Industry sources tell the magazine that the device will feature a 960×640 pixel double-resolution display, enhanced with the same in-plane switching and fringe-field switching technology Apple used to improve viewing angle and readability in the iPad. The display panel itself is said to be 33 percent thinner than the one in its predecessors, presumably to allow for a larger battery.

Finally, the new iPhone is believed to run an A4 processor with 512MB of system RAM. In other words, it’s built with the same processor found in the iPad, but double the RAM. That would obviously make for an impressive smartphone, though it seems unlikely that Apple (AAPL) would outspec the iPad on that front so quickly after the latter’s debut.

Noticeably absent from the Digitimes report: Any mention of a front-facing camera for video chat. Odd, given what we’ve seen in the two prototype next-gen iPhones that have leaked to the wild.

In any event, Digitimes claims this iPhone will be announced on June 7 during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference and that Apple, in preparation for the launch, has placed an astonishingly large order for them with its manufacturing partner, Foxconn. The company has requested 4.5 million units for June and another 19.5 million for the rest of 2010, for a total of 24 million units.

[Image credit: Taoviet.nv]

Like Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle, the Plastic Logic Reader uses a highly legible black-and-white display technology developed by E Ink. And like the Kindle, it can be updated wirelessly. But unlike the Kindle, the Plastic Logic Reader includes touch-based markup and annotation features. It’s also about one-third the Kindle’s thickness and its screen is more than twice as large. It would appear, then, that Plastic Logic’s device will significantly raise the bar on electronic reading devices when it debuts in Jan. 2009, perhaps even beyond the reach of Amazon’s rumored Kindle 2.0.