It looks like another unreliable leak about Apple has come out of China. We reported on a rumor coming out of China last week, which stated that the iPhone 5S and a five-inch iPhone 6 was imminent for launch this year.
This time it's images, which were posted on a Chinese tech site called zol.com.cn and later reposted on GizChina. The photos are supposedly taken at a Foxconn plant, supposedly showing the iPhone 5S in production. Photos even showed the device taken apart, so tech geeks could get a look at the device's insides.
This is where the iPhone 5S story crumbles. According to 9to5mac, tech blog iFixit spotted a change in the vibration mechanism, from a much-praised, quieter linear oscillating vibrator to an old-fashioned rotational motor. They described their reaction as, "we're scratching our heads as to why they went back."
They're not going back to some older technology for the Apple iPhone 5S, because it's not the iPhone 5S in the photos. They're photos, noted by a 9to5mac update, taken at some iPhone 5 knock off plant, confirmed by smaller battery and a microSD card slot.
This is the second discredited Apple rumor in a few days, and should caution people to put on the breaks, if only a little, on the "iWatch" speculation. Of course, this story is sourced to The New York Times, which talked to many industry analysts and is generally a more believable source than some anonymous microblogger in China.
The newspaper reported that Google is working on glasses and it would make sense for Apple to compete with its own wearable device, and news outlet The Wall Street Journal corroborated the story with its own report on the iWatch.
It'll be a while before we hear more from Apple about what it's planning for the end of this year, so in the mean time, pass the salt, please.