Marianne Schultz

[frame]Squee

A noise primarily made by an over-excited fangirl, however it has spread rapidly and is now widely spread among the web community.

Omg!! New Harry Potter book out!! Omg Squee squee! omg!!![/frame]

There are now fewer than 24 hours until Apple’s event tomorrow! The rumors are flying fast and hard now as the clock winds down. My boss posted a good summary of the iPhone rumors relative to what we could see tomorrow if you’d rather not Google through months of rumors to get the lowdown on what could be announced.

We should also hear more about iOS 5 as well, particularly some new voice command features (maybe Apple has been reading my blog?) in the form of the new ‘Assistant‘. iCloud should also be on the docket.

I think that we’re due for a surprise tomorrow, based on nothing but my own evaluation (and some first-hand experience from having worked at Apple HQ) of Apple’s caginess. I think they’ve managed to nail down leaks and/or hoodwink everyone by completely camouflaging a new iPhone 5 design to avoid any prototype-lost-in-a-bar scenarios again. And also, as I mentioned before, I simply cannot believe that Apple’s hardware/iPhone engineering group would not have had the directive to design a new device for release this year.

Apparently Apple is not going to be streaming this event live so we’ll have to rely on reports from those attending the event. At MacRumors, we’ll be posting news from the event as it occurs on our front page and via the @MacRumorsLive Twitter account.

In the meantime, I have some free app codes available, courtesy of Starbucks and their free Pick of the Week cards. I picked up a few extra cards for Momento, a daily diary app. If you want one of the codes, all you need to do is write a comment on this post. Make sure your email address is legit – I’ll email you the code using this address (email addresses are not published for the world to see, FYI). I have 5 codes to give away and the first 5 people who post a comment will get them.

One code per person, please. These codes are valid for U.S. iTunes store only and they expire on November 11.

UPDATE: All codes for Momento have been taken. Thank you all for your comments! 🙂

How did I not post anything here when Apple finally sent out invitations to the press earlier this week for the October 4 iPhone event? That was the most squee-worthy event this week (the Amazon Fire announcement was nice but not quite squee-worthy.)

Anyway, I’m very excited to finally have this event nailed down so we can put the iPhone 4S/5 rumors to bed with some real details soon. Then we’ll at least get a few weeks of blessed peace before people start up with iPhone 6 rumors, right? I know. That’s not going to happen, is it? Well, a girl can dream.

Today BGR pointed out a homemade aluminum and glass iPhone 5 mock-up that makes me drool. Literally. If the iPhone 5 looks like this, I will be in fangirl heaven, I tell you. You can find the original post and more pictures here.

iPhone 5 mock-up from BenM.at

There have been a few rumors lately that Apple will not be releasing a new iPhone model this year but will instead only put out a spec-bumped iPhone 4, dubbed the iPhone 4S like the iPhone 3GS that followed the iPhone 3G. While I don’t believe this (I find it mind-explodingly impossible that Apple’s iPhone hardware team would have nothing to show for their efforts since the iPhone 4’s release more than a year ago now), I’d still buy the 4S if that’s the only iPhone model Apple releases this year. Why?

• A spec bump would still mean a better camera. My iPhone is my default camera for almost every occasion – it’s the only camera I have on me almost everywhere I go.
• While my iPhone 4 isn’t slow, it isn’t perfectly responsive to every input and a faster processor is always welcome.
• A spec bump might mean more capacity. And I’m almost out of space on my 32 GB iPhone 4 as it is. More space would mean that I could pack on even more apps (for testing for work), movies to watch while doing cardio at the gym, and I wouldn’t have to sacrifice loading some photo albums on my iPhone from time to time when I need the space for other things.

 

• Minor or no changes to the overall size and design of the iPhone 4S would mean that most, if not all, of my current iPhone 4 accessories would still work with it. And that just means I’ll have more money to spend on music and apps
• I’m an admitted Apple fangirl. Duh.

Would I be disappointed if, somehow, Apple didn’t release a brand new iPhone model this year? Of course. But, again, I don’t believe that this will happen. How on earth could Apple go for two years (if a new iPhone model were held for release until 2012 with the last iPhone model released in 2010) without updating its flagship iOS device? I’ll believe that when pigs fly. If need be, I’ll dodge those airborne swines on my way to buy the iPhone 4S next month.