The rollout of the tech giant’s upcoming platform, the iOS 6, may be done on June 11. According to sources, new Apple platforms were always released during the WWDC conferences and this time around, the next-gen iPhone 5 may join the launch. The summer release date could be possible, following reports of a lot of hiring at China’s Foxconn. The plant rumored to be gearing up for the assembly of a over a million new iPhone units, to be ready in a couple of months. The power chip of the next iPhone is already confirmed to be in production under Texas Instruments.

The iPhone 5 may likely be the same size of its predecessor the iPhone 4, but with LTE-connectivity as the New iPad already has this feature. It will also have an improved Siri, the voice-prompted personal assistant, and may feature the recent patents granted to Apple such as the iWallet, multi-player gaming and the cutting edge crack-resistant glass.

Obviously we will keep you updated as we get more information about an actual confirmed release date. What we can tell you is that we will be shocked if the iPhone 5 is not released during WWDC.

According to Mashable, Apple says in its patent application: “Some of the reasons for using glass are that glass is strong, stiff, and radio transparent and a suitable material for an enclosure of an electronic device capable of wireless communications.” The patent application says that parts of the case may be opaque to keep sensors from being affected by light.

Indications are that Corning was working on a stronger glass that would eliminate the need for the metallic rim that caused problems with the iPhone 4. Further speculation points out that Apple may be preparing to release an all-glass iPhone, probably one-piece, all-smooth, curved at the edges, with a larger screen than the iPhone 4S.

Corning introduced its Gorilla Glass 2 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, according to 9 to 5 Mac. This version is supposed to be stronger and more durable than the standard Gorilla Glass. Perfectly suited for the new iPhone 5 we hope!

The Orlando Business Journal reports that a rumor about the iPhone 5 says it will have a 4.6-inch screen, almost as large the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and the phone may have a retina display.

A glass iPhone 5 would set Apple’s model apart from its competitors, but we have to question whether having an all glass phone would be suitable for the day to day conditions of living. Most of us iPhone users who have ventured to carry their phone without a case have paid the price at one point or another. Gorilla glass sounds like it may dampen some worry for users, but we will have to wait and see.

There’s still a lot in question about when the iPhone 5 will release but the two most likely timeframes are in June at Apple’s WWDC or more likely in fall, roughly a year after the release of the last iPhone. No specs and features are confirmed but you can read about the speculations in some of our previous posts. If most of these enhancements do appear on the iPhone 5 there will be many people tempted to upgrade.

Most smartphone purchases involve a 12, 18 or 24-month contract and consumers may be faced with a large early upgrade bill for ending their contracts early. Once upon a time that typical two-year contract may have seemed a great deal to get their hands on the latest and greatest device, that same device doesn’t stay latest and greatest for very long. The temptation to end contracts early to upgrade gets greater all the time. For instance last year everyone was making a lot of fuss about dual-core smartphones and now only a year later the first swathe of quad-core phones are coming out.r current operating system or even carrier. Others may be those who already have an iPhone, even the latest iPhone 4S, but still find themselves being lured to the next best thing, the iPhone 5. But trading in is not as easy as it used to be, especially now that technology moves so fast.

We feel this is likely to be a dilemma for many smartphone users drawn to the iPhone 5 so it may be well to start looking ahead and trying to decide now whether you will or will not upgrade. Maybe that will depend purely on what the iPhone 5 has to offer when all is revealed? In this case why not let us know what you feel the iPhone 5 would need to have before you’d consider paying for an early upgrade, by sending us your comments. Maybe you’ve already decided to purchase the iPhone 5 even before confirmed specs are available and despite any early upgrade bills? We will definitely be getting our hands on the iPhone 5 as soon as it comes out!

We grabbed the White – 64GB – Verizon 4G LTE and couldn’t be much happier. Let’s talk about the differences that are ACTUALLY noticeable.

• Retina Display – Right off the bat this was something that stood out. Whether I was looking at text or images, the new display settings were CLEARLY visible. It wasn’t anything that was ALL that new to us being that we’ve been iPhone users since they came out, and the “retina display” is featured in the newer editions of the iPhone.
• 4G LTE - This is spectacular! As soon as I activated the account on the iPad I wanted to put it to the test – so of course I pulled up http://iphone5specs.org and caught up on how our Free iPad giveaway contest is doing. Well – it felt like I was on a wifi connection. That’s saying a lot considering my “4G” (which was exposed at NOT being true right here on this blog) iPhone 4s which runs through AT&T can’t even hold a call for more than 5 minutes. Our office is located about 30 minutes north of Downtown San Diego so you would figure that there would be plenty of satellite coverage in my area… but AT&T hasn’t caught onto that yet.
• Speed – It seems relatively faster – however, the iPad2 was fast enough to make nearly anyone happy so it’s not like it’s set to make that much of a difference, at least not off hand.
• Camera - 5 Megapixels! Considering the last iPad (iPad 2) only had .92 Megapixels – this is a DRASTIC step up. I also REALLY like the auto focus feature, along with tap to focus  feature which you can find in most of the iPhones.

I can say this – that was all based on my first run through of the New iPad – but I can tell they made enough changes to this new device to warrant the release. The good news there is that we can assume they will make the same drastic alterations before releasing an “iPhone 5” – which may end up being called the “new iPhone” or just iPhone.

The iWallet

Apple won a major patent on March 6 for a piece of technology called the “iWallet,” which is a digital system that gives the user complete control over their various financial accounts on their iPhone 5, and also leverages Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology to complete credit card transactions as well. Apple patented this technology at an excellent time, as the mobile payments space is taking off and is projected to be a future multi-billion dollar industry.

The iWallet will be simple and easy to use just as you would expect. On the iWallet home screen on the iPhone 5, users can see their entire credit card profiles, view statements and messages from their banks, and even adjust preferences or add additional cards. Within the preferences, users can schedule regular credit card payments and even set parental controls for their children, should they also want to use their iPhone 5 as digital wallets. Under the parental controls, if a child exceeds a certain monetary limit — set by the parent, of course — the transaction could request an authorization from the parent (via their iPhone), or decline the request. It’s easy, and it makes sense for those who want to manage family funds.

With an NFC chip installed into the iPhone 5, iWallet can also complete financial transactions. Merchants would set their own rules, restricting users from completing transactions based on item limits, spending limits, time period or geographic limits. When it came time to pay for an item, the user would swipe their iPhone near a designated receiver, and the transaction is completed securely and automatically.

Outside of the iPhone 5, users can keep track of their payments and statements within the iTunes billing system, which will keep credit card information and records safe and secure. There’s a possibility that iWallet could also work with other Apple utilities, which could allow users to buy things like concert tickets directly within the apps. All of this is very exciting and we really hope that the iWallet makes it on to the iPhone 5.

At iPhone5specs.org, we love our visitors. So much in fact that we have decided to hold a contest for a chance to win a free iPad!

You may be asking yourself, why would someone just give away a free iPad? Well the answer is simple because we love our visitors and we want you to know just how much! So just by spreading the word about our site, you will be entered to win an iPad. The person who gets the most people to come to our site by sharing our link will get a brand new iPad.

The rules are simple and the full details are available here:

Free Apple Products Contest Entry

Don’t wait! It is so easy to enter and get your friends and family to visit our site!

Some people have already started, and for those who have you can see where you stand on our leaderboard below:

Check out the Leaderboard!

P.S. You will get points just for signing up for the contest, and as you share you will get more and more!

In a research report out early today, Huberty raised her 2012 price target on the stock to 720 from 515. Apple (AAPL) shares were up 2.5% in early trading Wednesday, in what would be a sixth consecutive trading day on the upside, to near 582.

Citing demand for the new iPad 3, Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley on Wednesday raised his 2012 target to 710.

Huberty joined the analysts in forecasting that cash-rich Apple will start paying a dividend.

“Apple is trading roughly in line with large cap technology peers and the S&P 500, despite a far more attractive growth profile. IBM (IBM), Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT) andCisco (CSCO) offer investors a 1.6% dividend yield on average, a range which we believe Apple will match or beat at some point this year,” says Huberty.

Huberty says a 960 valuation is realistic in 2013 because of corporate iPad sales and a 4G LTE-capable iPhone 5, as well as growth in emerging markets Brazil and China.

The country’s two smaller wireless firms, China Unicom and China Telecom, now sell the iPhone — which faces stiff competition in China from devices that use Google’s Android operating system.

Apple will have a hard time matching its current rapid growth, says Huberty. She says Apple’s 2013 revenue will rise 36%, compared with 56% growth in 2012 and 68% in 2011.

Huberty says Brazil could emerge as a big growth driver for Apple, based on comments by Apple CEO Tim Cook. She says iPhone demand “could double or triple in Brazil.”

“We believe lower iPhone prices in Brazil could be a near-term catalyst,” she wrote. “Hon Hai, Apple’s primary iPhone assembler, just opened its factory in Brazil. We believe this could lead to cheaper iPhones as Apple will not have to pay a hefty import tax in Brazil if final assembly of the device is done domestically.”

Huberty’s bear valuation says Apple’s valuation could fall to 405 per share in 2013 if competition sharply lowers smartphone and tablet prices.

As with any publicly traded company, this is all just speculation, but at the rate Apple is rising and the steady release of products over the next year we do not see a decline coming anytime soon.

The truth of the matter is that the iPhone 4S is now operating on AT&T’s 4G HSPA+ network and AT&T believes that because of this it is appropriate that people see ’4G’ on their phone when connected to HSPA+. But really HSPA+ is not a 4G technology, it is an improved, faster 3G network. It is nearly as fast as 4G in some cases, but not 4G.

This AT&T “marketing tactic” kind of reminds me of the person who does some work to their regular Camaro and decides that it now deserves an “SS” badge. The car is not an SS, will never be an SS but because its almost as fast, they just throw it on their anyway.

The only real way to know for sure that the iPhone 4S is not running on a true 4G network is that the phone does not have the chipset to connect over 4G. So even if HSPA+ was a 4G network, the iPhone 4S would still be connecting at 3G speeds.

The obvious basics are there, shape, size, computing ability… those things we all knew were coming when the new iPhone arrives. The big question(s) about the iPhone 5 are:

Will the iPhone 5 have the same shape as the iPhone 4? -

Our guess is as good as yours, but all signs point to a new design. There’s NO WAY Apple, a leader in design technology would release THREE phones that look the same. To be honest, before the iPhone 4 came out it was hard to imagine they would use the same shape as they did with the iPhone 3. Seeing as how the iPhone 3 had some SERIOUS design flaws (most notably the reception antennas) we all assumed there would be a new design for the iPhone 4 – but we were wrong.

Even the companies that build cases for the iPhone’s had no idea.. and these companies make a LOT of money off Apple so if anyone would know you would think they would. But here’s the main point – the iPhone 5 WILL have a new design. They did a great job enhancing the iPhone 4 to make it more marketable, and one of the biggest points of interest with the 5 is the design technology so we are all assuming the new design is a must.

Sometimes Apple’s secrecy is enough to drive us all crazy, but it always works out in our favor!

The next question we all had…

Will the iPhone 5 have 4G capabilities? -

Now let’s be honest… we knew Apple wouldn’t let themselves fall behind in the “cell phone” race, so the 4G capabilities was something we knew was coming. Well – with the “new iPad” we can see that Apple now has the processors and technology in place to make that happen so we can expect to see it in the iPhone 5. It really is that simple when it comes down to it. The new iPad had a very fortunate release date for everyone. We get to see Apple’s “future” plans – and Apple gets to see how the world takes to these small but meaningful changes before having to finalize the ideas that will go into the iPhone 5.

So all in all, you can expect to see a COMPLETELY different phone when the iPhone 5 comes out thanks to what we saw today with the new iPad release… it should have a larger screen, better camera, more power, and faster connection speed via the 4G. Enjoy!

As you would imagine a lot of work goes into these types of events as Apple is never one to just do something halfway. Even though there is less than 36 hours until the iPad 3 is officially unveiled, the rumor mill will not stop. The latest and greatest rumor is that Apple is working on an enhanced Smart Cover for it’s latest tablet and also word that the company is working on a full glass backed iPhone 5.

One online source reveals that Apple will announce an enhanced iPad 3 Smart Cover during the release event. It is believed to be true by most Apple sources because this particular one has been previously correct about a host of rumors related to Apple products. Smart Covers are nothing new to the iPad, as they were released along side the iPad 2 last year. These alleged new covers are unique in their own way. Not only do they provide protection to the already strong iPad touchscreen, they can also be used as a stand for watching movies, making FaceTime calls or for typing.

At Apple, their belief is that there is always room for improvement. Every year the company launches new and improved versions of it’s existing products that have wowed their respective markets. So it goes without saying that Apple will most likely release an improved version of the Smart Cover. The enhanced iPad 3 Smart Cover supposedly has a rear protective shell made out of PU/bicast leather and fiberglass. This is something that will be changed as the previous smart cover had no real protective shell on the rear portion. Similar to the protective covers for the iPhones, and the new slew that will most likely released for the iPhone 5.  Apart from this one major improvement, nothing much will be changed.

As always, nothing can be said for sure until the company makes official announcements. The world anxiously awaits release of Apple’s next generation tablet. We’re quite sure that future trends will be easy to predict after the launch of this tablet.