In a manner familiar to many who follow Apple, the company has begun to deny requests for its employees to take time off work. More specifically, the dates October 9th-12th and October 14-15th so far appear to be off-limits. While no official announcement has been made, insiders have begun to connect the dots about the two dates and have concluded that they most likely refer to the release of the iPhone 5 and iOS 5.
The 9th to the 12th looks to be the period Apple hopes to have iOS 5 out the door. According to AppleInsider, AppleCare employees have been told to prepare for a slew of iOS-related inquiries in that period. Around that same point, Twitter has scheduled a series of developer conferences based largely around Twitter integration in iOS 5. The announcement suggests that the developer NDA will be lifted at that point, further suggesting an imminent release.
There"s less evidence to suggest that the second period will be for the iPhone 5 launch, although it does fit in with previous release patterns. Both the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 were released within days of their software counterparts. On the other hand, the iPhone 5 has so far broken tradition. It was a no-show at WWDC, missed the usual summer iPhone launch, and October is nearing without even an announcement. As with most rumours, it"s worth taking any iPhone 5 rumours with a pinch of salt.