

The New York Times' Nick Bilton weighs in during the lead-up to the iPhone 5 introduction, unsurprisingly noting that an announcement is "just weeks away".

We’re just weeks away from the announcement of the new Apple iPhone 5, according to an Apple employee who asked not to be named because he was not allowed to speak publicly for the company.

The report goes on to reference the Case-Mate cases that briefly appeared today, sharing that the design is very similar to what has been described by anonymous Apple employees.

From descriptions I’ve heard of the new iPhone from Apple employees, the images seemed potentially authentic.

There has been considerable debate for months now about whether the iPhone 5 will represent a truly updated form factor, an iPhone 4-like refresh focusing on internal upgrades, or perhaps both.

Bilton echoes a number of previous claims that the next-generation iPhone will receive an upgraded 8-megapixel camera, up from 5 megapixels in the iPhone 4. Also mentioned is the possibility of near-field communication (NFC) technology for payments, a topic Bilton addressed earlier this year, but it is apparently still unclear whether NFC will arrive in the iPhone 5 or iPhone 6. More recent claims have suggested that the iPhone 5 will not offer NFC capabilities.