Clues About iPhone 5 on Alibaba?

While expectations are high for the new iPhone that Apple AAPL -0.70% plans to launch next Wednesday, some Chinese makers of iPhone cases are already moving ahead and selling what they say are the cases designed for the new model.A search on Alibaba.com , China's biggest business-to-business e-commerce site, shows postings by many iPhone case manufacturers selling protective cases for the "iPhone 5."Given that the site is a trading platform for small businesses in and outside China, potential buyers could be, for example, retail stores that want to be able to sell cases as soon as Apple launches the new iPhone.
The next iPhone is likely to come with a screen measuring around 4 inches diagonally, compared with the current iPhone's 3.5-inch screen, people familiar with the matter said in May.The new iPhone is also using new technology that makes its screen thinner, which allows Apple to either make the whole device thinner or increase the battery's capacity, according to other people with knowledge of the matter.The product descriptions for the "iPhone 5" cases sold on Alibaba.com don't include size details. Many of those iPhone case makers are based in Shenzhen, where Foxconn 2038.HK +2.90%'s factories assemble Apple products.This is not the first time that cases purportedly made for an upcoming Apple product were posted for sale on Alibaba.com – it also happened, for example, months before Apple launched its iPad 2 in March 2011.
Iowa delegates to the Democratic National Convention received "Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book," a coffee-table sized picture book. at breakfast this morning, which Iowa party staff said was courtesy of the Democratic National Committee. Fitting, perhaps, after Michelle Obama said in her convention speech Tuesday night that when she first met her husband, his prized possession was a coffee table salvaged from a garbage bin.
Earlier in the week, delegates also received a CD of music. That's on top of the goodie bags that delegates scored when they arrived in Charlotte.  The gift collection, sponsored by various businesses, featured an iPad case, a pound of light-brown sugar and a second container of sugar mixed with cinnamon. On the other hand, there was a pedometer provided by a health-insurance company and a mini-can of Diet Coke, just in case anyone was counting calories.