It's that time of year again...

Once a year I get very very excited! It's a special time of year were people of all walks of life come together to celebrate a joyous occasion. They will go to bed early the day before getting a good nights sleep in preparation of the big day ahead. All the excitement culminating in the receiving of something very special.

NO i'm not talking about Christmas, that's for kids! I'm talking about something much cooler, the launch day of the new iphone! Whilst there is no release date or even confirmation a new phone is about to be released, tech blogs are on fire regurgitating any wild rumour they hear on a daily basis. Unless you've been doing peace work in a war torn country or simply you have an actual life, you would have heard that invitations have been sent out for an Apple event being held on there own campus on Tuesday 4th October. This my friends can only mean one thing, it's time for them to announce the next iphone! BOOM :D 

The invitations simply read "Let's talk iphone". Brilliant, you've really got to admire the Apple marketing department as they really know how to create hype through saying very little. This however could mean so many things, not necessarly an brand new device but it could just be about ISO 5.0 update for example. Of course any Apple fan would bet their 1st born that a new phone is about to be released but will it be a semi upgrade release in the form of an iphone 4S or a more substantial iphone 5 launch? We are about to find out but my money is on the latter.  So as every tech blog in world worth it's .COM domain name is doing, I thought I would give you a little heads up about the various rumours floating around and add my 2cents in. Here we go... 

• Faster - Not really stunning news but always welcome. The new phone will almost definitely contain the latest A5 processor currently running in the ipad 2. This ones a no brainer but hey ho there you go. 
• Assistant - Now this one has me very excited if it becomes real. In a nutshell the new phone is expected to have some very sophisticated voice recognition software inside, very similar to the one found in android powered phones. This function is said to be deeply tied into core functions of the phone such as the GPS, web browser, email, phone and SMS programs. This will mean you can talk to your phone to carry a wide range of tasks such as compose and send an text message, dial a contact or conceivably book a hotel room all by using just your voice. The likelihood of this one is looking good as Apple bought the company pioneering this technology, Siri some time ago but no results have been seen from this acquisition, just yet. Since then there have also been rumors that Apple are trying to tie up a partnership deal with Nuance who are market leaders in this field. Slightly bad news on this excitiing new feature is that it will only be availible on the new hand set, so if you want your own personal atomus assisant you have to upgrade... shocker ;0)
• New design - Tones of photo's from manufacturing companies have been posted on the interwebs depicting spare parts for the new handset which clearly show that the new iphone will be a different form factor. Most speculation is around the new iphone being thinner with a tapered back. Some evidence is suggesting the new handset will have a large 4.5' screen but the jury is still out on that one, whilst a bigger screen would be nice the extra power required and subsequent reduction in standby time might be a deal breaker.  I'm a fan of the current glass front and back design but I get why there is a call for this to be changed. There's only so many time you can pay to have the glass back replaced because you keep dropping your phone 3 feet. My favorite photo is the artist impression photo's from Mac Rumours if one of these came into being I would be a happy chappy. 
• Better Camera - Another obvious one but one i'm very pleased to hear about.  I love using my iphone to snap photo especially on instagram. I don't think Apple themselves expected their iphone to become such a prolific contributor to the world of photography.  Quiet rightly the iphone camera is considered to be the best smart phone camera and better than some point-n-shoots. A higher resolution camera can only help with the adoption for photography enthusiast.

Some people make an event out of The Oscars or even the final of XFactor, for me my Oscar party is the Apple announcement.  I'll take over any device that has a screen in my home and fill them with live blogs from the event from different sources and any bootleg live stream's from a brave developer in the audience who has the stones to face his webcam at the stage. I know it's seriously sad but I love it.  Watching as the rumor mill goes into overdrive, as we lead up to the offical announment event is crazy. Every tech blog trys to out do each other with who can produce the most fantastical rediculous rumors. Then the tech pundits spend hours debating the merits of each rumour exploring a) the likelihood of said rumour coming true b) would it be a good thing if it happened. Of course after all the hype the announcment comes! The new iphone is unveiled faster, shinnnier and slimmer than it's predicesor. We must have it my precious, and as we follow the breaking news with baited breath we wait to hear not the price, the price doesn't matter, we just want to hear WHEN Mr Steve Jobs, When!? (moment of silence for his Jobsness stepping down as CEO).

See we've not even got up to buying the dam thing yet and we're having a ball. Launch day is another big day. Fan's will go down super early. Some will have been queuing for almost a week just to have the prestigious award of being 1st in-line. Silly Americans don't they know Apple stores in Austrailia have been open sellig iphone for hours by now? The whole thing fasinates me. When do we ever see a line of perfectly inteligent, learned people queuing outside an O2 store in the pouring rain since 2am just for a phone!? and don't forget the bloody Morarola Razor was massivly popular. And i'd also like to make a bet now to all you iphone users out there especially the ones with an iphone 4 in your pocket, right now your thinking this is the greatest phone in the world with absolutely nothing wrong with it. But once that new phone is released the once faithful companion will now become a clunky piece of junk ;0)

So I know where I'd be tomorrow eveing where will you be? having tea, watching TV, problably doing something much more normal but if you are interested in following the event here's some places i'll be keeping an eye in for breaking news.

• Twit.TV - Live commentry from the king of tech Leo Laporte from his personal little empire.
• MacRumors - no 1 stop shop for all things apple related. Macroumors will be live blogging from the event
• Engadget - Another live blog. If your a tech fan then you already know this site.
• Twitter - Of course there's good old twitter the river of all realtime info. Just do a simple search to get in on the conversation and breaking news. You can guarantee a hashtag will be trending tomorrow.

So the fun kicks of at 6pm GMT tomorrow, no matter what tomorrow brings it's sure to be some good news and fingers cross we'll have IOS 5.0 availible to download by the end of the day. Before I get off just want to ask will you be buying the new phone? and if you are, are you in the comfortable position of being out of any contract or you going to be selling off anything you can get your grubby hands on to pay through the nose to get your hands on it?  

This is my Christmas 

God bless us everyone

G