It turns out that an unusual iPhone somebody left at a Redwood City bar last week just might be the next generation phone for Apple.
It was camouflaged to look like an iPhone 3GS.
Somehow the site Gizmodo got a hold of it, disassembled it and claims that it is the real deal. They call the next iPhone "drastically new and different." It is thinner, sleeker and has a plastic back.
Here's what Gizmo found:
- a front-facing video chat camera
- improved back-camera with a larger lens than the iPhone 3GS
- the camera has a flash
- Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM
- overall improved display. "It's unclear if it's the 960x460 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the Connect iTunes screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS."
- a secondary mic that appears to be there for noise cancellation
- split buttons for volume
- power, mute, and volume buttons are metallic
How the phone got in the bar and whether Apple planted it, is still to be determined.
U.S. & World
No matter what, it has given some interesting clues into what Jobs and company might be cooking up in Cupertino laboratory.