iPhone 5 Release Date? Nope - iPhone 4S

If you were tuned in to the special Apple media event today and you were expecting to see the unveiling of an iPhone 5 along with an announcement of the iPhone 5 release date, you were sorely disappointed.

Usually, the media and blogging world plays into Apple's hand by generating gobs of unsolicited hype. This time, the same occurred, but the hype, leaks, and rumors pointed towards multiple iPhones being released. An iPhone 4S as a lower-end model and a new iPhone 5, completely redesigned, expected to be unveiled as the flagship model.

What Apple delivered fell well short of those expectations. What they unveiled was a new iPhone 4S with a better camera, improved processing speed courtesy of the new A5 dual-core processor inside, and the Siri Assistant. Of course, there's many more smaller tweaks and features coming with the new IOS 5 launch (iCloud, notification center, iMessage, etc.), but that was the nuts and bolts of it.

At this point, the iPhone 4S release date will occur on October 14, 2011 and the iPhone 5 release date will undoubtedly be pushed into sometime in 2012. Rest assured, it won't be too long before the iPhone 5 rumors start flying again.

In the meantime, here's a list of some of the new features that you can expect to get when the new iPhone 4S launches.

• Dual-core A5 chip boasting faster graphics (7x) and twice the power.
• 8 megapixel camera with custom lens sporting a larger f/2.4 aperture. In short, 60% more pixels than that of the iPhone 4 camera.
• 1080 HD video recording with video editing on the phone and video stabilization to make up for a shaky hand.
• IOS 5 bringing over 200 new features. In particular, a new Notification Center to manage your messages. A new iMessage feature that allows you to send unlimited messages to any iPhone, iPod, or iPad running IOS 5. And, keeping in the same thread, Twitter functionality has been seamlessly integrated to enable Tweets directly from Maps, Photos, Safari, the camera, etc.
• iCloud computing that will enable you to manage "all your stuff". As Apple says, "Your content. On all your devices." Content pushed wirelessly and synced automatically.
• Siri Assistant. From the touch of a button and the use of your voice, check the weather, send texts, set calendar appointments, find local restaurants, send emails, check your stocks, get directions, and much more. Again, all by using your voice!
• World phone capabilities. The iPhone 4S will automatically switch between two antennas to improve call quality (we hope!), increase HSDPA data speeds, and will operate off of GSM or CDMA driven cellular networks.

Even though Apple didn't unveil a newly redesigned iPhone 5, the iPhone 4S list of features is impressive and will definitely take the iPhone 4 to the next level - "Picking up where amazing left off.", as humbly noted by Apple!

If you're still disappointed, check out Apple's iPhone 4S video below to see the next gen iPhone in action. It might help to take the edge off! Otherwise, hurry up and wait for the new iPhone 5 release date 2012!