Tidbits from the iPhone 5S rumor mill

The Apple rumor mill is in high gear with the impending unveiling of Apple’s latest mobile devices a few weeks away. As is tradition in the days leading up to any Apple product unveiling, the tech news seems to be dominated by “reports” from various analysts and other sources providing hints and clues of what to expect from the Apple magic machine.

The iPhone will be bigger. It will be smaller. It will be plastic. It will be glass. It will be a watch. The iPad will be bigger…and smaller. The iPad Mini will have a Retina display. Your mobile device will double as a toaster, and be able to vacuum the carpets….you get the idea.

Normally, I just yawn and move on and don’t pay any attention. I rarely–if ever–actually participate myself.So, why am I jumping on the Apple speculation bandwagon this time around? Only one reason, really. I got some information–admittedly very little, but “some”–from a source I consider credible. I recognize that all of the other analysts spreading rumors–or most of them at least–also believe they have inside knowledge from respectable sources, and that there is more than a little irony in that justification, but it is what it is.

I’ve been told to expect two things from Apple, according to my source. First, he claims that the next iPhone–apparently the iPhone 5S–will have a larger display that the iPhone 5. He didn’t elaborate on whether it would be taller, wider, or both–just that it will allegedly be larger.

While I respect my source, and consider him credible, I still find this rumor implausible. Apple is right to reject the popular trend of gargantuan “phablet” smartphones. The iPhone 5 is an ideal size the way it is, and it seems to me that making the display any larger would be pandering simply for the sake of pandering, and without any increased function or value.

The other rumor is barely worth mentioning. My source confirmed that a new iPad will be unveiled. It’s nice to have some sort of independent confirmation of that fact, but I could have confidently predicted that Apple will unveil a new iPad model (and probably a new iPad Mini model) myself months ago without any inside information from other sources, no matter how credible.

So, there you have it. The new iPhone may have a larger display, and Apple will reveal a new iPad. Have fun with that information, and check back in a couple weeks after Apple’s media event so we can compare notes about what Apple really does pull out of its magic hat.