Here’s our quick rundown of the scuttlebutt surrounding Apple’s highly anticipated next phone.

• Apple might be using a thinner kind of display from Toshiba and Sharp. Using “in-cell” touchscreen displays for the new iPhone could make the device thinner than it is now.
• Korea IT News says the new iPhone’s casing will be manufactured from Liquidmetal, a combination of titanium, zirconium, nickel, copper and other metals, that can be manipulated like plastic injection molding, rather than bent into shape like sheet metal. Apple already uses it in some other products, but casting the iPhone in the material would make the device’s case tougher and more scratch resistant.
• The sixth-generation iPhone will work on LTE networks and use Qualcomm 28nm chips, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.
• That same analyst was expecting the new device to be introduced in August (though it’s unclear why), but thanks to Qualcomm’s difficulty in manufacturing enough of these 28nm chips, he expects (another) October iPhone launch.

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Hwang was a 14-year veteran at the U.S. division of Samsung when he told Primary Global Research LLC executive James Fleishman, and a hedge fund manager identified only as “Greg” about the South Korean company’s shipment of LCD displays intended for use in Apple’s iPad. Hwang passed on the information at a lunch between the three parties in Dec. 2009, a full four months before the actual shipping date of the original iPad, in April 2010.

The testimony is part of a case against Fleishman regarding allegations of insider trading, and Hwang was granted immunity from prosecution from the judge presiding over the case in exchange for his testimony. Hwang said that he made about $38,000 working for Primary Global Research as a consultant between 2004 and 2010.

The case shines a light on what’s normally a part of the Apple news cycle that mostly occupies the shadows. Analysts and research groups often cite supply chain checks and reports often come down from “supply chain sources,” but this is a fairly clear look at exactly what that could mean behind the scenes. Hwang’s may be an extreme example, as he was eventually sought out by the FBI and asked to testify against Fleishman, but if you’re wondering where the latest component shipment report came from, it just might be from an informal lunch meeting in exchange for a “consultancy fee.”

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The report from DigiTimes, which has a fairly successful history of discovering information about the parts going into future Apple devices ahead of their release, says the iPhone 5′s display panel, despite not being much larger than the current iPhone’s 3.5-inch one, will nonetheless appear larger thanks to a new design. The bezel surrounding the display will be able to be made smaller, which will allow the screen to sit closer to the phone’s edge. This will make it look much bigger, and allow the iPhone 5 to sport an even slimmer, more compact form factor. It’s also possible that these reports address just one of two new iPhone models coming this fall, if speculation about a cheaper version of the iPhone arriving alongside a full-fledged iPhone 5 prove true.

Sources also claimed in the report that the iPhone 5′s back will be metal, instead of reinforced glass. That’s a rumor we’ve heard mentioned before, but so far, we’ve yet to really see much supporting evidence to back it up. Some think it would interfere with reception, but aftermarket mods that accomplish the same thing with the iPhone 4 do exist, and users don’t seem to report any reception problems (it may help that the antenna on the iPhone 4 is actually outside the device) so in theory it should work fine.

I argued early this year that the next iPhone might not need a considerably larger screen. While I still believe it likely won’t hinder its selling ability, after using the Samsung Galaxy S II with its 4.3-inch screen for a while, I do think a bigger display would be beneficial to iPhone owners. What do you think? Would a smaller screen be disappointing, or a welcome change if it helps the iPhone 5 take up even less room in your pocket?

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In contrast, TheAppleBlog’s Darrell Etherington urged caution in predictions of an iPad 3, though he suggested there might be room for a complementary model. Arguably, his caution was prudent. During the iPad 2 launch event in March, a Keynote slide declared 2011 to be the year of the iPad 2. Singular.

Even so, Apple leadership has a habit of altering the company’s course, often very suddenly, as with the transition from Mac OS to OS X or from PPC CPU architecture to x86. More recently, after years of asserting a 13-inch display was the minimum size for a laptop, the company launched the 11-inch MacBook Air. Perhaps similarly, after asserting a 9.7-inch display was the minimum for a tablet, Apple might yet launch a 7-inch iPad 2.

The problem with a 7-inch iPad is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of interest, or rather, there’s a huge amount of interest in the 9.7-inch iPad 2, which suggests consumers aren’t sweating the lack of a smaller version. From AppleInsider, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White’s “barometer” of Apple component suppliers suggests their triple-digit growth “was driven largely by the ramp of iPad 2.” Fortune reports on a “small but growing group” of analysts predicting 7 million iPads sold this quarter. That would come after Apple sold a record 7.3 million iPads during the holiday quarter last year, and would be a strong indicator of iPad sales in excess of 30 million this year, double last year’s total. Finally, DigiTimes is citing supply-chain sources that “have not yet received any notice for next generation iPad products and do not believe iPad 2 is a transitional product.”

The circumstantial evidence so far is against another iPad this year, including a 7-inch model. Setting aside the repeated denunciations of the smaller display by Apple executives, the real question would be, why introduce a new model when the current one is so successful? There is no reason, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. Take the example of the iPod Mini. In 2005, the multi-colored iPod Mini with its hard-drive storage was hugely successful, and yet in the fall of that year, it was promptly replaced by the smaller iPod nano.

There’s something about the “year of the iPad 2″ assertion that seems too certain, too definitive for a company as unpredictable as Apple. Since when does Apple provide any information about its product release plans more than a few weeks in advance? Despite indications that Apple is sticking to one iPad model release per year, there’s just no such thing as a safe bet when it comes to this company.

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Are You Looking at Me?

The new iPad will have FaceTime support via a front-facing camera. If it doesn’t, I will eat my hat. Apple is all about FaceTime, and I’m fairly sure the only reason the first iPad didn’t have it is because Apple wanted that to be an iPhone 4 launch feature, and the company knew full well that in a year’s time, it would become an upgrade incentive for original iPad owners. Whether the iPad will have a rear camera as well is less certain. It would help keep the device on par with Android hardware, and Mark thinks it could come in handy for business users. On the other hand, I think most users probably wouldn’t take advantage of it much, and Apple isn’t known for doing things just because everyone else is doing it.

You Look Familiar

The biggest question mark surrounding Apple’s new iPad is probably the display. Will it be double the resolution (2048×1536), as some early rumors speculated? Or will it remain exactly the same, as more recent murmurs indicate? I think the iPad 2 will have a similar screen to the original, but with quality improvements that don’t change the resolution but nevertheless affect the look of the screen. Whether it’s better contrast, brightness, viewing angle or screen depth, we’ll see something that makes the iPad 2 visually pop, but Apple won’t go Retina Display with this revision. The iPhone’s screen remained relatively the same until the iPhone 4, after all. It can afford to keep the same quality of display in place for one more year, especially if it continues to beat all others when it comes to price.

Have You Lost Weight?

The iPad 2 will be thinner than its predecessor. Apple loves to do this with its portable devices; the iPod touch is a perfect example. Apple will have refined the design of components to allow for a thinner case. We might also see a thinner bezel around the screen, allowing for a smaller overall surface area, but the screen will almost certainly remain 9.7 inches. Apple won’t reduce the size of the bezel by too much, though, because the iPad still can’t be held comfortably with one hand without putting a finger on the front of the device. Some suggest a carbon-fiber body might be on the way, but I’d wager that Apple will stick with an aluminum back for this model. BGR this morning posted what it claims might be a picture of the next iPad’s back casing. The casing pictured appears to replicate the design rumors that have been floating around, with a flat back and more prominent speaker, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this is, in fact, what we get.

Have You Been Working Out?

Apple will make sure the next iPad gets improvements under the hood, even if it doesn’t go overboard and throw in dual-core processing or tremendous amounts of RAM. Recent rumors suggest that it’ll get an upgrade to a more powerful processor, an A5 to succeed Apple’s in-house designed A4, which currently powers the iPhone 4 and the iPad. At least 512MB of RAM is also pretty much a guarantee. Don’t be surprised if Apple keeps these changes relatively modest on paper, though. The key to iPad’s success is, after all, how well it performs in the hands of users, something more muscle-bound machines haven’t yet been able to match.

There’s a Certain Something About You

All of the above items are what we can pretty safely expect to see, but none of them will really bowl over customers the way Apple likes to with new iterations of its devices. FaceTime is a big addition from Apple’s perspective, but consumers at this point will be shocked only if it isn’t there. Instead, there are a number of possibilities for something new that really shakes things up.

There are three likely possible wow factors for the iPad 2 in my opinion. The first is the inclusion of a Thunderbolt port. Many early case prototypes for the new iPad feature a space for a port that’s too small to be USB, and was originally suspected to be for Mini DisplayPort. Apple showed it was serious about Thunderbolt by including it in the new MacBook Pros it introduced last Thursday. It makes sense for iPad, because it could make for ultra-fast syncing and data transfer between the iPad and new Macs, rewarding customers who embrace both of Apple’s computing platforms. And even for those who don’t, Thunderbolt on the iPad could be used for simple, single-cord A/V out to connected displays. I think this is possible for this generation, but it’s more likely Apple will wait until Thunderbolt has more presence in its Mac line before we see it go portable.

Second, Apple could introduce iOS 5 alongside the iPad, with additional, device-specific features that are only available to customers who pay for the hardware upgrade. Maybe these could be the oft-rumored NFC features many think are on their way to iOS devices, or AirDrop capabilities like those in the new OS X Lion developer preview that allow for easy, fast device-to-device direct file transfer. This seems like the most realistic wow factor candidate for this generation of hardware.

Finally, the new iPad could come with a price reduction. Apple is already leading the tablet pack when it comes to the cost to consumers, but even a $25 drop would do a lot to solidify that position and overshadow a relatively modest, evolutionary hardware update. Apple has been making the iPad for a year now, so presumably it’s been able to reduce production costs along the way.

Those are my expectations going into Wednesday’s event. What are yours?

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AppleInsider is reporting the new 13-inch MacBook Pro will include a 2.3GHz Core i5 processor, 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, a 320 GB HDD, and a 13.3-inch display with a resolution of 1280×800. Graphics duties will be handled by an Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated card, and it’ll also sport a rebranded FaceTime HD camera. The 13-inch Pro is also rumored to introduce SDXC support, and a new high-speed data port/display connector dubbed “Thunderbolt,” based on Intel’s Light Peak technology.

The specs are supported by a shot of the MacBook Pro box posted by Fscklog that is said to depict the specs of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Both AppleInsider and Mac4Ever have also received photos which show the new branding for the Thunderbolt High-speed I/O port. There’s also an image which claims to show the new Thunderbolt port, which, if the photo is accurate, looks exactly like Apple’s Mini DisplayPort on current machines. This makes sense, since the new tech is supposed to be backward-compatible with Mini DisplayPort connectors.

MacRumors claims to have separately confirmed that these are indeed legitimate images and specs, and that they depict the configuration of the low-end, 13-inch MacBook Pro configuration.

Meanwhile, SlashGear is reporting the higher-end 13-inch MacBook Pro will get a third USB port, along with the option to go with a matte screen capable of 1440×900 resolution. The 15-inch model will apparently be able to handle 1680×1050, and weigh 200g less than the previous iteration. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro will actually be gaining weight, 300g, to be exact, and have 8GB of RAM standard, according to SlashGear. Battery life is said to be increasing to between 11 and 12 hours, depending on the model.

These new rumors, especially those concerning the 13-inch MacBook Pro, seem to be standing on fairly solid ground. If Apple is indeed intending to reveal new machines on Thursday, and if they go on sale the same day, then it’s likely retailers are already in position of the new models, so the possibility of a genuine leak is quite high. There’s also the fact that Intel is planning to announce Light Peak at an event Thursday, timing which seems too perfect to be coincidental.

The inclusion of Light Peak tech as Thunderbolt also makes a lot of sense, since it appears to be backward-compatible with Mini DisplayPort tech. That means the general population will continue to use it as a display connector, while tech enthusiasts and early adopters can take advantage of its I/O capabilities. And, if Apple is building Thunderbolt into the next iPad, as rumors that it might include a Mini DisplayPort-sized opening suggest, it could make for lightning-quick transfers and syncs between desktop and iOS devices down the road.

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The MacBook Air Inheritance

Apple finally updated the long-neglected MacBook Air last fall, and the changes the update brought turned the ultra-portable from red-headed stepchild to starring player. Apple would be crazy not to try injecting some of that magic back into the Pro lineup. Here’s a look at what Air-inspired changes might make their way into the new MacBook Pro.

Flash Storage

Some have speculated Apple will move to flash storage for the MacBook Pro, just like it did with the MacBook Air. Flash storage would save space inside the case, and help the computer run faster and more efficiently. The most recent rumors (via BGR) suggest that while new MacBook Pro base models won’t include only SSD storage by default, they will offer small, separate SSD drives (between 8-16 GB in capacity) to exclusively house the operating system, while remaining system storage will still be handled by a regular hard-disk drive. Pricier upgrade options will allow users to choose to use SSDs exclusively for internal storage.

It’s a rumor that makes a lot of sense, actually, since it lets Apple offer the large storage capacities Pro users often look for in their notebooks while still providing the instant-on advantages of a flash-based OS X installation. Going with a hybrid model will keep costs low for base configurations, allowing Apple to hold on to its margins.

Lighter and Smaller

The MacBook Air also lost weight and girth with its last update, and we saw the introduction of an 11-inch model. I don’t think a smaller screen size is in the cards for a Pro refresh, but we’ll definitely see weight savings.

Apple managed to fit its multi-touch glass trackpad and new, long-lasting battery tech in the MacBook Air, which suggests it learned lessons about how to make those components much smaller and lighter than they had been before. The new MacBook Pro will reap the benefit of these advances, getting lighter in the process. Rumors suggest we’ll see a half-pound weight savings, which wouldn’t surprise me.

I doubt we’ll see a dramatic change in the overall physical footprint of the Pro models, since Apple will want to keep up the product differentiation between the Air and the Pro. We might see a tapered design, but changes to overall thickness will be minimal. In terms of outward appearance, some rumors also suggest we’ll see a larger trackpad, which could make sense if Apple has found a way to save internal space on that component’s design.

Better Display

The MacBook Air introduced a high-resolution display that many designers I’ve spoken with say more than makes up for its diminutive screen size. Since it introduced the Retina Display in the iPhone 4, Apple has seemed intent on distinguishing itself even further from its competitors when it comes to screen quality, although the company has always prided itself on its success in that area.

New MacBook Pros will likely leverage the same screen technology introduced with the MacBook Air to bring slight but visible improvements to resolution and pixel density. The same sort of step-up resolution is a good possibility. (The 11-inch Air provides the resolution typically associated with a 13-inch screen.)

Of Ports and Processors

Inside and out, the new MacBook Pro is expected to be a new machine. Rumors suggest the Pro will use Intel’s new Sandy Bridge family of processors, which were initially delayed when Intel discovered a flaw in the chipset’s design. With those problems reportedly ironed out, Apple could introduce the new generation of chips, which provide new Pros with better processing speeds and energy consumption.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro is especially in need of a processor refresh, since it still uses an Intel Core 2 Duo chip, while the 15- and 17-inch models have moved on to Intel’s i5 and i7 series processors. Improved graphics cards are also a likely bet for all models.

Some rumors suggest Apple will be adopting Light Peak technology in the new Pro notebooks. Light Peak is an Intel-developed connection interface that provides more than double the transfer rates of USB 3.0. Apple worked with Intel to develop the technology as a means of replacing USB and FireWire. Light Peak is capable of transferring an entire Blu-ray movie in less than 30 seconds.

The possibility of Light Peak’s introduction with this round of MacBook Pro updates is far from a sure thing. On one hand, Apple introduced FireWire soon after it was completed, and before it was widely adopted. On the other hand, the company was slow to introduce USB to its products, and might be reluctant to add a port that as yet, means little or nothing to most consumers. Our own Liam Cassidy thinks it’s very unlikely we’ll see Light Peak this time around.

Not Long to Wait

We should find out soon enough what Apple has in store for this round of updates. Reports of Apple employee briefings and delayed shipments put a release date at sometime within a week, possibly even Thursday, which also happens to be Steve Jobs’ birthday. What are you hoping to see?

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Gruber laid out the possibility of an iPad 3 arriving ahead of schedule in the fall, following the iPad 2′s release this spring, in an article about the tablet scene and Apple’s plans within that picture for 2011. For the record, I’m not questioning Gruber’s predictive abilities or the value of his educated guess in this instance, but I am questioning how quickly other outlets took up the report as gospel, without even considering alternate possibilities. The Atlantic’s vanilla reblog is typical of most stories coming out of Gruber’s post.

In the interest of balance, I’d like to offer some counterpoints to Gruber’s prediction, because in many ways, Apple releasing two iPads in one year (especially this year) doesn’t make sense at all. Take, for example, Gruber’s opinions regarding the comparative merits of April and September as release dates:

I don’t think April is a particularly good month for an annual iPad release. I don’t think it’s a particularly bad month, either, but it doesn’t make as much sense as September. April is four months into the new year, but still feels like “early” in the year. That leads to whispers and rumors during the holiday season that people should wait. Shipping new hardware in April adds another milestone to the iOS release schedule, too.

I’d actually argue just the opposite. An April (or spring) release makes sense for the iPad, precisely because, as Gruber notes, “[t]he iPad was a massive hit during the past holiday season.” Apple stands to gain little from positioning the iPad as a fall release, since it already enjoys a huge sales bump from holiday shoppers. With an April launch, the iPad stands to see higher-than-average sales periods twice a year (once at launch and once again around the holidays), rather than just one enormous one. Despite the inevitable suggestions that people should wait for new hardware releases when the end of a cycle draws near, I’d argue that by and large, average consumers will still go out and buy what they want to, leaving those of us closest to the tech pulse to worry about upgrade cycles. The iPad’s 2010 holiday success is testament to that belief.

Another argument that came up in favor of an iPad 3 release in September was that iPods, which currently get their annual refresh then, don’t have the kind of consumer appeal they once did. The iPod touch is great, but it’s a known quantity, argues Gruber, and not likely to generate the kind of enthusiasm a new iPad would. It’s another good point, but it ignores the possibility that Apple may have intentionally put the iPod and Mac releases (new Mac hardware often comes in October) just ahead of the holiday season because those are the products that stand to gain the most from pre-holiday hype. Announce a new iPod line in the spring, and not only does it run the risk of being seen as less than exciting by consumers, but it also might be forgotten by Christmas. If Apple uses an iPad 3 to steal the show from its other fall releases, mind share among consumers might dwindle even further. I don’t think Apple’s willing to let that happen just yet.

Consider, too, that the iPad was released at a specific time of Apple’s choosing the first time around. Because Apple faced no competition, and no competitor devices were even really imminent, it had absolute freedom regarding when it chose to ship the device, and it chose April (following a January introduction). Admittedly, Apple had no way of knowing the iPad would be the success it has been, but it doesn’t seem like the kind of company that would be caught unprepared for that eventuality. I think Apple chose April knowing full well that it might become a marquee device for the company, and that it had, and continues to have, very good reasons for doing so.

There’s also the issue of the supply chain implications resulting from a two-model single year release for the iPad. Apple maintains its price advantage over its competitors in the tablet game largely because it knows how to effectively manipulate the supply chain to its advantage, making component scarcity and pricing an issue for other manufacturers. Ordering parts for an iPad 2 and iPad 3 that need to be released within months of each other, and have to be different enough in terms of their hardware capabilities to convince buyers to upgrade early could seriously endanger Apple’s cost advantage.

Finally, there’s another outside possibility that my colleague Kevin Tofel suggested which might make more sense than a fall iPad 3 introduction: a fall 7-inch iPad product announcement. Steve Jobs is on record against a 7-inch iPad, but he’s been known to contradict himself in the past. The introduction of a 7-inch iPad would manage to reinvigorate Apple’s fall announcements without aggravating consumers who purchased the iPad 2 in spring, and would steal focus from any competitor tablets released in the interim. The 7-inch form factor has yet to really prove itself, but Apple is in the best position of any tablet maker to take a risk and see if it strikes a chord when combined with the usability of OS X. Jobs’ disparaging comments about 7-inch devices could even be an intentional misdirect aimed at competitors. It’s a long shot, but not any more of one than Gruber’s suggestion.

Gruber’s track record is good, and MG Siegler of TechCrunch did back him up with some information from anonymous sources (which isn’t conclusively tied to a fall shipping iPad 3), so it’s quite possible that he’s right. But the evidence above, and Apple’s track record with product releases, suggests it might be wise to exercise a little caution before becoming a true believer.

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The “Tweener” Won’t Die

Apple is on record as saying that the 7-inch form factor for tablets is a bad idea, since it falls in the middle of the 10-inch and 4-inch or so sweet spots established by the iPad and smartphone devices. But a source talking to iLounge revealed that an iPad component maker has been asked by Apple to develop a part for a 7-inch iPad model. While that’s enough to suggest Apple might not have put the smaller form factor to rest just yet, I don’t think it’ll result in a shipping 7-inch iPad 2. But, depending on how the market develops in 2011, a diminutive iPad 3 definitely isn’t outside of the realm of possibility.

Carbon Fiber Body

No, I’m not talking about an upgraded street racer. The latest scuttlebutt, which echoes earlier rumors, is that iPad 2 will have a carbon fiber case, reducing weight and improving flexibility. Though maybe not quite as good looking as aluminum, this would be a welcome change for users like me who aren’t particularly tied to using cases and who have been known, on occasion, to drop or ding their beautiful Apple hardware. Again according to iLounge’s source, Apple is already testing out carbon fiber cases with the iPad 2, but they might not make it to market, since aluminum versions are also being tested.

Stylus Support

As many will know, the iPad currently does support a very special kind of stylus. I use a Pogo Sketch, but there are a wide variety available for use with capacitive touchscreens which use a soft, electrically conducive material about the width of a pencil to emulate a finger. It’s not a perfect solution, in the way a Wacom tablet with pressure sensitivity is, but it does the job. Patently Apple found a patent for a pen stylus with a greater degree of accuracy designed specifically for iPad-style screens. The stylus described in the patent uses a built-in accelerometer and other sensors to make it pressure sensitive, and enable motion-generated contextual commands. The patent was originally filed in 2008, however, so while iPad 2 is a convenient target for deployment of such at a tech at the moment, it’s something Apple has had in its pocket for a while now.

RFID/NFC Accessories

We’ve already seen rumors of NFC-capable iPad 2 and iPhone 5 devices, and now iLounge is reporting that those might communicate with NFC-equipped accessories. This would allow connection to happen between devices and the iPad 2 without the need for Bluetooth to be active or pairing to occur. Another possible application described by iLounge would let the iPad 2 automatically enter power-save mode when put inside a case equipped with an RFID tag telling it to do so. If the iPad 2 does get NFC (which isn’t a stretch), these kinds of accessories will no doubt surface, too.

Announcement and Release Date

According to Japanese blog Marcotakara, the iPad 2 will be announced at a event later this month that will be “relatively small” according to its sources. This likely means that it’ll be held on-campus at Apple HQ in Cupertino, but it will probably still be its own dedicated event, unlike what earlier rumors had suggested. And while the announcement is rumored for February, Marcotakara suggests March as the actual release month of the iPad 2. The blog isn’t the only one throwing around possible release dates, however. Unlikely source Elton John has been talking to various media outlets about getting an iPad 2 in April for the purposes of video chatting with his son. He also referred to it as a “Skype iPad,” which suggests that maybe he isn’t the best authority to consult regarding something like the iPad 2.

Right before the official unveil is both my favorite and least favorite time in the Apple product life cycle, since there’s so much speculation circulating to build anticipation, but you also run the risk of getting your hopes up for features that will never ship. What do you guys think? Is all the hype surrounding new products an advantage or disadvantage of being an Apple fan?

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MacOtakara cites an “anonymous Chinese source,” as the origin of the new rumor. According to the source, the new iPad’s back won’t have a curved back, and will taper into a flat surface, much like the iPod touch’s current back casing. It’s a minor change, but it could reduce overall device width, and make it a little bit easier to use the device when it’s placed on a flat surface.

The iPad will also take up less space on your desk, if the new information proves correct. The overall footprint of the iPad 2 will apparently shave a little more than 3mm off of its current height and width, resulting in a 239mm x 186mm total size. The screen will remain the same, with the size savings being shaved off the bezel that surrounds it instead.

The new design would also see the ambient light sensor move to the back of the device, which might be done to allow for the smaller bezel. That Apple would change the position of the light sensor strikes me as odd, since you’d think the best place to test the light would be on the screen, since that’s the whole point.

Finally, according to this new source, the bottom of the device will feature a larger, “wide-range” speaker with a mesh grill cover. This also strikes me as odd, since the current iPad has a remarkably good speaker in my opinion, but it might help prevent it from being so easily covered.

As always, take these rumors with a grain of salt, but it’s the season we should start hearing tons of reports. And as is usually the case with each Apple product release, some will inevitably turn out to be correct.

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