It’s pretty much a shoe-in that the next iPhone (see: iPhone 5?) will be launching this fall, and to put the billionth nail in the coffin for naysayers, a Japanese blog is reporting that production of the device has already begun in factories overseas. For reference, this same blog reported on the start of iPad 3 production back in January, meaning that (if they’re to be believed, and signs say they are) we could be looking at an iPhone 5 launch as early as September. Though, that shouldn’t come as too much of a shock. On this blog alone I’ve posted multiple times on how the iPhone 5 will be out this fall, and we’re hardly on the cusp of delivering totally-on-time-news-all-the-time. I think after this, no more “iPhone 5 is coming out this fall!” posts are allowed. I’m placing a ban on them, unless it’s actually official news from Apple.

So, with that out of the way we’re left with the question of what the device will look like, or perhaps how it’ll function. Well, there is a new image of the rumored front panel of the phone, and it looks similar iPhone 4S with the same width but taller:

Additionally, there are reports that the next iPhone will have a thinner- and higher quality- screen, which could point to the entire thing being about 2mm thinner on the whole. Making such a high quality screen so thin can’t be easy or cheap, and lord knows it’s CERTAINLY not durable, but at least Apple is good at making it cool.

Last, more rumors point to the inclusion of LTE, NFC, and 1GB RAM. All would be nice improvements. Though I’m sure the few LTE phone users out there will hate it because 4 million new LTE iPhones will cripple most networks back to 3g speeds. Enjoy it while you have it for now!