Not content to allow France to hog all the 4th generation iPhone rumor attention, Korea Times claims carrier KT reveals (we read that as wishes rather than knows) the following specs:

They said the coming 4G iPhones will be equipped with organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens on surface and live video chat functionalities, while removable battery is highly likely.

The new 4G iPhone is also going to be loaded with dual core processors and higher and powerful graphic chips that can deliver higher video resolutions and better "still" images when taking pictures.

Let's make this clear again up front (lest we be smited), no one outside of a tiny group at Apple and maybe Foxconn brass know exactly what the 4th gen iPhone is going to be, and even then it's subject to change (like the iPod touch G3 losing it's camera at the eleventh hour). So, while OLED and a better camera make sense given the competitive environment, multi-core chips are already on the roadmap, and a chat cam is always rumored for each new device, it's hard to imagine Apple would make a removable batter now given how much effort they've put into making long-life, built in batteries for iPods, iPhones, and now MacBooks as well. Carrying extra batteries isn't a maintream reality.

Still, let us know what you think. We likely know as much as anyone outside the illuminati at this point!

[Thanks to the Reptile for the tip!]

ARM is showing off their new Cortex A9 multi-core mobile processor, which will scale over 2Ghz at less than 0.25W of power per proc -- and since Apple is rumored to be a massive ARM licensee and Apple staff were hinting that developers should prepare themselves for multi-core, rumors once again resurface that this smoking hot chip might become part of the 4th generation iPhone and iPod touch. (As part of PA Semi system-on-a-chip, 'natch).

The current iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3, as well as a bunch of competing smartphones (and superphones, don't get us started!) use the ARM Cortex A8. MacRumors is guessing it might just make its way into the iTablet/iSlate as well.

CES is ramping up folks, and remember TiPb will be there, so we'll bring you back anything more we can find out.

Video highlights after the break...

CNET has an interesting post up detailing what we can expect in the next generation ARM processor. Just yesterday we took a look at the iPhone 3G's ARM 11 vs. the new iPhone 3G S' Cortex ARM8 and the difference was impressive -- most impressive. Well, next year is promising a dual-core ARM Cortex A9...!

Icebike sent this in, wondering out loud: "Is it too soon to start speculating on 2010?" And the simple answer is "no, no it's not!" It's longstanding practice here at TiPb to wait a polite 1.372 seconds after a new iPhone model is introduced, and then begin with "So, next year--"

That spirit in mind, TiPb can't help but wonder what this, combined with multi-core PowerVR GPU's, wrapped up into custom system-on-chips by Papermaster, the PA Semi team, and all those new GPU gurus toiling away in Steve's basement, means for a 2010 iPhone? (No, I won't call it an iPhone HD -- yet!)

At the very least, I think DC comics is going to have to invent us a faster Flash!

Imagination makes the PowerVR graphics core chip (GPU) that powers the current generations of iPhone and iPod touch handsets. Apple likes them enough to have become a huge licensor and even investor in the company. Well, it's looking like that investment may pay off for iPhone users in the next generation iPhone and iPod touch (which TiPb is still predicting will hit in July and September respectively).

Even bigger news? It looks like these new multi-core chips will be transparent from the developer's point of view. That means Apple has far less risk in "fracturing the platform" by adding more GPU firepower to the next gen iPhone. Also, they look to be supporting OpenCL, Apple's open source implementation that allows GPUs to be treated like CPUs and boost general purpose computing when they're not throwing polygons and pixels around our favorite games or movies.

Says the Register (via MacRumors):

Without any intervention by the application - and, more importantly, without any intervention by the application's developer - the driver will pass data to an "MP code scheduler," which will in turn pass that data to one pipeline scheduler per core, which will then pass it to one thread scheduler per multi-threaded processing engine, which will then manage the threads through the engines as they process the graphics data.

In other words, the SGX543 can have any number of cores from two to sixteen with no change in the driver software or the application. All that complex data/pipeline/thread management is done in hardware. No muss, no fuss.

But a whole lot of "we want it now!"...

We've heard before that, among other things, iPhone OS 3.0 would support quad-core processors. Of course, we haven't seen these processors yet, but now ST-Ericsson and ARM have announced they'll be giving a private sneak peak at one at Mobile World Congress. (Via MacRumors):

The technological breakthrough is the first of its kind and is based on the ARM(R) Cortex(TM)-A9 multicore processor, which represents a significant leap from previous generations of baseband/application processor architectures by providing unprecedented levels of performance and power efficiency.

Combined with previous rumors of OpenCL support allowing the faster, betterPowerVR graphics cores to boost general processing as well, and 802.11n mobile WiFi chips future iPhone generations could be, as Steve Jobs is so fond of putting it, real screamers.

Better hardware (especially more RAM) could, of course, encourage Apple to allow more 3rd party multi-tasking. Maybe even make the leap to iPhone HD? (In a matt black finish?!)