4.7- and 5.5-inch iPhone 6, sapphire glass iWatch, NFC payments confirmed by new report

We’re just a few days away from Apple’s special iPhone 6 event on September 9, and right on schedule the New York Times has published a detailed exposé — most likely leaked directly by the highest echelons of Apple — of everything that we can expect. We now have almost-certain confirmation that the iPhone 6 will come in two flavors — a 4.7-inch model, and a 5.5-inch phablety monster. Furthermore, Apple will also reveal its first new product since Tim Cook took the helm from Steve Jobs three years ago: the iWatch. Curiously, it sounds like the iWatch will also come in two different sizes. Near-field communication (NFC) will be available in both the iPhone 6 and iWatch, and Apple will announce partnerships with Amex, Visa, and MasterCard, allowing the Cupertino company to finally wade into the mobile payments/digital wallet arena. The iWatch will have a sapphire glass front, but the iPhone 6 might not.

At roughly the same time every year, Apple performs an unofficial official leak to one of the big US newspapers. Historically it has usually been the Wall Street Journal, but this year it’sthe New York Times. This unofficial “pre-release” from Apple usually serves as a tidy way to brush away some of the rumor mill’s more spurious predictions — and I’m sure the stock market likes it, too. In any case, while we can’t take the NYT’s story as hard fact, this is as good as it gets before Tim Cook and friends take to the stage of the Flint Center to officially unveil the new large-screen iPhone 6 and iWatch. The iPhone 6 is expected to be released a week or two after the September 9 event; the iWatch will probably open up for pre-orders, but won’t ship until 2015.