The much-anticipated release of the next version of the iPhone, presumably the iPhone 5, has been hotly debated. But if what former vice president and current Apple Inc. board member Al Gore believes is true, consumers can expect the new iPhones to be here in October.

Gore spoke Wednesday at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, The Associated Press reported. Toby Shapshak, a summit attendee and the editor of Stuff Magazine's South African edition, told the AP that, when speaking about computing's exponential growth, Gore said, Not to mention the new iPhones coming out next month. That was a plug.

Shapshak said he recorded Gore's comments on his iPhone; they were reported earlier by TheNextWeb. If Gore is correct, that could be an indication that Apple will introduce more than one model, according to the AP.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

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