Confirmed next-gen Apple iPhone seen in person, disassembled - Page 5

What more do you need given that the Gizmodo passage you quoted clearly states that, "According to the person who found it, this iPhone was running iPhone OS 4.0 before the iPhone 4.0 announcement"

The 'device' has pretty much been proven to be of Apple design, so I'm prepared to accept that the 'finder' is being honest.

If you're not... Oh Well

Believe me, the axe has fallen on the offending employees neck already. I imagine that Steve himself has tried to get that phone back if it's real. This could be the biggest blunder or scoop if it's a prototype. I have to admit that I would have asked if there was a reward for it's return before posting pictures online...

The story behind it - by which I take it you mean how the phone came to our attention - is odd, I agree. But I wonder why you believe this phone does not have Ive's signature? Like you say, you must study it to know it and yet by looking at a couple of pretty low quality images you know it? Given that this may not be a final product I think it is too early to say. Why I mentioned technical requirements was that you you unfairly limit what in your eyes constitute Ive design. Technical limitations inform design so must be a factor in evaluating the design. Be that as it may, I still wonder how you define Ive's signature design traits.

we will have to wait to see if it passes colbert's salsa test.

Can the Gizmodo guys let us know what it is running. Is it running the A4 like many believe it will?

Exactly!

Mmm? Salsa...

or, maybe they're just having fun watching all the hub-bub and speculation that this caused. It certainly makes for a more interesting Monday.

No Verizon this year.

So I'm almost positive, when Jobs reveals the phone in the summer, he will make mention of this little incident. haha

I don't think it is for competitors. I think it is part of a FUD campaign to freeze out people from going to competitors.


Apple sends stuff out all the times. As was noted, this is clearly disguised. It feels very much like an intentional drop.


It isn't a leak. Apple knows that HTC Droid Incredible with Android 2.1 and Sense is dropping in a couple days. The specs and review on it are going to be insanely good. This is trying to kill that buzz.


There ya go. Hasn't anyone here wandered out of the Apple-verse and noted the HTC Droid Incredible? It is going to be awesome. It makes the Nexus One look so bad in comparison that it is embarassing. The preview pages are already out for it on Verizon and the specs on it are so good stock folks should be downgrading Motorola.


Cases against are no reveal on the frequencies operating on or the CPU and I'll even say the "remote kill." Clearly it is possible to run an iPhone without iTunes for long periods of time. They could have simply charged it off a wall charger, gotten lots more info, etc before plugging it into iTunes. This thing absolutely feels like a planned and coordinated drop to freeze a million folks running over to Verizon and grabbing Incredibles with $350 ETF's. If Apple is dropping this in July as with past phones, that is just after Mom and Dad's day so seeing it, Mom and Dad might want to wait. I bet Verizon has a couple million folks coming off contract with those two holidays passing. There will be all sorts of Env2, Dare owners and even frustrated Storm 1 owners look for something new. Apple needs to freeze them for a couple months off contract and keep them from buying the HTC Droid Incredible.


Again to me this is a straight up FUD campaign. Apple knows it has to generate large numbers for initial sales to claim continued momentum. Even sales of 100k for the first week of Droid Incredible means there are 100k fewer people to buy an iPhone and thus have lower initial sales be used to pedal a narrative of declining Apple influence and lead.

I said:


There is no contrary to my statement. In fact it reinforced my statement that no one saw the device fully working. Only he said.

Do you really believe that this phone was found in a bar?! Do you really believe that someone who found a secret iPhone prototype with unannounced OS would play with it without taking tons of pictures and videos? This guy story is fishy.

Here is a picture from February posted in a tweet. The person who post it said he got it from a chinese tweet. Furthermore, John Gruber states that Apple considers the unit stolen.

Seems like you understand at least part of your own post.

So, umm, you have the theft report that you yourself state would tell us otherwise?

No? I suppse you don't.

Thanks for trying.

Keep hope alive. They only lost the GSM version. Maybe the CDMA version is still in experimental use. Let's hope someone misplaces that one.

Here's a thought:

Let's rewind the clock a couple weeks to Steve & Eric's little curb-side cafe chat. It's not clear which said it, but what was overheard was, "They're going to see it eventually so who cares how they get it." Perhaps they were talking about their respective phones, and Steve's intentions for a controlled product leak? As people here have said in previous posts, it is highly unlikely a new iPhone would be carried around in the wild outside Apple's notoriously tight security restrictions. Something such as an iPhone prototype simply wouldn't escape them unless they wanted it to, and on their terms. Considering all the leaked images in years past coming from the Chinese manufacturers, why wouldn't Apple seek to cut them off at the pass this time around? Especially when they know all the tech blogs report on leaked images at the near speed of light. Sounds like devious and ingenious marketing to me.

He demanded to meet with Mr. Jobs on a public place so that he could not use his Zen powers to throw chairs against him :-)

Google it

Just because it's a leak (planned or unplanned) and just because it is a real Apple device (as everyone assumes it is)... doesn't mean that this is the next iPhone!.

I suspect that Apple has several alternative designs of new products, showing different esthetics and features. At some point, in the development process they have to actually make a few "real" models to see how they look and feel.

This could be the real thing, an also ran, or a red herring!

.

That's an awesome looking phone. If that's for real then I'm trashing my Blackberry for one of those.

It's all possible when one takes into consideration that there are legions of people out there that simply don't care about these matters, or even know what a phone OS even is, and actually find that fact that a mere phone would be so shrouded in all this nonsensical secrecy.

Possible Scenario: The individual might not have even realized what he/she had in their possession until a more 'tech savvy' friend/associate/acquaintance informed them, and then they decided to sell it to the highest bidder.

The thing that makes me suspicious is the fact that the back has Apple written all over it. If this was a prototype being tested by some select individual and Apple did NOT want anyone to know, why advertise its existence on its back. So either it was an intentional drop or someone's having a riot, right now (read: fake). The other thing that makes me suspicious is that apparently the person who found it claimed it was running OS4 before Apple remotely wiped it. It would seem unlikely that whoever had it did not have a password lock on it.

So yer kinda funny. Dense but funny. Almost a pity to have to ignore you now. Oh well.

I believe that this is a carefully orchestrated publicity stunt, designed to lead the tech media on a wild goose chase.

Those Apple guys are crafty.

Apparently, Giz paid that "reward".

What I don't buy is the shady "found in a bar" story. I think this iPhone prototype was lifted, and if that's true, then Giz is in possession of stolen property.

My loss, I am sure.

hey, I lost a phone at a bar...anyone seen one? I wonder if Giz called me at home and I missed the call. Damn thieves.

because if you release all the info all at once, who's going to come back for more tomorrow? and the day after that. and the day after that....

If this were real, I would have expected to hear a lot more details about what they found when they "took it apart".
Blank (secret) chips?... Branded chips? (Apple A4?, Samsung?, etc)

Any rumor-mill poster worth listening to would have had WAY more information to share after disassembling that thing.

I read 80GB somewhere. How does that happen?... if it's flash memory, it'd have to be a factor of 2 to make any sense.

Interesting... but hardly "rock-solid" at this point.

why isnt there a picture with it on????

If this is the real thing and it was taken off the Apple property without permission, it is stealing. All Apple has to do is say so.

If that were the case, the person buying the declared 'stolen' property best get a lawyer. Surely, the folks a Gizmodo are well aware of Apple's position on 'trade secrets'. As such, it would have been prudent to check with Apple immediately after acquiring the item.

Not that Gizmodo would ever be found guilty, but the process of someone coming in off the street and saying, "Look, I just found this on a bar floor. Give me a couple of bucks and it is yours," could be as suspicious as someone saying, Gizmodo hired hired somebody to steal it in the first place.

As we see here, there are a lot of opinions on whether it is real, stolen, planted, lost, etc. Surely, anybody that has any ethics at all would inquire which was the case before they sold or bought it. But hey, this is the age of the internet. And as we know, unfortunately ethics went out the window a long time ago.

Besides quashing interest in competitive releases like the HTC Droid Incredible, I have no real answer to your question. I'm not privy to Apple's marketing strategy but as a veteran of Madison Avenue I recognize the hallmarks of a controlled leak. The incident is too contrived to make it accidental or coincidental.

I don't want to get into the story of real or not real. But what ever it is it does match Apple's current design style. They are going for very industrial look. new iMac and ipad are the latest designs, and they are pretty close to this iPhone.

They sure released a lot of info at once, especially after sitting on it for an entire week. The only thing they didn't release are the parts that prove this is from Apple.


Check out Intel's SSDs. Just think back to a decade ago when adding RAM to a PC. If you had 2x 32MB sticks and a 16MB stick you'd get 80MB yet each stick and each chip still conforms to a factor of 2. I'm not saying they will do that, but there is no law of computing tat prevents them from doing it an much evidence that it's possible.

Haha holy crap, this is real isn't it?

Gizmodo's pictures are a lot better and I gotta say, it's a slick looking piece of hardware. No border, all glass, and a flat glass or something back. The seams are a little :/ but perhaps the final model won't look like that. Either way, higher res display and better camera with flash. Count me in.

Don't care about the ffcamera but oh well, that and multi tasking can shut the world up.

stop thinking about it so much

Yes, if it was removed from Apple property then it was stolen. If it was found, it was found.

For The Curious - Here's The Original Craigslisting:

"So I did it again this last week, consumed way too much straight vodka within perhaps an hour. The party started at 7, I had to be removed by 10pm because I was biting/attacking/wanting/insulting people and in the process lost my employers iPhone 4G prototype model. It was lost at Fahrenheit Ultra Lounge & Restaurant downtown San Jose. The phone was hidden inside of an iPhone 3G case. The device has a front facing camera, 80GB of storage. The device, when found was probably running a newer version of iPhone OS but my employer bricked it remotely within a few hours. Pretty sure i'm going to lose my job over this so if you find the phone please email me. Thanks"

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/laf/1698812779.html

I don't think the date of the post lines up with what Gizmodo is saying happened

EDIT: re-read it, yeah it might line up, but posting about it a whole week later? Don't think so..

You just wanted to say "FUGLY"

Quite Possibly, but it was still interestingly funny -

Nope.
Been through the whole Giz thing.
There isn't one single thing shown, mentioned, or discussed that proves (or even strongly suggests) that this is an actual piece of Apple property. Not a single confirming picture; and only just a bunch of... "some dude said blah, blah, blah..."
That's it.

If it's real, Mr. Lam, then put up something, ANYTHING, that PROVES it.
I'm waiting. But until then; FAKE

...