Friday phone buzz: iPhone specs, BB Storm 2 pawed, Pre looking scarce

More leaked specs for the (supposed) new iPhone emerge, including a speedy new processor and an auto-focus camera. Also: The still unannounced BlackBerry Storm 2 gets the hands-on treatment, and good luck getting a Palm Pre on launch day.

Latest iPhone chatter
As expected, the steady drip of iPhone leaks is turning into a torrent as Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference looms just a couple of weeks away.

The very latest: a detailed post from Daring Fireball's John Gruber, a reliable rumormonger in the past, who claims that the new iPhone (according to "informed sources") will have a 600MHz processor under the hood, which should be about "1.5 times as fast" as the 400MHz processors on the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G. What's so special about a faster processor? Think much faster load times for iPhone apps, says Gruber—so fast that it'll "feel more like switching between apps and less like quitting/relaunching them," not to mention speedier Web browsing.

Gruber also predicts twice as much RAM (256MB, versus 128MB on the first two iPhones), a new camera with auto-focus and video recording (let's hope so), a digital compass (good for precisely determining the direction in which the iPhone is facing), and storage options of 16GB and 32GB for $199 and $299 (with two-year contracts, of course), respectively.

Finally, Gruber dismisses the possibility of a Mac tablet or iPhone "mini" getting unveiled at WWDC (slated to kick off on June 8), although he thinks a smaller iPhone could arrive "sooner rather than later."

BlackBerry Storm 2 comes up for air
Still no official, definitive word on an update to BlackBerry's first touchscreen smartphone (although RIM's CEO obliquely confirmed it earlier this month), but the team at Engadget managed to get its hands on what sure looks to be the Storm 2, complete with Verizon Wireless branding.

The biggest revelation about the (apparent) Storm 2? The clicky Storm touchscreen (which was essentially a big, spring-loaded button) is gone, replaced (according to Engadget) by a standard capacitive touchscreen (that is, one that responds to the slightest touch, a la the iPhone or the T-Mobile G1). Engadget also found a 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera, and noted that the new, "sleeker" adds "more heft" and, overall, feels "a wee bit higher end than the original." You can check out their hands-on video right here. [Image credit: Engadget]

Palm Pre shortages at Best Buy, Radio Shack?
Finally, it's looking like Palm CEO Dan Hesse wasn't kidding when he warned of a Pre shortage come the June 6 launch day. Spies for Boy Genius Report claim that Pre retailers Best Buy and Radio Shack are expecting only a handful of units—as in, like, fewer than five per store—for Day One. Indeed, a second BGR post notes that Best Buy might launch the Pre in two "phases," with phase one starting on June 6 and phase two slated for late July or early August, once supplies are replenished. Yikes.