iPhone 5 release date rumors are swirling again as a new report says an AT&T vice president has confirmed plans to launch the phone in early October.

On Friday, a post from Boy Genius Report said one of its high-level AT&T sources had confirmed that a company vice president had told several employees the device would be out in early October. In addition, the executive told a group of managers to expect things to get busy during the next 35 to 50 days, asking them to prepare their teams accordingly.
Our own sources within Apple suggest the next two months are going to be extremely busy, but can’t be more specific.
The device’s release date has been the subject of much anticipation on the web lately, with alternate reports fluctuating between September and October as possible time frames for the launch. At the beginning of this month, All Things Digital said the next generation iPhone would come out in October. But just last week, a report from a Japanese website indicated the device would be released in September, during a rumored Apple media event. Meanwhile, during his company’s last earnings call, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said he expected the phone out in the fall.
In the past, newer versions of the iPhone have typically been released during Apple’s summer Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). But that didn’t happen this year, following the release of the Verizon iPhone 4 in February.

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The group messaging battle just heated up with the announcement Sunday that Skype has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire GroupMe, a group messaging service that will enhance Skype’s ability to facilitate text and photo messaging.
With this acquisition, Skype said in a press release that GroupMe will provide “best-in-class text-based communications and innovative features that enable users to connect, share locations and photos and make plans with their closest ties.”
Given the hyper-competitive backdrop of this booming group messaging field, it’s no surprise that Skype’s CEO Tony Bates told The Wall Street Journal about how important he thinks the mobile group messaging space is to his company. That’s evidenced by the multiple deals in that space taking in the past year, including Google’s purchase of group messaging company Slide in August of last year, Facebook’s rollout of its Group Chat capabilities after it acquired group messaging app Beluga in March of this year, and Apple’s June announcement of iMessage in iOS 5 that’s also capable of group messaging.
Even though Skype agreed in May to sell itself to Microsoft for $8.5 billion, that transaction has not been completed yet. Skype’s CEO didn’t specify the terms of the agreement between Skype and GroupMe, which is expected to close on Monday.