iPhone upgrades

More leaked images of the next iPhone? Whether these are real or not, they certainly add more fuel to the blaze of speculation preceding WWDC this coming Monday. If these accurately represent the next iPhone model, Apple has quite a few tricks up its sleeve.

The first image is an enhanced excerpt from the photo below. What we see is two seperate holes above the display screen of the iPhone. Could one be a speaker and the other a front-facing camera?

According to reports, the PTCRB has tested and certified four new iPhone models for use on GSM operator networks. The four models have four different storage capacities, ranging from 4GB up to 32GB.

If the reports are true, Apple is likely differentiating the four models not only by changing the amount of flash memory. Previous leaks have indicated that Apple plans to offer modified software on each model to allow different levels of functionality based on the hardware and price of each device.

When iPhone 3.0 is released it looks like TV shows, movies and music videos will be available for purchase and viewing directly on the new device. Three mobile ads from Apple were found in the latest version of TwitterFon that linked to "iTunes Movie Rentals," "iTunes Movies" and "iTunes TV."

When touched, the ads led to a video area in Apple's mobile store that was under construction. Screenshots of the portal show various genres and featured items, however video content is not yet available.

Guess what's back in the news. If you guessed a $99 iPhone then you just won the prize. Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets are predicting some changes in the Apple iPhone lineup this summer. However, the $99 iPhone predicted by Mike Abramsky doesn't resemble some of the earlier mockups of an iPhone "Nano" we've seen previously.

As you can see by the specifications above, the cheaper and highly subsidized version of the iPhone would have similar dimensions as its current model counterpart. The main differences would be lack of 3G or GPS support and a less expensive (and less included bandwidth) data plan. Along with the introduction of the basic model, Abramsky and others expect that Apple will also introduce an upgrade to the full-featured iPhone 3G.