iPhone 5 rumor roundup

In a big change from the previous three events, Apple's 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference didn't reveal new iPhone hardware. Sure, attendees got details of iOS 5 at the June 6 keynote address, but true iPhone fans also left the session without any hint of what a new handset might offer or when it would arrive.

With Apple devices in particular, the rumor mill tends to kick into high gear in the absence of any official announcement. And that's certainly been the case with the iPhone 5. The first gossip started to trickle in even as the iPhone 4 went on sale last year, but as summer has droned on that trickle has become a flood. Some of the rumors contradict each other--one camp suggests a minor update with an iPhone 4S, while another predicts a big update with an iPhone 5--but disagreement, after all, often is what the rumor mill is all about. And since conflicting information can be hard to track, we offer this handy timeline of iPhone 5 rumors so far in 2011. We'll add to it as we go along, and please let us know if we've left any juicy tidbits out.

July 28

A white iPhone 4S
In a rather convoluted tale, Macrumors highlighted a forum post from Vietnamese site Tinhten that claims to have a new version of the iPhone 4. Differences between the current handset are few, but Tinhten says it's a bit faster, it weighs less, and it has a plastic shell instead of glass.

4 million iPhones in September
China Times reports that Apple will produce 4 million new iPhones for release in the second week of September