MemeStreams | iPhone 5 Rumor Rollup

The iPhone 5 Rumor Industry has recovered from the bitter disappointment of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, where Apple unveiled iOS 5 but didn't even hint at the next iPhone.

This week: We have the Shipment Date, again; details only a geek would love; dire rumors that iPhone 5 users will be stuck with a 5 megapixel camera; tech specs of the unannounced product; and a vision of how iPhone 5 speech recognition will change our lives forever.

The Date: iPhone 5 will ship in September.

Reuters confidently asserts that Apple will start production of iPhone 5 in "July/August" and the device will ship in September (perhaps they mean "September/October?"), based on information from "three people with direct knowledge of the company's supply chain."

It will have a faster processor than iPhone 4 (a long-standing rumor or expectation or yearning) but it will look a lot like the current model.

APPLE IPHONEYS: The iPhone 5 edition

Beatweek is far more precise on the date. In effect, the website says that if the iPhone 5 does ship in September, it will ship after Sept. 13. That's because "Apple traditionally holds its fall press event on the second Tuesday of September, namely the 13th in 2011."

In light of this newest rumor, Beatweek's "buying recommendation" now is: Don't bother to wait for i5, go with i4 which is "nearly the perfect smartphone."

iPhone 5 will have a different LED camera flash module.

It doesn't get much more techno-fetishistic than this. AppleInsider says iPhone 5 could have a "new LED camera flash module from a different manufacturer" than iPhone 4. That's because "Apple is said to have 'greatly reduced' orders of Philips LED flash components in the last one to two months."

You're wondering what that means. Philips supplies the LED flash component for the current iPhone 4. So, if Apple has slashed orders for this component, it "may" [quotes by AppleInsider] indicate that the Philips component won't be used in the upcoming iPhone 5. And, therefore, a different LED flash component will be used instead!

It's just simple logic.

AppleInsider's source for this deductive exercise is a "person familiar with the company's supply chain," who's likely right because this same person "has provided accurate information on Apple's iPhone in the past."

This latest tidbit let AppleInsider rehash all the previous iPhone 5 camera and LED flash rumors: the purported iPhone 5 case that showed a new location for the LED flash; a purported camera component showed the lens and flash as separate elements.

Electronista puts a narrative spin on these fragments, claiming they show that Apple is redesigning ... the camera flash system. "Apple is rumored to be using an eight-megapixel CMOS sensor [camera] from OmniVision that would be more sensitive than in the past," the website says. "While excellent for low light, it could also be overly sensitive to light from a flash that on the iPhone 4 is just a fraction of an inch away."

iPhone 5 Rumor Rollup