Regular readers will know that I don’t bother with rumors (ironically that’s all we have in what follows). Thankfully this is pretty official: the iPhone 5 is to be announced on Wednesday this week. Here’s what we’re expecting to see:

New Form Factor
The iPhone 5 is likely to look completely different to the iPhone 4 or 3 that came before. Through a long line of leaks and internet exclusives, there are any number of ideas of what it might look like. Some even suggesting a two-tone back.

There were rumors last month of an iPad mini, but we hope this has nothing to do with the new iPhone.

Connectivity
There is a rumor going around that the dock connector on the iPhone is going to get smaller to make space for a 3.5mm jack on the bottom of the device. Whether or not this is true, I’m going to say it right here and now: “Please don’t”.

What about all our 3rd party accessories and peripherals we’ve bought over the years? Nothig would surprise me though.

Chip
Could be quadcore, could be dualcore. Either way Apple need to do something to make their battery-life one of the best in the industry. Which by going by other Smartphone standards shouldn’t be hard.

Either way, the chip they use will have implications on the tech crammed in. Tech like NFC.

4G
It’ll be there. If only for the US and UK market, it’ll be there.

Screen
Only time will tell here. We’ve heard about a 4.6-inch Retina display like on the iPad 3, rumors new touch tech in the iPhone 5 and even a curved glass screen because Apple was caught buying a few hundred glass cutting machines.

Isn’t speculation fun? And flippin’ annoying?

NFC and the mobile wallet
The Google Nexus range has it, other high-end Smartphones have it, it would be daft to leave it out of the iPhone 5. This could be the big step up the NFC needs to be fully adopted by the world at large. The days of paying for lap dances with your Smartphone are coming gents.

So more rumors. Until Wednesday. At least the parodiests are on it: