, it is a very obvious, inexpensive, and effective way for Apple to sell more product.
If it was so obvious, then why did the tech media get so confounded with unrealistic expectations about the white iPhone 4? Why did they get it so wrong?
Perhaps in a kind of subconconscious response to the growing reality that the iPhone 5 isn’t going to hit the stores until the end of the Summer at the latest, the tech media managed to weave an exponentially complex tapestry of rumored iPhone iterations, some of which are still rumored to appear in the interim. Not long after the white iPhone 4 rumors gained traction, fresh rumors abounded about how app developers were to receive a developer-only, A5-equipped device, tagged the “iPhone 4s,” as a means of getting a head start on next-generation app and game development. The iPhone 4s would be nothing more than a souped-up iPhone 4.
And yet, it only took hours for the tech media to meld the white iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s into a new rumor altogether.
What started as a reasonable expectation for a white iPhone 4 turned out to be a white iPhone 4 with improved features. The expectation was that this new white iPhone would feature the beefed-up A5, maybe the 8 megapixel camera, and a host of other new features that would make it decidedly un-iPhone 4′ish. Even though there is virtually no other marketing pattern in all of electronics to support such a preposterous idea, and that the advent of an improved white iPhone 4 would effectively kill the growing anticipation of the iPhone 5, it was this perspective that dominated the media.
Then, the rumor mutated.
For another week or so, we were treated to an audacious new iPhone release schedule from a host of different tech media outlets, claiming that we would have the white iPhone 4 in late April, followed by the iPhone 4s in June, followed by the iPhone 5 in the Fall, followed by the iPhone 6 in early 2012. This is when I started to get angry, leading me to the unfortunate circumstance of calling a bunch of people whose names I don’t even know “stupid,” which you can read with great mirth on the iPhone 6 News Blog. Heck, even level-headed iPhone 5 News Blog lead columnist Charles Moore constructed an entire post about the dizzying rumors of this torrid iPhone release schedule here.
During this time, dozens of comments flooded in from people who literally needed to be talked down from leaving the iPhone franchise altogether over this cocophany of rumors. In this way, blogs who report honestly on iPhone news have become a kind of detox from all the misleading and irresponsible reporting going out into the mainstream — sort of like iPhone 5 outreach centers. In essence, we’ve all become the iPhone 5 Truthers, exploding unfounded rumors by way of one tried and true approach — common sense.
Common sense indicated to us from the beginning that the white iPhone 4 would be just that: a big hunk of white plastic, with maybe a few different cosmetic features to ensure that not too much light would bleed into the camera or proximity sensors.
And yet, here on Thursday, April 28th, the tech media and a google of iPhone devotees are just waking up to a self-induced level of disappointment over a white iPhone 4 that didn’t manage to live up to expectations, even though it lives up to its namesake perfectly.
The good news is that there is a teachable moment here — something positive to take from the rubble of strewn white iPhone 4s along the trail of rumors leading to the iPhone 5: don’t believe the hype. It’s important to remember that tech blogs have a vested, cynical, and monetary motivation to inflate, conflate, and mis-state the very little bit of actionable intelligence that we receive about the iPhone 5 and all other iPhone stops in between. And because of the nature of the press, few if any tech pundits ever take responsibility for irresponsible reporting; they only take credit for when they get the story right.
Which, in the case of the iPhone, is only very rarely.

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iPhone 5 Wedge Form Factor And 3.7″ Display Rumors Ramp Up, But There’s This Imminent White iPhone 4 Release…..

Will the iPhone 5 feature a wedge or teardrop shape?

Read Charles Moore’s new column on the new possible shape of the iPhone 5 and the imminent release of a white iPhone 4s.
Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. We’re back in the harness, with new rumors afoot about the iPhone 5‘s revised form factor. Will it be made of carbon fiber? (extremely doubtful this time around), aluminum? (considerably more probable), or stick with the current glass back? (I’m guessing likely not).
thisismynext.com’s Joshua Topolsky says that while current Internet chatter is suggesting the iPhone 5 will be little more than a speed bump (ie: A5 chip) and feature enhancement in the iPhone 4 form factor what he’s been hearing from a variety of unnamed sources is that the iPhone 5 will have a more iPod touch or mini iPad 2 look, with a larger display screen of perhaps 3.7,” retaining the present resolution, and occupying most of the device’s front face with only a slim marginal bezel, but with a larger Home button also supporting gestures.
Why not an even four-inch screen? The reasoning is that with 3.7″ diagonal and the current resolution, pixel density – the key to Apple’s Retina Display bragging rights, would drop from 326 ppi only down to 312 ppi — still comfortably above the somewhat arbitrary Retina Display technology threshold of 300 ppi. However, with a four-inch screen, pixel density with the same resolution would go down to 288 ppi.
Even with a 3.7″ screen, rendering would be somewhat less sharp than it is with the iPhone 4′s display. A good analogy is the G3 iBook and Pismo PowerBook laptops I was running back to back several years ago. Both machines had 1064 x 768 resolution displays, but the Pismo’s was 14.1″ while the iBook display was 12.1″ in physical dimension, which made its rendering significantly sharper and crisper than with the larger PowerBook’s screen.
Other rumors include an iPhone 5 with a larger display and a wedge or teardrop shape thinner than the iPhone 4 and reminiscent of the generation 2 MacBook Air.
However, here’s the thing once again; a redesign that radical for release this coming summer or even fall would not set well with a whole lot of folks who’ve just bought Verizon CDMA iPhone 4s and white iPhone 4s (expected to start selling by the end of the week — possibly as early as Wednesday April 27), who are going to be unhappy campers. A degree of this dynamic is inevitable with the release of any new product upgrade. Think of the folks who had just bought MacBook Airs last September. It happened to me when I bought an aluminum unibody MacBook three months before Apple morphed that model into the 13″ MacBook Pro with FireWire and SD Card support. However, in this instance, a radical iPhone 5 revamp release sometime in the June – September time window would be really hot on the heels of the white iPhone 4 release.
Not that I’m certain Apple won’t do it anyway, but why would they go to the considerable trouble of ramping up white iPhone 4 production and channel distribution only to replace it with a new model in just a couple or three months’ time? Doing so just to wring a few more sales out of a lame duck iPhone 4 seems pretty cynical, and Apple is usually a classier act than that. Which is another reason why I think an iPhone “4S” upgrade with an A5 processor and perhaps an 8 megapixel camera seems more likely in the near term, with the iPhone 5 release held off until late fall or even 2012.
On Monday, Chris Chang of the Chinese Apple-oriented site M.I.C. Gadget posted an image of a white iPhone with a larger display than depictions of the white iPhone 4 have shown, which he says my be someone’s mockup…. or….”prototype iPhone with an A5 processor that game developers are using to prepare their iPhone 5 apps.” Interesting, but nothing conclusive there. Still mostly rumors and conjecture, but the white iPhone 4 at least should be reality by the end of the week.

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The Global iPhone 5: Why Not Sprint, Why Not Now?

If the iPhone 5 is going to be a "global" device, why not add Sprint?

Verizon’s CFO recently leaked information that the iPhone 5 would indeed be a “global” device that works on both GSM and CDMA networks. Given the fact that Sprint operates on CDMA, why wouldn’t the iPhone 5 be offered on the U.S.’s third largest carrier this time around?
Ever since the release of Verizon’s iPhone, many had wondered whether Apple would design the iPhone 5 to be a dual network device, integrating both GSM and CDMA compatibility into one phone, or instead offer two separate devices for AT&T and Verizon, respectively. Lucky for us, Verizon’s CFO Fran Shammo seems to have spilled the beans on a dual-network, “global” iPhone 5, as we reported in another article. Outside of an official confirmation from Apple — which won’t come until the formal announcement of the iPhone 5 — it’s apparent that the iPhone 5 will support both GSM and CDMA.
Given these apparent facts, why doesn’t Apple extend the iPhone 5‘s availability to include the Sprint network?
In the world of U.S. mobile networks, Sprint is often regarded as the red-headed stepchild of them all: while AT&T touts speed and Verizon boasts of coverage, Sprint’s business model is all about marketing its value pricing. Because of this, many performance-minded smartphone users opt for speed or coverage over savings, making AT&T and Verizon the top two carriers. But Sprint, after all, is the third largest mobile carrier in the U.S., with over 55 million subscribers. When you consider that AT&T, America’s top provider, has 62 million subscribers, you begin to see how the difference between first and third isn’t all that wide, and that opening up the iPhone 5 to Sprint’s customers could be advantageous.
Especially considering that the Android smartphones are already on Sprint.
Recently, Sprint has been pushing Kyrocera’s new Echo smartphone, a dual-screen marvel that seems to be paving the way for the next generation of Android 3.0 gadgets, both in the smartphone sector as well as tablet devices to go up against the iPad 2 (such as Sony’s new S2 fold-up, dual-screened tablet). For as much as the iPhone 5 will need to compete with dual-screened devices like the Echo on the technological level, Apple will also have to match Android in availability as well.
With this in mind, wouldn’t it make sense to offer the iPhone 5 to Sprint’s 55 million subscribers? After all, Sprint utilizes the same CDMA technology as Verizon. In this way, the iPhone 5′s “global” characteristics would jive perfectly with Sprint as it does with Verizon.
To date, there is no hard evidence that the iPhone 5 will indeed be offered on the Sprint network. The only credible shred of information about Sprint and the iPhone 5 was from Sprint’s Chief Financial Officer Robert Brust, who simply said of the iPhone 5 in May of 2010 that “we’d love to have it.” The iPhone 5 News Blog reported on this story way back in February that a Sprint iPhone 5 is a possibility. So, if the iPhone 5 surprisingly appears on Sprint at the end of this summer, remember that you saw it here first!
The iPhone 5 on T-Mobile?
Just today, there are fresh reports from Beatweek and other tech news sources that either the iPhone 5 and/or white iPhone 4 will be released on AT&T’s newly subsumed carrier T-Mobile. Beatweek boldly claims that, “AT&T just bought T-Mobile. AT&T already offers the iPhone. As such, T-Mobile was probably already a lock to offer the iPhone 5. A late arriving iPhone 5 means Apple could, if it wants to, go ahead and do a T-Mobile iPhone 4.”
While that deductive reasoning by Beatweek and others may make for a sensational headline, it represents irresponsible journalism at best: at the time of T-Mobile’s acquisition by AT&T for $39 billion in March of 2011, T-Mobile made it resoundingly clear that the iPhone 5 — or any iPhone for that matter — would not be released to T-Mobile customers in 2011.
In a succinct article on IT Pro Portal, Desire Athow reports that, when asked about the iPhone coming to T-Mobile:
“In a FAQ published by the company earlier today, the answer is a resounding no. T-Mobile USA says that it remains an independent company as the acquisition process is expected to last at least one year. It added that it will not offer the iPhone 4 (and its successor the iPhone 5), instead redirecting customers to “cutting edge devices” like the Samsung Galaxy S 4G and the Sidekick 4G, also built by Samsung.”
Unless the official statements from AT&T and T-Mobile were blatant lies, then there is no reason to believe rumors of a T-Mobile iPhone release this year.

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