Midday iPhone 5 News: AT&T Lists Vacation Black Out Dates, iPhone 5 Placeholders Hit AT&T Inventory System, And “1 Phone Rumors”.

As if we needed any more confirmation that Apple is releasing a new generation of iPhone in October — several tech sites are now new reporting that AT&T has officially begun blacking out dates for employee vacations. You guessed it: October 3rd-14th. The 3rd is a bit earlier than the start of Apple’s own October 9th employee vacation black out dates but nonetheless signals something is coming.

Building on the vacation black outs are six new SKUs that just popped up in AT&T’s inventory system which are “likely for Apple devices” according to a BGR source. Obviously Apple isn’t releasing six new phones, but if you consider each phone (white/black 16 GB and 32 GB) counts as separate SKUs, that leaves two SKUs for new iPhone 5 specific accessories.

As of now, the world is pretty much split on whether Apple will announce a single iPhone 5 or a lower end iPhone 4S and higher end iPhone 5. We’ve never been too keen on the dual phone approach as it isn’t Apple’s style to make a mad dash for the low end of the market — they generally care only about the mid to higher end sector. There’s always a first for everything though. With that said, infamous Apple blogger John Gruber of Daring Fireball makes a cryptic claim that has us really scrutinizing the dual iPhone rumor:

“Something tells me there’s only one new iPhone.”

We’ve seen a few sites reading the icons on the “Let’s Talk iPhone” invite rather deeply, speculating that the “1″ on the phone icon could mean Apple has but one phone to unveil — a reach for sure though intriguing nonetheless.

What do you think about the whole thing: Two iPhones, LTE capable, redesigned?

Report: Sprint Beginning LTE Rollout In 2012.

WiMAX is great and all. But it’s apparently not that great. After several years of excruciatingly slow advancements it appears Sprint is finally ready to throw in the towel, or at least concede that LTE is the way of the future. A report by Cnet states we could see Sprint-branded LTE service as early as end of Q1 2012.

The adoption of LTE isn’t likely to actually kill WiMAX — at least initially. The multi-technology high speed push will help Sprint reach the goals put forth by their “Network Vision” plan that will see their network updated with LTE, increase 3G/4G reach, and ultimately deliver a better experience for customers. Because Sprint uses the same FD-LTE spectrum as Verizon, dreamers may be holding out for some type of multi-carrier LTE device. But such things aren’t quite that easy. While the overall technology may be the same, the are various striations broken down by spectrum as highlighted by this Ars Technica article.

Still, for a carrier that is seeing its market share and revenue drop with each passing quarter, something must be done. Hopefully a trifecta of speedy wireless technologies will help Sprint score more high-end devices, and in turn, customers. \

Here It Comes: Apple Sends Out Invites For October 4th “Let’s Talk iPhone” Event.

The rumored October 4th iPhone 5 event is official. Apple has started sending out media invites for the upcoming “Let’s Talk iPhone” event being commandeered by none other than recently appointed Apple CEO, Tim Cook, and taking place at 10am (PST)/1pm (EST) at Apple’s Cupertino campus.

Up for revealing include the final version (and unannounced features) of iOS 5, more information about iCloud, and of course the iPhone 4S/iPhone 5.

New Google+ Features Outed Hidden Code.

Google+ is growing incredibly fast. The most recent estimates put the number of users at over 50 million! An impressive feat when you consider Google+ is still a baby, only a few months old. But despite its young age, Google is pushing their developers to the max getting new features prepped and out the door. Last week we took a look at a handful of new and exciting Google+ features. But as exciting as mobile hangouts and Google+ search are, there are four upcoming features that are even better: Google Voice/Google+ Integration, Google+ Wall Writing, Google+ Experts, new sorting options for Google Post/Messenger photos, and Google+ Presets.

Hop inside…

LG,Samsung, And MOG Announce Partnership. Streaming Music Now Available On Newer SmartTVs And Blu-Ray Players For $4.99/Month.

If you can’t get enough of the audible nirvana called music and also happen to own one of newer LG equipment, today is your lucky day. The two companies have announced a new partnership that will see the any of LG’s newer (2010 and on) SmartTVs and Blu-Ray players capable of streaming MOG’s full library of 320 kbps songs. The only added cost comes by way of the “Unlimited Subscription” priced at $4.99.

Samsung and MOG also announced a nearly identical offer today.

Anyone bought into the offer yet?

Review: Motorola Electrify

Even though the U.S. features a healthy selection of national and regional carriers, the biggest, baddest devices hit the “big 4″ first. Everyone else is left to deal with the scraps many weeks later long after the excitement surrounding a particular device is gone. But every once in a while your smaller regional carriers get something worth boasting about. Today that carrier is U.S. Cellular with the new Motorola Electrify.

Hop past the break as we dive into the Electrify, leaving no button untouched…

Keep Waiting: T-Mobile CMO Reiterates No iPhone In 2011 (And Most of 2012).

T-Mobile users hoping that this year’s iPhone 5 would bring the nation’s 4th largest carrier some iPhone love will be disappointed to know that it just isn’t happening. Talking to AllThingsD, T-Mobile Chief Marketing Officer Cole Brodman confirmed that T-Mobile won’t be getting an iPhone 5 this year and it’s uncertain if anything will materialize next year either.

“If we were to get an iPhone this year, nobody has told us.”

Of course, it’s not like iPhones aren’t running on T-Mobile’s network already. Previous reports from earlier this year put the number of jailbroken and unlocked iPhones running on T-Mobile’s EDGE network as over 1 million devices.

Still, the reality that T-Mobile will be the only major carrier without an iPhone going into 2012 is something not even the best Android handsets can make people completely forget. Brodman isn’t worried, however, stating that “We’re preparing to run this year and into 2012 primarily with Android and Blackberry and Windows Phone 7″ and that the company’s range of Android handsets “don’t need to take a backseat to anyone”. Speaking of which, T-Mobile just yesterday launched two new flagship Android devices, the Samsung Galaxy S II and HTC Amaze 4G.

For iPhone/iOS enthusiasts the wait continues.