Rumors

It's safe to assume things are going to get a bit competitive between U.S. wireless carriers if Sprint and T-Mobile are really going to be carrying the iPhone 5 next month. According to Bloomberg, Sprint Nextel Corp. will try to separate itself from the competition by offering unlimited data service plans with the iPhone 5.

An anonymous source said Sprint will begin selling the next generation device in mid-October, and plans to steal customers away from AT&T and Verizon by being the only carrier to offer unlimited data. Both AT&T and Verizon charge for their data services.

A mysterious photograph has surfaced with evidence embedded in the file that indicates the image was probably taken by an iPhone 5. Further analysis of the reflection in the photograph shows someone holding the device that captured the image. To begin, let's just say that the folks over at pocketnow who revealed the image have a lot of time on their hands.

The image itself could be a plate of sushi from anywhere, but according to the embedded geolocation data within the original photograph, it was taken on the Apple campus in Cupertino, California. The photo was cropped to 2235 x 2291 pixels, while Exchangeable image file format (Exif) data in the file points to an original resolution of 3264 x 2448. This happens to be the magic number of eight megapixels at the iPhone-friendly 4:3 ratio.

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.

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.