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?
Why can’t someone lose a next gen iPod Touch? I really want to upgrade my 1st gen one.
Bollocks. Why would anyone, if they had found the “next iPhone” then proceed to make a youtube vid that only lasts 9 seconds? Drivel.
Fake. Period
What if this was all a huge media stunt? This is the first Apple product ever lost and found in the wild. Remember what happened to the guy in China that lost the 3GS prototype. Hmmm yeahhhh!!! Can’t wait for all the news coming from this….
@ Sarasota,
Put it on e-bay while it’s still worth more than what you paid and wait a year like everyone else.
Apple is the best gorilla marketer ever !!! Someone lost it in a bar?
Obviously a prototype. That thing looks like an ugly Samsung phone. No way is that the fine design. It has seams for crying out loud. Seams!!
and why is that video so short and dark?
I agree, I think it’s fake because the video is so brief.
But if it isn’t. The unemployment numbers just grew by 1.
Plenty of folks go to bars and not drink alcohol. But more likely Jobs would be found in a tony Palo Alto watering hole.
As for the “found” iPhone, I’m skeptical; doubt any would be allowed out of the lab.
If this is real, and Gizmodo’s case for its being real is solid, whoever lost it is probably now sweeping the floors of the Starbucks in Cupertino.
nomoremsbs: Apple is the best gorilla marketer ever !!!
Monkey boy dethroned!
If this thick, tasteless slab thing were a real iPhone, and not some super-ugly Chinese knock-off, they would turn the thing on once in a while and show what it’s running. But they don’t, because they can’t, because it ain’t running iPhone OS.
Do you people seriously believe this is the next iPhone? “We found it in a bar in Redwood City..?” Cmon!! This wreaks of media manipulation by Apple… This is a working prototype curveball – they are _not_ going with this design and deliberately leaked it (lost it in a bar) to start the iPhone 4G hype engine… and it’s working.
Long live Apple….
PS: if it is the true next gen iPhone, they guy/girl that lost it may never be heard from again…
I guess AA can add this to their check list to see if you are an alcoholic.
Have you ever lost an apple prototype device in a bar?
You may be an alcoholic!
It’s real, and you people are idiots. Go back to your Flat Earth Society meeting. And by the way, we did land on the moon. Sheesh.
I guess they forgot to turn on the “Find My iPhone” featue.
My vegan sources tell me it was a salad bar. They’re very popular in Redwood City.
Well in my state a person that founds something rhat is not his a keep it is call stealing.
I guess it’s real, and I want one baddly.
I also guess it was released intentionally… and giz said it was wiped remotely…
I must say this looks like a real good fake. I am starting to think it is real. Apple will rain down the law on leakers if this is real!
MacSoftwareList.com
To all the morons who didn’t bother to look at the actual Gizmodo article (Eamonn, X, gggggg, MacRaven, justme2, Rover, Dodger):
Do it, it addresses all your points and has more videos/photos.
Sheesh.
So this guy comes into a bar…..
If this is real and Gizmodo disassembled it, I see potential legal action for IP theft, destruction of private property, etc. Though I still wouldn’t want to be the guy/gal that lost it.
Real or not, would the people who say the video is short, please click on the original story link. There are longer videos on the Gizmodo site.