As Apple’s expected September 10 iPhone media event draws ever nearer, increasing volumes of verification continue to surface supporting a release date on or around September 20th for Apple’s next-gen iPhone hardware. Following reports that AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile had all issued employee vacation blackouts surrounding September 20th, a new report from AppleInsider seemingly confirms that Apple has issued an all-hands vacation block from mid-September onward as well.
An internal company document shared with AppleInsider purportedly shows time off available for AppleCare employees for the latter half of September. As can be seen in the calendar, available time off drops off significantly starting Sunday, Sept. 15, and continues through Saturday, Sept. 28.
The image provided shows the calendar being accessed via virtual private network from an internal Apple employee domain. Potentially identifying portions of the picture have been cropped out.
The iPhone 5S, and to a (slightly) lesser extent, the iPhone 5C, have been all-but confirmed. And in the case of the iPhone 5S, it’s a pretty safe bet (collaborated by well-sourced analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, iMore editor in chief Rene Ritchie, 9to5Mac reporter Mark Gurman, and MG Seigler of TechCrunch, and more) that we’ll also see a champagne or gold color option, up to 128GB of storage, significant under-the-hood upgrades (including a new custom Apple A7 chip with 64-bit processing), dual-LED Flash, a larger battery, a vastly improved camera, and more.
Apple is expected to unveil both the iPhone 5S and the cheaper plastic-backed iPhone 5C at a media event on September 10th.
