The typical flow of new device rumors tends to get more convincing as we get closer to a release date, not less convincing. That being said, a new supposed iPhone 5 accessory has been “leaked” and this time, instead of a full out case, we were served a screen protector.
I would have probably called bullshit if you told me I’d be starting my morning writing about a screen protector. I’d have been even more skeptical if you told me my epic screen protector story would be an iPhone 5 rumor. However, here I sit, staring at a piece of plastic with two holes in it, slightly too large to be for the iPhone 4.
The interesting point of this screen protector is that it’s the first “leak” to focus on the front of the rumored iPhone 5. We saw renders early on with an elongated home button, but everything since then has focused on the overall shape of the device via case designs and mockups.
It’s impossible to know if what we are looking at is the real deal, or an overhead transparency film that someone took an x-acto knife to. Or it could be neither, and just one of many prototypes a screen protector vendor has on deck to be prepared for anything Apple throws at us.
I’m pretty certain, either way, that Apple isn’t leaking product design specs to printers of thin plastic. These products can be produced on the fly as soon as any real announcement is made and there’s no reason for Apple to risk a leak to appease small time third party hardware manufacturers.
The landscape of iPhone 5 design theories is a vast one, full of curved glass lining streets of inevitable broken dreams. Getting wrapped up in these product leaks is just setting yourself up for failure. Keep in mind that we only knew about the iPhone 4’s design change when Gizmodo bought a physical prototype, not because bootleg chinese manufacturers had official copies of the design spec.
