Apple iPhone 5 Event: 5 Rumors That Were Proven Wrong At The Release Announcement

The iPhone 5 event was rumored long before Apple sent out the official invitations, thanks to Rene Ritchie of iMore who correctly predicted that the iPhone 5 unveiling would be Sept. 12, and its release date would be Sept. 21. Many of the previously rumored iPhone 5 features turned out to be true, but the Apple announcement did come with its fair share of surprises. 

It can be difficult to keep track of all the rumors that circulated around the Web before the official iPhone 5 announcement, so here's a roundup of reports and rumors that turned out to be false.

1. A 9-pin or 19-pin Thunderbolt mini dock connector. It was rumored for some time that Apple would slim down its traditional dock connector, but the number of pins in the new port was uncertain. Originally, most sites like TechCrunch reported the new connector as having 19 pins. The rumor then changed to a 9-pin connector. Some even believed the connector would be Thunderbolt, the ultra-fast I/O developed by Apple, given the shape of the cord. But none of these rumors turned out to be true.  The new dock connector, called Lightning, comes with 8-pins and uses an all digital 8-signal design with an adoptive interface. Alleged leaks, such as one from iLounge that showcased a mini dock connector among cases and other accessories, have sparked the rumor that Apple would ship its iPhone 5 with a 19 or 9-pin charger.

2. Apple would unveil an iPad Mini alongside the iPhone 5. The iPad Mini was one of the most highly-cited rumors that circulated in the coming months leading up to the iPhone 5 announcement. Numerous leaked photos of accessories and casings have lead fans to believe that the company would release an iPad Mini with the iPhone 5. In early September, just before Apple's iPhone 5 event, a Chinese website had posted what was believed to be the case for an iPad Mini. The photo depicted an aluminum design, a top mounted headphone jack, and an opening for a rear-face camera. However, when Sept. 12 came, there was no iPad Mini to be found.

3. The iOS 6 release date would come on the same day as the iPhone 5. Apple's next generation operating system, which was revealed at WWDC in June, had been given a release window of the fall until yesterday. Apple's iOS 6 will officially roll out on Sept. 19, but some websites have previously and incorrectly reported that it was going to roll out immediately following the iPhone 5 event on Wednesday. The rest of us will get access to iOS 6 as early as Wednesday of this week, local Boston news website Bostinno wrote on Tuesday.

4. Announcement of Mountain Lion OS X final build and battery fixes. On Wednesday news had surfaced that Apple had seeded the final version of its newest Mountain Lion update, which was expected to be announced at the iPhone 5 event. Rumors had said that the company would release the Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 upgrade, which would address battery life issues that users have complained about. This update was tested by Mac Observer, who noted that it saw a tremendous increase in battery life, to the point where running time was a few minutes longer than even that of 10.6.8. It was reported by MacWorld that this 10.8.2 upgrade would have been announced yesterday, but Apple made no such announcement.

5. No 13-inch Retina Display MacBook. Following WWDC, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told Apple Insider that the company would be releasing a 13-inch edition of its Retina Display MacBook Pro to be released in early October. There has been no official word from Apple on this smaller Retina Display laptop, but some expected it to be unveiled alongside the iPad Mini, also rumored for an October release date, at Wednesday's event.

Just because these updates and gadgets were not revealed alongside the iPhone 5, however, does not mean they don't exist. It was reported at the end of August that Apple will be holding two separate events this year-one highlighting the iPhone 5 and the other focusing on the iPad Mini. According to tech critic John Gruber, Apple does not want to share the spotlight.

I'm thinking it makes more sense for Apple to hold two events, Gruber writes. First, an iPhone event focused solely on the new iPhone and iOS 6...Then, in the first or second week of October, Apple holds its traditional music event, exactly along the lines of the events at which they've been debuting the new iPods for the last decade.

Will these speculations be correct? It seems likely, but Apple fans will have to wait until October to know for sure.