You have to remember that only that gold-plated portion in the middle of your SIM card is actually serving any kind of real purpose. That’s the only part that gets you connected to your carrier, identifying your device to the network. It only makes sense that we should get rid of as much of the surrounding fodder as possible.

What we see here are the nanoSIMs that will be sold by Canadian carriers Rogers Wireless and Fido. They’ll both support the fast 4G LTE network, giving iPhone 5 users the ability to best utilize the “ultrafast wireless” in their new handset. The nanoSIM itself measures a measly 8.8 x 12.3mm, making it that much easier to drop and lose. Thankfully, it’ll stay safely stowed away inside your phone most of the time anyway. The other good news is that your new nanoSIM will be included with your iPhone 5 contract price. Interestingly, someone has commented that Telus is charging ten bucks for their nanoSIM.

The expectation is that future smartphones will likely adopt the nanoSIM standard too. That little bit of extra space can accommodate other more useful bits, like wireless radios, memory and bigger batteries.

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Apple’s newest iPhone announcement is coming, and soon. With less than a day before the announcement we are bound to hear lots of last minute rumors or bits of news that potentially confirm some of the things we already know about the new devices coming tomorrow.

As far as confirming features goes, it seems that Vodafone Germany has just received stock of new non-SIM cards that will be shipped out to early iPhone 5 adopters. The image above shows the nano-SIM that is expected to hit with the iPhone 5.

Being that Germany already has the nano-SIM cards ready to go, it’s more than possible that the iPhone 5 will launch in several countries on the same day as the U.S. This isn’t that surprising of a move, if it turns out to be true.

Which countries could possibly launch the same day as the U.S.? While it’s all guessing and speculation, I’d put the UK, Germany and Canada at the top of the list for countries most likely to get the iPhone 5 the same day, or VERY shortly after the United States gets it. What do you think?

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The post Vodafone nano-SIMs Are Now In Stock, Prepping for the iPhone 5 Launch appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Realistically, all that extra plastic in a regular SIM card (mini-SIM) doesn’t do anything but take up space. That’s why Apple moved to the micro-SIM for its current line of iPhones, but even that isn’t small enough. Now, the nano-SIM has been confirmed and it’s 40% smaller than the micro-SIM.

The picture here shows the prototype from Apple. The nano-SIM is pretty much just the gold-plated connector portion and all that white plastic around it is how big a regular mini-SIM would be in comparison. And this standardized design has been adopted by the European Telecommunications Institute (ETSI). The nano-SIM measures just 12.3mm by 8.8mm and just 0.67mm thick. The “pop-out” design here would make these new SIMs more easily backwards compatible with other devices, in case that’s how the carriers wanted to go about doing things.

One difference between the Apple-submitted design and the one backed by RIM/Motorola is that the latter had “an extra notch to enable so-called ‘push-push’ mechanisms in SIM slots that wouldn’t necessitate a tray.” I like that idea, but it appears that Apple’s non push-push design was the winner.

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