Now that we’ve all gotten over the disappointment that there won’t be a new iPhone in June and the long wait until September begins, we’ll have to console ourselves with  rumors such as this one, about a potential “iPhone 4S” being tested by handpicked game developers.

9to5Mac is reporting that Apple appears to have cherry-picked select developers to test their apps with the next-generation handset, which is nearly identical to the current iPhone 4 but comes packing the same A5 processor found inside the iPad 2. Who are these select developers? Apparently they’re from “high-level gaming outfits” who are getting a head start on optimizing their apps for the handset’s next big refresh.

“The person who chose to share this information with us calls it the ‘iPhone 4S’, though the device itself only has typical Apple prototype nomenclature,” 9to5Mac reports. “He also shared that the device spends its evenings in a safe in the company’s offices.”

The website is quick to note that these “iPhone 4S” prototypes may not be the same thing that launches to the public later this year -- it’s possible they are simply iPhone 4 casings with the A5 processor inside them as Apple continues to streamline the next handset. That said, rumors have been circulating in recent days that the next iPhone will simply be a spec bump from the current iPhone 4 -- something more like the iPhone 3GS, which kept the same outward appearance as the previous iPhone 3G but kicked the internals up a few notches.

For now, it appears that Apple has a tweaked version of iOS 4 that supports this next-generation hardware, since we’re not likely to see a preview of iOS 5 until early June when the Worldwide Developers Conference gets underway. But one thing is for sure: Apple appears to be getting serious about gaming, and the next iPhone looks to take advantage of that.

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