No iPhone 5 Until 2013? Cue the Newest Round of Rumors

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
MARIO ANZUONI / REUTERS

If you thought Apple's iPhone 4S announcement would put an end to iPhone 5 rumors, you'd be wrong.

Already, the rumor mill is predicting when Apple will release the iPhone 5 with 4G LTE support. According DigiTimes, market research firm IHS says the time frame is late 2012 or mid-2013, when chipsets for thinner designs become available. (In other news, I'm predicting zero to 24 inches of rain in Cincinnati this weekend.)

(MORE: Apple Announces iPhone 4S: Old Design, New Specs, Siri Assistant)

From what I can tell, though, IHS's statement is pure speculation, not the usual "supply chain sources" that make up so much of DigiTimes' claptrap. Not that it matters; iPhone 5 rumors have been so unreliable that you might as well just make wild guesses.

IHS pats itself on the back for predicting in July that the next iPhone would not support LTE networks--as if to lend credence to its latest forecast--but most pundits figured as much already, because the current technology wastes battery life. Predicting the iPhone 5 for next year or the year after that doesn't give us much new insight, either.

(MORE: Siri: Can Apple Sell the Concept of Natural Language Computing?)

Fortunately, not every rumor monger is non-committal. Hard Candy, a maker of iPhone cases, was so confident that Apple would launch a redesigned iPhone this year that the company started making 50,000 cases ahead of Apple's announcement, accommodating a bigger design, 4.44-inch display and lozenge-shaped home button, Cult of Mac reported. Maybe next year, right? Or 2013. Or maybe Samsung will copy the design for its own smartphones. Anything's possible!

I know, I know. By spreading these rumors, I'm just being an enabler. My colleague Matt Peckham is totally right that the media is to blame for blowing iPhone expectations out of proportion. But it's not going to stop unless tech writers come to some agreement that Apple doesn't deserve as much media frenzy as it gets, which in turn won't stop unless people don't click on this stuff. And that won't stop unless people cease to be fascinated by Apple products. In other words, it never ends.

(LIST: Top 10 Apple Moments)

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TECHNOLOGY, Not Fully Baked: Diablo III Officially 'Delayed' Until Early 2012

Was Diablo III ever officially on track for a late 2011 release? Not really. All we thought we knew came pretty much from a leaked release schedule that put developer Blizzard's tertiary dark fantasy-themed hack-and-slash somewhere in 2011's fourth quarter.
That's why I've put "delayed" in single scare quotes up top. Blizzard, like id Software, hates to be pinned down, and who can blame them? I suppose we ought to be grateful that we now know, for sure, that Diablo III won't happen this year. Or to use Blizzard's terms, Diablo III's launch window "will be moving into early 2012."
"With every game we make, the temptation is always very strong to launch as soon as possible," wrote Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime in a statement. "However, we didn't put so many years of work into Diablo III to release a game that was almost ready."
The good news? "The beta test is going very well," says Morhaime, adding that the company plans to "[make] the most of the extra time we're taking..."
Put another way: extended beta period! (Or, put more cynically, Blizzard just realized by way of the beta's opening days—it launched on September 20—that the game's not ready for primetime.)
Whatever the case, Blizzard says it may use the extra time to add more testers than it had planned to. If you still want a shot, Blizzard says active Battle.net members should make sure to "opt in" there. Blizzard says to expect "additional testing phases" to come along at some point, too.

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