In his interim blog This Is My Next, Topolsky says the next iPhone will look "radically" different from the iPhone 4. For one, it'll be even thinner than the iPhone 4, which isn't unfathomable thanks to a recent patent Apple obtained, and boast a "teardrop" shaped profile similar to the Macbook Air.
The home button area will expand to act as a gesture area to support gesturing features in a future iOS update, Topolsky writes. The display could go up to 3.7 inches (thus making the bezel almost disappear) without decreasing much in resolution, so Apple can still claim it uses Retina Display technology.
Topolsky also says he saw in a drawing that the iPhone will come with cable-free, touch charging, though his sources wouldn't confirm that.
Lastly, echoing Verizon CFO Fran Shammo's slip about a "global device" next-generation iPhone, Topolsky says the next iPhone could be the first to use Qualcomm's dual GSM/CDMA Gobi chipset.
In recent weeks we've seen several publications claim that Apple has been forced to delay production of the next-generation iPhone until September or October, meaning we may not see a new iPhone in stores until 2012.
Meanwhile Forbes reported last month that Apple will enable mobile payments by embedding near-field communications technology in the fifth-generation iPhone. There's another batch of reports claiming the fifth-generation iPhone will come with an 8-megapixel camera supplied by Sony.