Apple looks set to unveil its new iPhone on 12 September.

The Californian company sent an invite on Tuesday night to the press, ahead of a major event in San Francisco and London.

The invite features a large '12' casting a shadow of the number 5 - probably a reference to the supposed iPhone 5.

"It's almost here," the invite reads.

The event will take place in San Francisco at 10am Pacific time, and will be live-streamed in the UK where HuffPost UK will be reporting live.

Several mock-ups, leaks and artists' impressions of the new phone have been published in recent weeks, but as ever Apple has given no indication about the new direction for the phone.

Most rumours suggest the device, running the new iOS 6 operating system, will be longer and thinner than the current iPhone, with a 4G (LTE) data connection, a smaller dock connector and a redesigned 'two-tone' backplate.

It is also thought that Apple may use the event to launch a smaller version of the iPad, with a screen around seven inches in size.

The 'iPad mini' is seen as a lower-cost, entry-level device which would compete with the growing number of smaller Android-based tablets.

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• Apple To Release EIGHT New Products By Year's End: Analyst

  The iPhone 5. The iPad Mini. A modified iPad. A 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. A new iPod Touch. A new iPod Nano. Two new iMacs. These are the eight new Apple products, to be unveiled at two separate Apple events, that generally-reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities says to expect by the end of 2012 <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/08/31/iphone_5_ipad_mini_among_8_new_apple_products_coming_before_end_of_2012.html" target="_hplink">in a research note from earlier in the week</a>. A couple of those aren't surprising -- if you haven't heard, there's a new iPhone (supposedly pictured at left) coming -- but others, we are less sure about. Let's take a dive into the new information we received about four of these devices.

• 'The Best Photos Of The iPhone 5 Yet'

  The next iPhone -- which I'm going to persist in calling the iPhone 5 until Tim Cook tells me not to -- will still almost certainly be introduced on September 12 (remember the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/03/iphone-5-announcement-ipad-mini-this-week-in-apple-rumors_n_1738536.html" target="_hplink">mounds of evidence</a> that says it will be). We didn't get much new information this week, but we did get a bunch of high-quality photos of what is apparently a fully-assembled phone from -- where else? -- nowhereelse.fr, the Francophone website that has been leaking a bunch of parts this rumor cycle. At left, you can see one of those photos, which shows the taller, thinner iPhone 5, with the two-tone body and 4.0-inch screen we're all expecting in less than two weeks. I <a href="http://www.nowhereelse.fr/nouvel-iphone-5-photos-comparatives-70190/" target="_hplink">recommend Nowhereelse's photo gallery from this week</a> for some of our best shots at what is likely the next iPhone. Elsewhere -- on sites other than Nowhereelse -- we got some geekier looks at the next iPhone, <a href="http://9to5mac.com/2012/08/30/more-iphone-parts-a6-processor-more-new-9-pin-cables/" target="_hplink">including this photo</a>, which shows an iPhone 5 with Apple's faster A6 chip inside (this would mean faster performance and multi-tasking, if Apple does upgrade the chip from the current A5 to the A6). <a href="http://9to5mac.com/2012/08/30/more-iphone-parts-a6-processor-more-new-9-pin-cables/" target="_hplink">9to5Mac has a whole heap of looks</a> at the next iPhone's innards, for those interested. Otherwise, we're still on schedule, and waiting. This is your two weeks notice: The invitations to the next Apple event should be going out pretty soon, perhaps this week.

• Okay, One More Look At The iPhone 5

  This is likely a mock-up, but a new video from the IFA tech conference in Berlin shows an "exclusive iPhone 5." While we don't think it's real, the device on screen does look like much of what we've seen from the past months of leaks -- taller screen, smaller dock connector, headphone jack on the bottom, etc. etc. Amen. (<a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/01/new_video_shows_realistic_mockup_of_fully_assembled_iphone_5_at_ifa_2012.html" target="_hplink">via AppleInsider</a>)

• iPad Mini Just Might Have Shown Up In Developer's Logs

  Marco Arment is the creator of the popular iOS/Android app Instapaper, and he was checking his device logs the other day (as one does) and noticed something strange: Two iPads he had never seen before were using his service! <a href="http://www.marco.org/2012/08/30/ipad-mini-internals" target="_hplink">Here's Arment</a>: <blockquote>These device models, as reported by the OS, could be faked by a jailbreaker with enough free time. But I've never had a device show up there that didn't end up being a real, about-to-be-released Apple device. </blockquote> <a href="http://www.marco.org/2012/08/30/ipad-mini-internals" target="_hplink">Arment thinks</a> the two iPads are the Wi-Fi and 4G models of the upcoming iPad Mini, and takes this as proof that they do exist and that they're coming (and, yes, he does have an iPhone 5 in his logs, too). He's also got some evidence that the iPad Mini will not run a Retina display, but will run the cheaper, iPad 2-ish screen, to lower costs. We're still expecting the iPad Mini -- the name given to a smaller iPad, with a 7.85-inch screen and a sub $300 price tag -- before Christmas, <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20120825/confirmed-new-ipad-mini-will-debut-in-october-after-latest-iphones-september-bow/" target="_hplink">possibly in October</a>.

• More Calls For A 13-Inch Retina MacBook Pro This Year

  Ming-Chi Kuo, who correctly predicted the 15-inch Retina MacBook pro before its grand unveiling, <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/08/31/iphone_5_ipad_mini_among_8_new_apple_products_coming_before_end_of_2012.html" target="_hplink">thinks that a 13-inch Retina MacBook will be on shelves this September</a>, along with the new iPhone. We also heard this week that those MacBooks are in production (that's per analyst Richard Shim, <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57500548-37/13-inch-retina-macbook-pro-displays-in-production/" target="_hplink">talking to CNET</a>). This is a rumor that goes a few months back, and it makes sense: The 15-inch Retina MacBook has sold well despite its high price, and Apple has earned a reputation for high-quality screens -- on its iPhone 4, Retina MacBook, and <strike>iPad 3</strike> new iPad. Might as well keep adding bricks into the wheelbarrow, as my pops likes to say.

• The iMac Refresh We've Been Waiting For Might Be In The Works

  Some were disappointed when Apple didn't refresh its iMac line at the recent WWDC event, but if recent rumors are true, all you iMac enthusiasts might soon be getting your wish. The aforementioned Kuo thinks two new ones are coming: No Retina display for these puppies, which will measure 21.5 inches and 27 inches, but they will come with new Ivy Bridge processors and a "brand new design." We're also seeing shortages in iMacs on the Apple website, which occasionally means that newer models are coming; an unidentified iMac -- possibly one of the new models -- <a href="http://9to5mac.com/2012/08/31/new-imac-appears-in-geekbench-as-delays-cause-analyst-to-reshuffle-predictions/" target="_hplink">also recently showed up on Geekbench</a>, fueling more speculation of an upcoming refresh. Stay tuned for more on these new iMacs and MacBooks -- we could be seeing some brand new computers from Apple, just in time to be too late to buy them for back-to-school. That's all for This Week In Apple Rumors. Make sure to check back next week for a fresh batch; or, if you can't wait seven days, you can always get up-to-the-minute Apple rumors by <a href="http://twitter.com/gilbertjasono" target="_hplink">following me on Twitter right here</a>.