By this time tomorrow, we'll know everything there is to know about the new iPhone, be it the iPhone 5, the iPhone 4S or the iPhone 4GS-GTi. Here are a few of my thoughts on tomorrow's keynote.

"Hidden meanings" in the invite

Every year, people like to pick apart the images in the press invites for the keynotes. For example, take a look at this year's invite:

The 2011 iPhonee keynote invite. There are four iOS icons arranged in a grid; the Calendar app showing "Tuesday 4", the date of the event, the Clock app showing 10:00, the time of the event, the Maps app with a pin in Apple's campus, and the Phone app with a notification badge indicating one missed call.

Everyone seems to be focused on that missed call on the Phone app. The major rumour this year is that Apple will announce two iPhones at once, one being a cheaper entry-level model. According to the invite "analysts", that one missed call indicates that there's only going to be one iPhone announced.

Did anyone really expect two new iPhone models to be announced? I definitely didn't. There's absolutely no need for it. There has always been an entry-level iPhone: the previous generation. When the 3GS was released, the price of the 3G was dropped and the 8 GB version was introduced. Same thing with the 4 and the 3GS. Whatever the new iPhone is or does, the iPhone 4 will be dropped to 8 GB and made cheaper.

Which brings me on to my next point…

iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S?

The big debate is whether the new iPhone model will be the 'iPhone 5' or the 'iPhone 4S'. The general consensus is that the 4S would be to the 4 as the 3GS was to the 3G (hence the same addition of the letter S), and that the 5 would be a big redesign, like the 4 was to the 3GS.

Personally, I think the new phone will be a mixture of those two. It will be a small update (i.e. a 4S-style model) that is called the iPhone 5. This is for two reasons; a) 'iPhone 4S' sounds stupid, and b) it makes logical sense.

Now, people will argue that if it's a small update, they'll add the S like they did with the last small update. I say they won't. The only reason they added the S last time was because they wanted to call it the iPhone 3, but it would have been confusing because of the 3G.

It doesn't matter whether the new model is significantly different, it's the next iPhone, making it the iPhone 5.

The 'assistant' feature in iOS 5

A rumour that has surfaced in the last couple of days is that iOS 5, when released to the public, will contain an as-yet-unseen Assistant feature, which is meant to be like Voice Control but on steroids. Apparently, you'd be able to have a conversation with your phone, and tell it to do things such as "Send message to Justin saying 'How about lunch at 1?'". That would be a great feature, but not one that I would use. I'd rather type out my message than hold a conversation with my phone in public.

I also think that this is big enough that we'd have heard about it in the original iOS 5 announcement. Something like this is too much for Apple to keep as a 'surprise' feature like some of the other new features are.

What will we see tomorrow?

To sum up, I think that at the keynote tomorrow, the following will be announced:

  • The iPhone 5, which will look the same as the iPhone 4, but will have been upgraded internally.

  • The GM (Gold Master) of iOS 5, because Apple wouldn't release a .0 version of iOS without having released one first, and with no 'Assistant' feature.

  • New iPod touches with specs to match the iPhone 5 (except the camera)

  • No "one more thing…" because that was Steve Jobs' bit, and Tim Cook will want to leave it that way.

Perhaps I'll be proven wrong tomorrow evening, but we'll have to see.