Five rumors proven wrong by the iPhone 4S announcement

1. The next iPhone will be a radical departure

Remember all that talk about the iPhone 5 being a radical departure from the design of the iPhone 4? There was talk of a larger, edge-to-edge screen and even a tear drop shape. Considering that the iPhone 5 is still MIA, it's possible that all those things could eventually be true. But they weren't today. And those leaked iPhone 5 cases? Someone must have a lot of useless silicone floating around right now.

2. The next iPhone will be a Sprint exclusive

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sprint's faith in the next iPhone was so extensive that it reached a deal with Apple to purchase 30.5 million iPhones over the next few years. Some, however, took that news a bit further, and speculated that Sprint would get exclusive access to the next iPhone. It was a crazy rumor, and it didn't come to pass.

3. RIP iPod

Apple didn't just not kill the iPod. It also updated it, announcing both a new version of the iPod Nano and iPod Touch. Rest assured: The iPod is safe. For now, anyway.

4. Apple Assistant

Instead of calling the iPhone's new voice functionality the rumored "Assistant" Apple instead opted to call the feature Siri. That's a surprising move from Apple, which tends to rename its acquisitions.

5. The iPhone 5

Probably the biggest thing the rumor mill got wrong about today's announcements is the iPhone 5, which never actually materialized. While much speculation said that Apple was planning to release both the iPhone 4S and a more significantly-changed iPhone 5, Apple opted to simply go with the former. This left many people upset, as they had perhaps rightfully expected something a lot more significant than the iPhone 4S. But as perplexing as Apple's decisions were on Tuesday, the iPhone 4S is still a pretty big deal. It's not entirely revolutionary, but revolutionary is not something Apple has to be anymore.