iPhone 5 prototype released to developers. Or is it iPhone 4S?
iPhone 4 units kitted out with the new A5 chip are being sent to a handful of developers, according to a new report from 9to5mac.com. The A5 鈥撯�� which already powers the iPad 2 鈥撯�� is a next-generation processor, capable of chewing through data approximately nine times faster than the A4, the chip currently found in AT&T and Verizon iPhone 4 handsets.
So why should you care? Well, because it looks like this A5 chip will be a centerpiece of the advertising campaign for the new iPhone 5. "[W]e have heard Apple is going to push this gaming performance and speed as one of the next-generation iPhone鈥檚 major marketing points," Mark Gurman of 9to5mac.com wrote today. Gurman does not identify his source.
RELATED: Apple iPhone 5 gets September release date: report
As for the iPhone 4S designation 鈥撯�� a nice echo of the iPhone 3G S 鈥撯�� that's just shorthand. "The person who chose to share this information with us calls it the 鈥榠Phone 4S鈥�, though the device itself only has typical Apple prototype nomenclature," Gurman . "He also shared that the device spends its evenings in a safe in the company鈥檚 offices." Just like a spy movie.
The iPhone 4S scuttlebutt comes as a gazillion blogs echo with news of the (probably) forthcoming iPhone 5, which is expected to hit shelves in September. Just to be clear: Neither iPhone 5 nor iPhone 4S is a set-in-stone moniker. There is going to be a new iPhone, and it will almost definitely include the A5 chip, and a better camera, but we have no idea what the thing will be called, and neither does anyone else.
Click here to check out some previous reporting on iPhone 5-gate. For more tech news, sign up for the free , which is emailed out every Wednesday morning.
