Leaked photos reveal purported Apple iPhone prototype on T-Mobile
Leaked photos supposedly of a prototype iPhone indicate that Apple may be testing the smartphone on the T-Mobile USA network, a new report claims.
BGR published on Saturday a series of photos allegedly of a white iPhone prototype "with T-Mobile USA 3G bands." The device appears to be code-named as N94, just two numbers up from the Verizon iPhone 4, which was reportedly called N92.
According to the report, the prototype runs a test version of Apple's iOS that resembles that of another prototype discovered in a video earlier this week. The fact that the N94 device has Apple test apps scubas Radar and the company's employee directory app may also serve to substantiate its authenticity.
The front of the prototype looks "a little different" from recent leaked photos of the retail white iPhone 4. "Specifically, the proximity sensor has changed on the retail version," the report noted. On Friday, photos of an official retail white iPhone 4 from Vodafone U.K. emerged, though Vodafone has reportedly halted sales of the device until next week.
The lock screen of the prototype device contains the message: "Confidential and Proprietary. If Found, please contact +1 408?", but the rest of the number has been whited out in the photos.
The report goes on to speculate that Apple is "just testing the new T-Mobile-friendly radio with its current iPhone 4 hardware, possibly in preparation for integration in a future device. It?s also entirely possible the internals on this iPhone prototype are being disguised in an iPhone 4 shell, though we doubt it."
BGR has a consistent track record with regards to wireless carrier announcements, though some of its Apple-related predictions have been off.
AT&T announced last month a $39 billion deal to acquire T-Mobile USA from parent company Deutsche Telekom. A subsequent FAQ from T-Mobile suggested that the carrier would hold off on offering the iPhone until at least after the acquisition is completed in "approximately 12 months"
A T-Mobile FAQ regarding last month's announcement of AT&T's $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA explained that T-Mobile does not yet carry the iPhone and will remain independent for up to a year. According to one official at the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T faces a "steep climb" ahead of it to obtain approval for the deal, which would make AT&T the largest wireless provider in the U.S by a large margin.
Rival Sprint has officially spoken out in opposition of the acquisition, claiming it would "harm consumers and harm competition."
The iPhone 5 has been the subject of conflicting rumors recently. Several reports have suggested that Apple's so-called iPhone 5 will receive a faster processor and an upgraded camera with little to no changes to its form factor. The device is also reportedly scheduled for a fall release.
One report alleged yesterday that Apple's next iPhone will see a "major redesign" that would include a gesture-enabled home button, edge-to-edge screen and a "teardrop" shape. However, at least one publication is reporting that its own sources have declared the report untrue.
BGR published on Saturday a series of photos allegedly of a white iPhone prototype "with T-Mobile USA 3G bands." The device appears to be code-named as N94, just two numbers up from the Verizon iPhone 4, which was reportedly called N92.
According to the report, the prototype runs a test version of Apple's iOS that resembles that of another prototype discovered in a video earlier this week. The fact that the N94 device has Apple test apps scubas Radar and the company's employee directory app may also serve to substantiate its authenticity.
The front of the prototype looks "a little different" from recent leaked photos of the retail white iPhone 4. "Specifically, the proximity sensor has changed on the retail version," the report noted. On Friday, photos of an official retail white iPhone 4 from Vodafone U.K. emerged, though Vodafone has reportedly halted sales of the device until next week.
The lock screen of the prototype device contains the message: "Confidential and Proprietary. If Found, please contact +1 408?", but the rest of the number has been whited out in the photos.
The report goes on to speculate that Apple is "just testing the new T-Mobile-friendly radio with its current iPhone 4 hardware, possibly in preparation for integration in a future device. It?s also entirely possible the internals on this iPhone prototype are being disguised in an iPhone 4 shell, though we doubt it."
BGR has a consistent track record with regards to wireless carrier announcements, though some of its Apple-related predictions have been off.
AT&T announced last month a $39 billion deal to acquire T-Mobile USA from parent company Deutsche Telekom. A subsequent FAQ from T-Mobile suggested that the carrier would hold off on offering the iPhone until at least after the acquisition is completed in "approximately 12 months"
A T-Mobile FAQ regarding last month's announcement of AT&T's $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA explained that T-Mobile does not yet carry the iPhone and will remain independent for up to a year. According to one official at the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T faces a "steep climb" ahead of it to obtain approval for the deal, which would make AT&T the largest wireless provider in the U.S by a large margin.
Rival Sprint has officially spoken out in opposition of the acquisition, claiming it would "harm consumers and harm competition."
The iPhone 5 has been the subject of conflicting rumors recently. Several reports have suggested that Apple's so-called iPhone 5 will receive a faster processor and an upgraded camera with little to no changes to its form factor. The device is also reportedly scheduled for a fall release.
One report alleged yesterday that Apple's next iPhone will see a "major redesign" that would include a gesture-enabled home button, edge-to-edge screen and a "teardrop" shape. However, at least one publication is reporting that its own sources have declared the report untrue.
Comments
Or they're done on purpose to generate buzz.
well maybe june will come with an a5 based iphone 4s and the iphone 6 will be full redesign
and we still get our new phone in june makes much sense
why give devs a juiced phone now, if june isn't launch date, also if same "box" different innards
then we wouldn't get the typical "leaks"
Couldn’t they just change out the one unused radio and update the baseband and OS to reflect the change or does that 1700MHz (AWS) band need to be more separate from the other bands and have a different antenna design? I don’t know a technical reason so I can’t imagine Apple creating this phone solely for T-Mobile USA’s customers.
Note: Band, spectrum and radio are synonymous here.
PS: @ Josh Ong, this article isn’t showing up on the main page and the number of posts per article hasn’t updated for most of the day.
That white looks off to me. It looks more like the aftermarket panels though it could just be the photo or my display.
Looks like the white balance of the picture is off to me.
Looks real to me. I think there is no reason why T-Mobile shouldn't get the iPhone since AT&T lost exclusivity. I am hoping the next iPhone will be available on all carriers.
I suspect that Apple was testing a T-Mobile compat iphone before ATT ever tried to buy it out. Simply because there's no way they are going to be able to quickly change over all those towers or want to when LTE is the new game to be supporting.
Also, that photo is either legit or a very good photoshop. That 'switchboard' app is an Apple thing. I've seen it on the ipads and stuff they use in the stores. I actually asked a sales guy about it and said it was written by Apple for the stores use.
That white looks off to me. It looks more like the aftermarket panels though it could just be the photo or my display.
I have an aftermarket white iPhone 4 refit after a shattered front glass experience. I wondered if it was as white as intended.
Sitting next to our white ipad2 you can't tell the difference.
if true, i bet it won't do 4G. there's always something missing
But T-Mobile's "4G" is just HSPA+
Looks like the white balance of the picture is off to me.
You can see that the WB is off, but it looks really flat like it is painted. Even the normal stainless frame looks painted.
ATT advertised iPhone 3G as having speeds up to 1.4 mb/s, while the iPhone 3G was capable of 3.6 mb/s, but actual data download speeds were far less than 1 mb/s (and I believe less than half of ATT's stated limit).
iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 are both capable of 7.2 mb/s, but actual data download speeds for ATT iPhone subscribers since 2009 have been closer to 1.6 mb/s at most for most 3GS (and I believe close to that for iPhone 4).
Extrapolating from ATT's demonstrated data speeds for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4 models, and considering the technical limitations of the current roll out of ATT's HSPA+ network, it seems to me that ATT will continue to make no representations on iPhone data download speeds, that they will refer to their network as 4G, and that next generation ATT iPhone subscribers will be limited to data download speeds less than 7 mb/s.
Additionally, most ATT next generation iPhone subscribers may experience data download speeds far less than 7 mb/s due to network congestion, especially if next generation iPhone sales are as strong as iPhone 4 sales have been for ATT.
Insetad of alleging that ATT is willfully capping speeds on iphones running on its HSPA network and will do the same on their HSPA+ network, I will refer to what is actually occuring as rationing.
Rationing, is a product of excessive demand for limited resources, while capping is a product of purposeful deprivation of resources in the face of plenty of supply for actual demand, IMO.
To put this in perspective, iPhone 2 and 3 model ATT subscribers provided ATT with the money to build out HSPA with speeds up to 7.2 mb/s, but were rationed with data download speeds less than half of Apple's iPhone Data download capability of 3.6 mb/s.
iPhone 3GS and 4 model ATT subscribers provided ATT with the money to build out HSPA+ with speeds up to 21 mb/s, but were rationed with data download less than a quarter of Apple's iPhone 3GS and 4 model data download capability of 7.2 mb/s.
Next generation iPhone ATT subscribers will provide ATT with the money to build out first revolution LTE with data download speeds of up to 100 mb/s, but will be rationed with data download speeds less than a quarter of Apple's iPhone "5" capability of 21 mb/s.
A subsequent generation of iPhone ATT subscribers will provide ATT with the money to build out second revolution LTE with data download speeds of up to 200 mb/s, but will be rationed with data download speeds less that a quarter of Apple's iPhone "6" capability of 100 mb/s.
So on and so forth.
The thing about the photos that seems suspicious to me is that the white that obscures the phone numbers looks like it was done in the software rather than on the photo. If you were just trying to block out the number on the pictures, would you really bother to find a bluish white that would match the bluish tint of the rest of the display? It makes me think that they created that whole part of the picture at the same time.
It is definitely done after the photo was taken using photo editing software. There is no gradient, reflections or anti aliasing and it partially overlaps the bottom edge. They probably just used the eyedropper to select the same color, but absolutely not part of the display. The text, on the other hand, has the classic Xcode drop shadow, so that part looks authentic.
While the next version of the iPhone will support what ATT and T-Mobile call 4G (3GPP HSPA+), iPhone buyers should beware: since ATT began selling the iPhone 3G ATT has made NO warranties regarding iPhone data download speeds, that practice was continued with the iPhone 4, and that practice should be expected for the next generation iPhone even if it operates on what ATT refers to as a 4G network.
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1) I believe the term is guarantee, not warranty.
2) No carrier can guarantee that you'll get high data rates. There are too many factors involved. All they can do is guarantee their HW's capabilities. Take a car as an example. An automaker can guarantee your car an travel x-speed and a road can say cars can travel y-speed, but that doesn't mean that will possible to achieve in traffic.
Good. This proves At&T and T-Mobile merger will be approved. And T-Mobile customers will stop being left out of the iPhone bonanza.
I don't think it proves anything. If anything, I'd think the merger would lessen the need for a T-Mobile USA iPhone if the rumors of AT&T using them as a budget network while gutting their 1700MHz spectrum for more LTE bandwidth is true.
Good. This proves At&T and T-Mobile merger will be approved. And T-Mobile customers will stop being left out of the iPhone bonanza.