It seems like the rumors are exponentially increasing at this point. With WWDC just hours away, the rumor mills are in full force.

When Forbes editor Brian Caulfield made a visit to Quanta Computer distribution center Wednesday night, he was greeted with a host of shipping related activity. Outside the 168,000-square-foot facility; Brain was met with palettes of both white iMac boxes and curiously, unmarked, brown cardboard boxes. Depicted in images shown above, Brain believes that the unmarked boxes are in-fact the new iPhone Steve Jobs is rumored to announce at WWDC on Monday.

Based on intelligence uncovered by ImportGenius.com, 19 shipments weighing between 3,700 and 6,500 kilograms passed through the Port of Oakland to a Quanta distribution center in Fremont, Calif over the past few weeks. During his visit to the distribution center, Brain watched as employees “hustled to maneuver pallets of the brown boxes around trucks from FedEx and Advanced Logistics”. When asked about the new iPhone, one Quanta employee called the shipping supervisor who was “really busy right now”.

Meanwhile, iDealsChina believes that the new iPhone dimensions have changed. Apparently the new dimensions are thinner, by .50mm (~.02 inches) and shorter by 2.00mm (~.08 inches). iDealsChina was also the source behind the Griffin case leak last week, therefore it is hard to determine whether this new information is legitimate. iDealsChina claims that four other case manufacturers had access to the same specifications, so these companies will be forced to either sell the thousands of loose fitting cases or destroy them. It should be noted that Apple goes through great lengths to keep new product information very secretive.

Finally, early this morning, MacRumors posted this image, originally from MacTalk.com.au. It is believed that this box contains a 3G iPhone demo unit. Clear markings on the outside clearly state: “SUBJECT TO TERMS OF NDA. DON NOT OPEN UNTIL TUESDAY JUNE 10th 2008.” June 10th is the day after the WWDC keynote, where Steve Jobs is rumored to introduce a new iPhone model. However, local time, the WWDC keynote falls about at that time for Australians (a few hours before, actually). Both Vodafone and SingTel announced they would be bringing the iPhone to Australia “later this year”. From MacTalk:

“the iPhone will go on display with a sign saying ‘look how cool I am – you can buy me on this date’.”

This years Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off with a keynote from Apple, Inc CEO Steve Jobs on Monday, June 9th. Steve Jobs is expected to release an updated iPhone with 3G capabilities. Stay with theiLife.com for continuing coverage of pre-WWDC rumors and hype; and during WWDC for our liveblog of the keynote. If you want to be updated with urgent news from the keynote, sign up for our SMS updater (expect about 10-20 messages)!

To add to the growing rumors surrounding WWDC, today, iLounge.com released images of two touchscreen components that are similar to the current iPhone and iPod Touch components, but are slightly smaller in size by .3 and .7 inches. Also, one Wall Street analyst feeds the fire about an iTablet and sheds light on new iPhones at WWDC.

The photos, shown above depict touch components that appear to be destined for a future iPhone or iPod Touch. Taiwanese display manufacturer Host Optical claims they are working with Apple on the new displays and are responsible for the release of the information. The components are described as a “projected capacitance touch panel” with the emphasis that they are superior to the current touchscreen used in the iPhone and iPod touch. According to Host Optical, the new touch components do not get less sensitive over time, are more durable and can withstand water and very humid environments.

iLounge.com believes these new screens may not be destined for the new 3G iPhone, specifically the 2.8 inch display. iLounge believes that “there is zero chance that a 2.8” screen is going to be in Apple’s first 3G version of the iPhone”; but most likely for a smaller “iPhone nano” or fourth generation iPod Nano.

It should be noted that Apple never reveals who supplies components and suppliers rarely admit they are working for the Cupertino company. By releasing this information before product release, Host Optical is violating terms with Apple. Theoretically, anyone can claim that they are suppling components for Apple. Additionally, majority of rumors agree that the new 3G iPhone will have very similar dimensions to the first generation iPhone, with only added tapering around the edges.

Also today, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu published in a report to clients that 4 and 7 inch touchscreen devices are beyond prototype stages inside Apple. Wu believes that these devices are crosses between the Mac and iPod touch and may be a modern recreation of the Newton MessagePad from the 1990’s. Shaw predicts that the devices will most likely not see light at next weeks WWDC keynote.

Shaw Wu is confident that Steve Jobs will introduce two new iPhone models next week; one of them the hotly anticipated 3G iPhone, and another refined version of the current 2.5G model that would be significantly cheaper. He says his information is based from supply chain sources.

Finally Wu says that while WWDC typically highlights Macintosh related products, this year may be an exception. Because new portable Macs “most likely won’t be ready for volume production until the September quarter”, this years event will not highlight new Macs.

Steve Jobs keynote will kick off at 10AM PST (1PM EST) on June 9th. theiLife.com will be in attendance and livebloging from the keynote here. If you can’t be at a computer, you can still recieve urgent updates (expect about 10-20) to your cell phone via SMS by signing up here.

The following video is a brief synopsis of theiLife.com’s WWDC 2008 plans. Check it out, and tell us what you think!

Sidney San Martin, theiLife blogger will be attending this years Worldwide Developers Conference and reporting back for theiLife.com. Sidney narrates this video, which is a brief synopsis of our plans for WWDC. Stay tuned at theiLife.com for continuing WWDC coverage- live.theilife.com for the liveblog of the Keynote. You can sign up for urgent (expect about 10-20) messages from the keynote delivered to your phone via SMS here.

As the week is drawing to a close, and with WWDC starting on Monday, things are really coming down to the wire. Yesterday, the SMS Updater went live, and if you haven’t already, please sign yourself up! Today the liveblog is up at its final resting location. You can now access the liveblog at live.theilife.com. Bookmark this address now for our live coverage beginning on Monday! Remember to stay tuned for the latest updates here at theiLife.com!

TheiLife.com is proud to formally announce that we will be liveblogging from the WWDC 2008 Keynote. This time around, we have refined our AJAX app from Macworld to be less server heavy so we can serve more users. The AJAX updater is still being tweaked, so it should be available by the end of the week. However, the SMS Updater is now live, so if you want to sign up to be updated with the latest urgent updates from the Keynote via SMS (expect about 10-20 messages), click here or the big shiny button below. Stay tuned for the latest information about WWDC here at theiLife.com.

It is already the second day of June and WWDC is fast approaching. TheiLife.com will be attending this year’s World Wide Developers’ Conference and providing pictures, videos and live coverage, as we did for Macworld 2008. Our ultimate goal is to run another AJAX-based liveblog from the Keynote on June 9th. However, because our hosting provider threatened to terminate us after the heavy load from Macworld, we need to make sure the new AJAX app will be able to handle a large number of users without seriously compromising the server. We have also hooked up with theDigitalLifestyle.tv to provide video updates throughout WWDC. We would, of course, love to hear from you — what do you think? Are you going to WWDC and would like to help provide coverage for theiLife? We want to hear from you — please contact us!

When Apple posted the new 10.5.3 update earlier this week, investigators on the MacRumors forum have located a curious iPhone icon added with the update.

If you are running OS 10.5 Leopard and update to 10.5.3, this new iPhone icon is sitting in your system. Once you have updated, navigate to the Finder, click on the “Go” menu, click on “Go To Folder” (or Command+Shift+G) and paste in the following (or simply follow the path):

/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/

Once you are in the Resources folder, you will see something that looks like this:

Locate the iPhone.icns file and double click it to open it. There should be 5 different iPhone icons, of varying sizes. You are looking for the file named ‘iPhone.icns-3’.

While this iPhone icon is clearly different from the current iPhone (and other iPhone icons in the folder); if you look at the model revealed on iPhoneclub.nl recently, the model and the icon bear a striking resemblance. Both iPhones exhibit the rumored bezel and body changes, which make the iPhone more curved in your hand, but appear to be square. The earpiece seems to be readjusted, which is part of the rumored sensor rearrangement and addition of forward facing camera. The two iPhones are shown side by side below. You can read the orginal iPhoneclub.nl post here.

While this icon may seem promising, it could just be a remnant or reject from the original iPhone icon. Apple is rumored to introduce a new iPhone model next month at its annual WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference); which starts on June 9th. Stick with theiLife for continuing coverage regarding the new iPhone, liveblogging from the Keynote and any other WWDC related announcements.

The closing of the Fifth Avenue Apple Store on Thursday may mark the beginning of a new advertising campaign for an as of yet unknown product. Equipment being brought into the store as well as other reports indicates that film production company Anonymous Content will be producing the advertisement.

AppleInsider reports that director David Fincher, listed as a featured director on Anonymous’s website is tied to the project. Fincher is best known as the director of Fight Club, but is also a popular producer of commercials, including the Gears of War trailer, “Mad World”, and has done work for HP and AT&T. The only other times that the Fifth Avenue Apple Store has been closed were for major product launches, and the only advertisements filmed at Apple store were filmed at this location, for, fittingly enough, the iPhone.

The majority of Apple’s marketing campaigns, including the well received Get a Mac campaign, have been produced by TBWA\Media Arts Labs. However, Apple has in the past used other firms, or allowed third parties to advertise joint product launches using their own ad firms. Anonymous Content fits the bill for this kind of campaign, having produced commercials for a wide variety of corporations, the most relevant being AT&T and Intel. It is rumored that Apple is filming a commercial for the upcoming 3G iPhone. The reasoning behind filming at the Fifth Avenue retail store is still unknown, as an Apple Store could easily be replicated in a studio. The lighting equipment outside indicates that emphasis may be on the 32 foot cube outside the store. More details to come soon!

This is the third part in a series of WWDC rumor articles, exploring the various case leaks for the new iPhone model- speculated to launch at WWDC 2008. Click here to check out the first and second articles about the rumored iPhone.

Click on the images to see a larger version.

Yesterday, the Apple rumor mill was abuzz with a story from iDealsChina Insider, an otherwise unknown website who posted leaked pictures of Griffins new case mold for the upcoming iPhone. The pictures, shown above, shows a larger opening for the supposed addition of a front facing camera, which supports the rumored claims of videoconferencing on the upcoming iPhone. The leaked photos are said to be of Griffins upcoming silicon Flex GRIP case.

More after the jump! Read more…

This is the second part in a series of WWDC rumor articles to come, exploring the possibilities of the new second generation iPhone speculated to launch at WWDC 2008. Click here to look at the first article reviewing the possibilities for the new iPhone.

The next iPhone to have GPS built in?

Over the past week, the new iPhone has seen a fair share of new rumors, findings and speculation.

Today, AppleInsider is reporting that TeliaSonera just announced a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia later this year. TeliaSonera is the dominant carrier in those regions, with over 106 million subscribers. This adds to the ongoing list of new international deals for the iPhone:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Italy, India, Jamaica, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Portugal, Slovakia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden, Romania, Turkey, United States and Uruguay.

ImportGenius last week believes the 3G iPhone may be enroute to the United States, if not already here.

“Since mid-March, Apple Inc. and its logistics partners have imported 188 ocean containers of a product type never before declared on its shipping manifests.”
“On March 19 Quanta delivered 20 ocean containers of merchandise, described on the Bills of Lading as “electric computers,” to Apple, Inc. Neither Apple, Quanta, nor any other company has ever used this product description for any shipments to the U.S.”

ImportGenius noted that the declaration of “electronic computers” is in addition to the regular shipments Apple receives of desktop computers (which haven’t decreased over these past few months), which means this is not just a renaming of a current Cupertino product for customs.

The GPS has been rumored to be put into the iPhone for some time now. Recently, findings by AppleInsider might hint at the existence of GPS in the upcoming iPhone model.

The latest iPhone 2.0 build new location findings, images from AppleInsider

The images, shown above, are of beta iPhone 2.0 firmware, build 5A292g, that was distributed to a select group of enterprise testers last week. The new shots show new preferences for location based services for the Camera and Google Maps applications, and user prompts for the permission to find their current geographical location. “”Maps” would like to use your current location” “Don’t Allow” or “Ok”.

The addition to the Camera application implies the addition of geo-tagging, which adds meta data to the photograph that includes the coordinates that the picture was taken. AppleInsider notes that the tipsters say that there seems to be no addition of geographical meta data to photos taken from the Camera application at this time.

The addition to the Maps application is even more interesting, however. In the current iPhone and iPod Touch firmware, Apple has added a “Locate Me” button which allows the user to be located by cell triangulation or through Wi-Fi hotspots. This could simply mean that Apple is re-integrating your location into the Maps application or that the addition of GPS hardware could enhance the application even more.

Finally, last Wednesday AT&T announced that it is wrapping up the deployment it’s 3G infrastructure.

“By the end of June, connecting to AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband service will be as speedy as logging onto the high speed Internet service that many consumers enjoy at home.”

By rolling out HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) and HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access); AT&T customers will be able to achieve 1.4Mbps download speed and uploads speeds up to 800Kbps. AT&T also notes that 75 percent of the phones sold by the company are 3G compatible; with “more 3G-enabled smartphones in the summer and fall of 2008”. The cell phone carrier has spent over $20 billion in network upgrades over the past few years.

It should be noted that the iPhone 2.0 firmware is intended to be released across both the current generation iPhone and the upcoming generation iPhone. Apple revealed in March the release date of June for the firmware, which could coincide with the WWDC 2008 conference starting on June 9th. The most hotly anticipated features of the iPhone 2.0 firmware are the App Store, which will allow for 3rd party applications; and the new enterprise features such as Exchange support and VPN.

Stay tuned for more rumors and predictions to come.