The story first broke late last week, when Engadget posted a few photos of a phone that had supposedly been found on the floor of a San Jose bar. It was disguised to look like an iPhone 3G, but underneath the case was a prototype that looked very much like it could be the long-rumored iPhone 4G (or iPhone HD, depending on who you believe). Somewhere, Steve Jobs was throwing a fit (and an Apple employee was getting very, very fired).
Today, well-respected tech blog Gizmodo has come out and said that the phone is definitely the next iPhone. How do they know? They have the phone. Gizmodo reportedly paid $10,000 for the phone (a move that has appeared to pay for itself based on the number of hits the blog has received today, not to mention the geek cred the post has garnered). In a video posted on the site, Gizmodo’s Jason Chen shows off the phone’s new shape and buttons. He can’t turn it on, though, as the phone has apparently been shut down from a remote location.
(Photo via Gizmodo.com)
iPhone 4G Specs
So how does the supposed iPhone 4G stack up against the most recent versions of the iPhone (the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3Gs)? There are a number of new features:
- New materials. The 3G and 3GS are mostly plastic and feature a chrome rim around the display. THe 4G, on the other hand, has an aluminum border around the outside (along the lines of the newest MacBook Pro models) and the back is made of either ceramic or a shiny new plastic.
- Different shape. The 3G and 3GS have rounded backplates, whereas the 4G is perfectly flat on both sides.
- Different buttons. Most of the buttons on the 4G are metallic. The volume buttons are now seaparate.
- Improved camera. The iPhone 4G’s camera lens is bigger. It also has a camera flash now.
- New front-facing camera. This is a biggie, since it will allow iPhone users the ability to video chat with each other.
- Larger battery. The folks at Gizmodo opened up the phone and discovered that most of the inner-workings are smalled than the 3G and 3GS, which allows for the phone to have a larger battery.
- Slightly smaller screen. Despite the decrease in screen size, the iPhone 4G will probably have better resolution than the previous iPhones.
- New SIM stuff. The iPhone 4G uses micro-SIM rather than standard SIM cards. Also, the SIM tray is now on the side of the phone.
- Second microphone. The new microphone is located at the top of the phone and Gizmodo speculates that it will be used for noise cancellation.
Update: It appears Gray Powell is the unlucky Apple developer who left his iPhone in the bar.
