Rumors that the iPhone 5 will have a taller display than the current iPhone 4S have made the rounds in the Apple community. A recent beta test conducted by Apple-centric blog 9to5Mac gives credence to these rumors. If your appetite for iPhone 5 rumors is still not satiated, 9to5 Mac also claims that the iPhone 5 will have a 9-pin dock connector, not the 8- or 19-pin connector as previously anticipated.

Bigger Screen For iPhone 5? iOS 6 Beta Test Reveals The Truth.

The beta test conducted by blog 9to5Mac demonstrated that iOS 6 was able to run a fifth row of app icons at a higher resolution than that of the current iPhone.

The testers averred that they had slightly tweaked the iOS Simulator app, a program developers use to test iOS apps. Happy with its findings, 9to5Mac confidently claims that "the upcoming release of iOS 6, which will obviously come pre-loaded on the new iPhone, is well-aware of taller iPhone displays" and "scales perfectly to the taller resolution."

Currently, iOS 5 runs at 640 x 960 pixels on the iPhone 4S. The test ran iOS 6 at 640 x 1,136 pixels on the device. At this resolution, iOS 6 adapted seamlessly to the device, adding a fifth row of app icons in the process, compared to the stretched out four rows of apps on the iOS 5-supported 3.5-inch iPhone 4S. Additionally, at other resolution sizes, iOS 6 scales down the icons to an iPad-like home screen size. The fact that iOS 6 only adapts flawlessly to this specific resolution, adding a fifth row in the process, validates assertions that a change is on the cards.

That "taller resolution" size for the 4-inch iPhone 5, as demoed by the iOS 6 beta, is hand-in-glove with the purported descriptions that have been circulating, so to some extent, the test validates those speculations.

Dock Connector Dodges: 8 pins, 19 pins, or 9 pins?

Apple is preparing to discard its iconic 30-pin dock connector in favor of a smaller one. The iPhone rumor mill agrees on that point. 9to5Mac now claims that the iPhone 5 will not feature an 8- or 19-pin dock connector as conjectured previously.

9to5Mac recently uncovered a code string for iOS 6 beta, which contains references to a 9-pin connector. The 9to5Mac blog post reads, "The reference comes as a new iOS hardware feature called "9Pin," so we're assuming this has to do with the dock connector. Obviously, there is no way to be 100% about this".

The post adds that "the reference has been present since beta 1" and "comes in a part of the operating system that details general hardware features in iOS devices". That context could indicate that the purported 9-pin connector may not limit itself to the iPhone 5 and could possibly make its way to other iDevices as well.

The shift to a new dock connector from the existing 30-pin connector would render existing iAccessories useless and inoperable, unless Apple offers an adapter to connect the new dock to the traditional 30-pin connector.

One would do well to remember that iOS 6 is still in beta, which means that code strings can be included and removed on a whim while software testing is ongoing. Whether the 9-pin connector materializes, along with the taller display, remains to be seen. With speculations being the order of the day, the countdown to September 12 is hotly anticipated.