All Things iPhone - What You Need To Know

This week I am looking forward to heading to Cupertino (Apple HQs) for the iPhone 5 announcement and to see an end to these endless rumors. Until then, we continue with the speculation and hype only a brand like Apple can conjure up.

iPhone 5 Mock up as seen on Mashable.com

As I discussed this weekend on CBS and CNN, following are some brief rundowns of the most popular questions prelaunch.

Here is the online segment from CBS.

And please, for the love of all things, after the iPhone, iPhone4S iPhoneiPhone or whatever it is that is announced - PLEASE do not start immediately starting new rumors on the iPhone 6. Let’s let it breathe a hot second shall we?

So what can we expect on Tuesday?

First, hardware. Whether it’s an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 here are the guesses in features:

-- Bigger Screen (4” from 3.5”)
-- Faster Processor (Likely A5 used in iPad)
-- 8MP camera 1080p Video Recording (currently boasts 5MP)
-- Advanced Voice Recognition Feature ‘Assistant’ – send emails, texts all using voice
-- Sprint - unlimited data version – expect the carrier to finally have it at retail
-- Dual-mode GSM and CDMA
-- Speculation over multiple versions - iPhone5, 4S – one or two announced??

Second, more hardware. iPods. Every September we see a refresh of the iPod lines – we haven’t heard or seen anything of that yet and I think that has the potential of happening especially in the iPod Touch realm.

Last but not least…Presentation. This is Tim Cooks first time hosting the event not Steve Jobs. All eyes will be on him. No pressure.

Does it look like Tim Cook will essentially "pull off" his first product reveal as CEO of Apple?

First, a lot of people are wondering if we will see Steve Jobs. While we can assume he is still involved, I think if we see him at all it is very brief – perhaps even a quick video message. The reason for this is Apple has to make it clear that they are confident in Cook and he is the one steering the ship. He is the one in charge now.

Is there demand for this upgraded model?

Yes. Demand for this model is higher than ever as indicated in a recent survey by ChangeWave. RBC Capital Markets showed 31 percent of respondents very or somewhat likely to buy the iPhone 5 — and 66 percent of existing iPhone users say they are very or somewhat likely to buy the iPhone 5.

When can we expect this will be available to the public?

No official word, but according to some media reports, Apple employees have been blocked from taking vacation from Oct. 9-12 and from Oct. 14-15, indicating the phone might hit the stores at the time.