New iPhone Rumors: Why Insiders Believe The '4-Inch Screen' Speculation May Be True [PHOTOS]

While Apple has left the details of the iPhone 5, the iPhone 6, the iPhone 4G, or whatever you want to call it, to much of the imagination, iPhone insiders have gotten access to some of the most valued particulars of the mysterious phone -- its size.

Apple insider iLounge is reporting that the Cupertino, Calif., based company is abandoning the long-rumored teardrop-shaped iPhone 5 in favor of another glass-bodied design.

According to the report, the new iPhone will sport a longer and thinner look than the iPhone 4 and 4S, with approximate screen measures being listed as 4-inches from the smaller 3.5-inches.

As the exciting change is one of many that are being reported by insiders, the rumor of a new and improved 4-inch screen is one that is most likely to be true.

According to a report done by Wired magazine, The problem is there's just not a lot of room inside an iPhone for anything more than is already there, John Brownlee writes.

An iPhone is a densely packed sandwich of silicon, radios, flash storage, motors and cameras. Over the past five generations, Apple has packed in everything that makes up an iPhone about as densely as possible, and the battery still makes up the bulk of every device . . . If it's going to fit anything else, Apple needs to make more room, he adds.

The Wired report is justified by the addition of a new major feature of the phone that iLounge is also reporting.

According to the Apple insider, the new iPhone will include a new and improved Dock Connector. The new port will be a little larger than the bottom speaker or microphone hole on the iPhone 4/4S

In addition to the size of the port, the site believes that it is going to have fewer pins than the prior 30-pin Dock Connector, perhaps only 16, while the shape of the hole will apparently be closer to a pill shape than the prior rounded rectangle.

Space saved in the doc area is space Apple can stuff with a bigger LTE chipset -- a move that would essentially allow for the larger 4-inch screen.

A larger screen for the new iPhone has been one of the most intriguing rumors for insiders and those eager to purchase the phone upon its release. But until now, the rumors have always found a way to run in to dead ends.

Increasing the iPhone's display, while maintaining its current 3:2 aspect ratio, would make the device wider in the hand and harder to operate one-handed.

It would also either decrease the pixel density of the iPhone's Retina display, making it less retina-ey and more jaggy to the eyes, or require more pixels per inch to compensate, causing iPhone developers to design their apps for multiple resolutions -- a problem that Brownlee says is the exact same kind of fragmentation problem that's bitten Android on its ass.

But with the new iPad's WiFi + 4G release, Apple has made it abundantly clear that it is finally ready to embrace LTE. And the way the company is going to do it is by making the iPhone's display longer, but not wider, Brownlee suggests.

This theory was first hinted at on The Verge and then attracted attention when Daring Fireball's John Gruber suggested that the person who had initially suggested it might just work for Apple, and know what direction the next iPhone would go.

As iLounge, a website that reports on all things iPhone, iPad, iPod and beyond, does not give the name of their source, they have had an artist draw up a rough rendition of what this change will look like. They mention that the design echoes the current-generation iMac design, to be sure.

Much speculation has been given as to what Apple will be using to build the new iPhone, if anything different. The website reports that in order to make the phone thinner, Apple will be using Gorilla Glass 2, which can be manufactured thinner with identical strength to the earlier iPhones' Gorilla Glass, or at the same thickness with greater strength.

In an alteration that will be the first of its kind since the iPhones debut in 2007, iLounge is reporting that Apple will change the new iPhone's aspect ratio, adding additional pixels to the top and bottom of the screen.

As the website is not affiliated with Apple Computer or the manufacturers of iPod- or iPhone-related products, we will just have to wait until the new iPhone comes out to see if they are spot on with their information.

Apple is expected to unveil the next generation iPhone later this year, with many analysts betting on the September-October timeframe for the release.