Yet Another iPhone Rumor: Engadget's Got a Tip from a Reader's Coworker's Friend

I Want To Believe... iPhone, originally uploaded by Pedro Aznar.

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Gizmo blog Engadget has got a wild tip that Apple's long-rumored phone will make its debut in August.

...proceed with caution. We have no confirmation here, but sometimes a tip is too juicy not to share, no matter how suspect it might be. A reader is reporting to us that a coworker's tech-unsavvy friend, who is regularly hired by Apple to do marketing photo shoots, was recently brought on to take some shots of "the sleekest, sexiest damn phone he's ever seen."

This one deserves a dumptruck-sized dose of skepticism (you'd think a company as secretive as Apple might have its own photographer, on payroll, for starters). In fact, the rumor is becoming a bit of a joke among the Apple faithful (see image, above). Dozens of media outlets, including Red Herring, have speculated about such a phone for more than a year now. The key questions remain the same:

-Will it have Wi-Fi?
-Will Apple partner with a carrier such as Verizon or Cingular? Or will it go it launch its own service by partnering with a so-called Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)?
-We can assume it will have iTunes... but will it be able to download music directly? Or will we have to continue synching our phones with a PC (a la Motorola's Rockr)?