This Is Apple's Next iPhone

An anonymous reader writes "There has been some speculation about it. Not anymore: 'This is 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.' Judging by Gizmodo's reaction, it looks like a winner."

Comments

Suuuure, it was "found"

[Rogerborg]

And they "got" it from whom? Directly from Larry Lightfingers, or via Frankie the Fence?

J'accuse: they're dealing in stolen property, and they know it, or should know it. But ethics be damned, because ZOMG IPHOAAAN!!!!11! Right?

Re:Suuuure, it was "found"

[martas]

either that, or this is yet another "accidental" leak by apple.

Re:Suuuure, it was "found"

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

In this case, it goes well beyond the "ethical vs. pragmatic" debate of the $500 wallet. Unless it is a very elaborate setup, $500 in bills is functionally untraceable. Your choice comes down merely to whether you would rather "do the right thing" or "have $500".

In this case, an Apple prototype cellphone is all kinds of traceable. It'll have an IMEI burned in and(since it was remotely disabled) has probably left a trail of tower contacts in the recent past. Now Gizmodo has put up a note on their web page saying "Yeah, we have it. Also we took it apart.". Receiving and harboring stolen goods is illegal in basically every state, and can be a federal crime for items $5k or greater that cross state lines. It is totally plausible that a prototype is worth more than five thousand. Depending on the numbers in which they are being produced, it might have even cost that much to manufacture and, being rare and coveted, is worth rather more.

I honestly don't know what Gizmodo is thinking. This isn't one of those "Oh, Apple's mean lawyers are hounding a bunch of harmless kids and their rumor sites again" situations. This is a "Gizmodo staffers have just published a public admission of having committed a state and/or federal crime(and not one of those minimally and largely civilly enforced ones, like DMCA violations and DRM circumvention tools)". One or more of them could easily go to prison.

Re:iPhone - NOT

[radicalskeptic]

If you'd actually read the article, you'd know why they consider it to be a next gen Apple phone (many parts inside branded APPLE, in a case designed to make it look like a 3G iPhone, behaves just like an iPhone when you connect it to a Mac, uses the Mac proprietary dock connector, etc, etc). Are you saying that everyone at Engadget had been fooled, or are you saying they are playing a late April Fools joke on us? Frankly I don't think either is very likely.

Gizmodo, yeah, right

[Bullfish]

Whether this is truly a new iPhone or not, Gizmodo's opinion doesn't count for much. They would adore Job's lunch kit if they found it in an alley

Apples Marketing Department

[affenhund]

Embarrassing, how the media got played to do advertisement for them. Goodbye, journalism.

Re:Apples Marketing Department

[Have Blue]

Did you miss the runup to the iPad announcement? For months, the entire tech world was abuzz with rumors about the Apple tablet based solely on leaks, guesses, unofficial sources, and so on. Apple did not say a single word until late January and it was already one of the most anticipated electronic products in history. They are absolute masters at this because they've been cultivating it for years.

Re:FAIL!

[discord5]

With both engadget and Gizmodo getting their hands on the "next iPhone" in different bars in different cities, it is difficult to believe that somebody actually lost the phones. Either both engadget and Gizmodo got fooled or this is more a marketing campaign than lost phones. I would bet on latter.

"Oh hi you techreporters. I'll just be finishing my drink and then conveniently leaving my NEW FREAKIN' IPHONE 4 *cough* here for someone totally random to find."

What? It could happen...

Re:Reward

[DIplomatic]

From TFA: > So I called around, and I now believe this is an actual unit from Apple -- a unit Apple is very interested in getting back. If it's so important for Apple to get this phone back, I wonder why there's no reward...

How do you read the sentence a unit Apple is very interested in getting back. and NOT think Apple offered Gizmodo something in return for the phone? Information, maybe, if not direct money. I'm aware the sentence didn't contain the word "reward" but you can read between the lines.

Re:FAIL!

[Altus]

According the TFA the phone was functional before being remotely wiped by Apple. Certainly people do walk around with camouflaged, functional engineering samples during the testing cycle for new phones. I know employees at Nokia are often given pre-release hardware to try out both in the building (early testing) and outside the building (later in testing)

It really does sound like this is a real unit. It may have been leaked intentionally but that doesn't make it less relevant.

The only thing that makes me suspicious is that I cant find any report on what chip it is using. I would expect them to say something about that, even if all they said was that the processor didn't have any markings on it. I would think that would be one of the first things they would look at.

Re:FAIL!

[Abreu]

Considering how Gizmodo always squees over every little thing Apple makes, it seems specially suspicious

FindMyPhone Not Working?

[Wingsy]

If Apple (or someone employed by Apple) actually lost their prototype iPhone, why didn't they use the FindMyPhone feature to locate it and go get it back?

Re:FAIL!

[Mister Whirly]

Apple sure pulled the wool over your eyes. What, do you think after "accidentally" letting the phone fall into the hands of the press, Apple was going to act like it wanted it to happen? No, because that give them just enough plausible deniability so that folks like you will make statements like -

It doesn't sounds like marketing to me.

This is classic textbook Apple advertising of a new product. Next some specs will be leaked and posted online, and after sufficient time that anybody is interested can see them, Apple will start issuing takedown notices. Are all of you really not going to remember that Apple has done stuff like this in the past??

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me dozens of times, I'm an Apple customer."

Re:iSick of it

[bonch]

We've had more iPad news in the last weeks than Linux news in the last months.

Um...no, we haven't. In fact, there's barely been any iPad news. Meanwhile, there was a story about Linux not attracting young developers, an analysis of Linux's shared kernel memory, GPL compliance checking in embedded software, how Android's Linux changes will make it back to the main source tree, how the WePad tablet will use Linux, etc.

I get that Apple competitors post here and are trying to drum up some lame anti-Apple sentiment, but lying will get you nowhere.

Re:FAIL!

[Anonymusing]

Apple is clearly no longer the leader. This phone is their admission of that fact. They hope packaging will save them.

Apple was never the leader in features or chipsets. However, they are the leaders in packaging, marketing, and UI (the latter being disputable by some folks, especially on Slashdot). And those things translate into mindshare and sales.