iPhone 5

According to a leaked document obtained by BGR, Best Buy is preparing to accept pre-orders for the iPhone 5 during the first week of October. The memo reads: BBYM: iPhone 5 product introduction expected, pre-sales to begin for expected October week 1 launch / Sprint launches iPhone 5.

The memo does note that launch dates are subject to change.

Most likely Best Buy is just going along with the consensus that Apple plans to release the iPhone 5 in October, and doesn't have any real inside information. However, it does seem like they're determined to prepare for an Apple launch no matter what kind of intel they have. Thisismynext posted a screen grab of the Best Buy National Retail Calendar that reveals plans to outfit a store with some kind of "Apple fixture" on October 21, 2011.

Apple employees, unreleased iPhones and alcohol obviously don't mix well. Last year an iPhone 4 prototype was lost in a bar and sold to the tech blog Gizmodo for $5,000, which led to a desperate search by Apple and law-enforcement to recover the missing device. In an odd case of deja vu, CNET reported that an iPhone 5 was lost in a San Francisco bar in late July, and possibly sold on Craigslist for around $200. A lot of Apple blogs questioned the story because a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department said Apple never filed a police report about the lost phone at the bar. But remember, San Francisco was the first place the elusive iPhone 5 was purportedly sited, and in July, West Coast Gadgets announced that Sprint employees would be testing the next-generation device in the city. Maybe a Sprint employee lost his prototype while sipping on tequila in the Mexican restaurant known as Cava 22 -- the scene of our crime!

According to CNET, the phone was traced to "a two-floor, single-family home in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood." San Francisco police searched the home, but discovered nothing. The unidentified man was offered money for the phone with no questions asked, but he maintained that he had no knowledge of its whereabouts.

As we get closer to a possible next-generation iPhone announcement, more and more pictures off the "N94" iPhone prototype are being leaked. The N94 was originally believed to be the iPhone 4S or possibly the rumored 8GB iPhone Reuters mentioned last week. Engadget posted some new pictures of the mysterious device on Monday.

3G is better than 2G, and according to the latest Apple rumor T-Mobile iPhone users may be getting an upgrade in October. A T-Mobile employee told MacTrast that Apple is developing an iPhone that would operate at 3G speeds via T-Mobile USA's network.

In June, a T-Mobile spokesperson said they were carrying more than a million unlocked iPhones on their network. The unlocked devices are stuck using T-Mobile's EDGE network, and can't access T-Mobile's faster 3G or 4G speeds.

The Verizon iPhone helped the iPhone 4 lead smartphone sales in 2011. So it makes sense that Apple would want to add the third-largest cellphone company to its roster. Adding carriers will help Apple introduce new customers to the iPhone, which will of course help them increase sales. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is not going to wait very long, and plans to introduce a Sprint iPhone at the same time AT&T and Verizon will be getting the iPhone 5 in October.

Engadget cites another unnamed source who said Sprint will begin carrying the iPhone 4 at the same time as the iPhone 5. Introducing any type of Sprint iPhone will give Apple 52 million more potential customers. We have heard rumors about a Sprint iPhone before, but the days of Apple exclusivity are coming to an end with the flooding of the smartphone market.