iPhone 5 Spotted in the Wild?

I can be a hypocrite sometimes and this might be true in the case of Apple products. After slamming the company over the fanaticism of its customers (e.g. trading a kidney or going into debt for a iPad 2), I am starting to warm up to some of its products. While a Macbook is out of the question, I have already floated the idea of getting the iPad 3 when it arrives...in November 2011. Now I've just read about the soon-to-arrive iPhone 5 and thinking to myself, should I spring for it?

As reported by this article ("Appolicious"? what a horrible name!), an alleged iPhone 5 was caught in the wilderness of San Francisco yesterday. A tipster apparently caught sight of an iPhone model different from his own iPhone 4, snapped some pictures, alerted the website 9to5Mac, and the rumor mill exploded. Although the open secret has long been that the iPhone 5 will arrive in two months -- in the month of September-- Apple has managed to keep a close lid on its specifications. But here we have it, someone outside of the company has glimpsed the new iteration of the iPhone.

Unfortunately, not much useful information could be derived from the "leak", aside from a larger and curved screen. The tipster reported what he saw to have the screen size comparable to the HTC EVO (which has a 4.3 inch screen) and also "thinner" as well as "wider" than the current iPhone 4. None of these revelations are groundbreaking news -- there were already rumors (coming from component manufacturers) that screen size might be different this time, and Apple is known to obsess about thinning their devices.

But what makes this post interesting is my new openness to the iPhone 5. Because as you see, my birthday is in September and I am thinking of finally upgrading from my trusty Nokia e71x. As a tech geek, I have long been fascinated with getting a new phone and I'm getting sick of waiting of the newer and better devices. The biggest reason is the lack of competing products from others: Android devices suffer from lag due to non-native integration of the OS into the hardware, HP is being timid with webOS phones, Blackberries stink, and Windows Phone 7s are being slow to release. I am hoping to at least try the Nokia N9 though, before making a decision.