Jason Chen reports for Gizmodo, “You are looking at Apple’s next iPhone. It was found lost in a bar in Redwood City, camouflaged to look like an iPhone 3GS. We got it. We disassembled it. It’s the real thing, and here are all the details. While Apple may tinker with the final packaging and design of the final phone, it’s clear that the features in this lost-and-found next-generation iPhone are drastically new and drastically different from what came before.”

Gizmodo: This is Apple’s next iPhone (sample video, see full article link below for more):

Direct link via YouTube here.

Among the new findings:
• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×460 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

Chen reports, “While we couldn’t get it past the connect to iTunes screen for the reasons listed earlier, the USB cable on that screen was so high quality that it was impossible to discern individual pixels. We can’t tell you the exact resolution of this next-generation iPhone, but it’s much higher than the current iPhone 3GS.”

Chen reports, “We’re as skeptical—if not more—than all of you. We get false tips all the time. But after playing with it for about a week—the overall quality feels exactly like a finished final Apple phone—and disassembling this unit, there is so much evidence stacked in its favor, that there’s very little possibility that it’s a fake. In fact, the possibility is almost none. Imagine someone having to use Apple components to design a functioning phone, from scratch, and then disseminating it to people around the world. Pretty much impossible… Apple-connected John Gruber—from Daring Fireball—says that Apple has indeed lost a prototype iPhone and they want it back.”

Full article, with more videos and many photos, including the camouflage case in which the unit was housed, here.

MacDailyNews Take: Our sympathies to whoever lost that 4G iPhone (unless it was Steve Jobs’ himself (doubtful for multiple reasons: bar, liver transplant, etc.)). Can you imagine finding Apple’s secret next-gen iPhone in a bar? Holy Jobs! If real, we can’t wait to see how Apple goes about “unveiling” their next-gen iPhone now.

One question, though: With the multiple mentions of the high-quality screen, why are all of the photos and videos only showing the unit off; why didn’t Gizmodo post at least some stills and video with the unit turned on?