If you’re the sort of person who prefers wild speculation instead of cold, hard facts, keep reading. Everyone else, there’s nothing to see here! The iOS 5 and iCloud rumors get cranked up into overdrive with a couple of leaked screenshots from Apple retail claiming their release could be “just around the corner.”
9to5Mac has put on their tin foil hats over the weekend with a post revealing two leaked screenshots from Apple’s Daily Download, part of the company’s new RetailMe software for store employees. According to the screenshots, Apple has launched training for the forthcoming iOS 5 and iCloud, which the website translates as a “hint at imminent launch.”
“iOS 5 and iCloud are just around the corner -- it’s time to prepare for the next generation of mobile innovation,” the text from The Daily Download screenshot reads. “Over the coming weeks, we’ll be presenting a series covering everything you’ll need to know to provide our customers with the best iOS experience. This week, learn some new features of iOS 5 and iCloud.”
Now, if you’re the cynical type like we are, you’re probably reading that quoted text and thinking Apple will release iOS 5 and iCloud right on schedule, sometime in October in keeping with the widely held rumor. However, 9to5Mac appears to have a different view of what “coming weeks” might mean.
“Apple typically rolls out their major iOS releases in the days surrounding new iPhone launches,” the website explains. “Apple Stores usually only begin their training of new software in the couple of weeks leading up to a respective product launch (obviously this time around could be different, though). Apple beginning their iOS 5 training within the last few days could mean a launch sooner than the recently rumored dates of mid-to-late October.” (Emphasis on "could" is theirs.)
Make of that what you will, but we’ll be eating some serious crow if Apple actually releases iOS 5 and iCloud weeks ahead of new hardware -- although it might be a nice idea if they hope to avoid a catastrophe like the one that went down in 2008 by releasing the iPhone 3G, MobileMe and the App Store all at once.
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(Image courtesy of 9to5Mac)
