Scandal
It’s difficult to talk about the fourth generation iPhone without mentioning the legal standoff between Gawker and Apple. (More on Techland: 4th Gen iPhone Found In Redwood City Bar, Supposedly)
News quickly spread in mid-April that a prototype of Apple’s fourth generation iPhone had gone missing. AOL’s Engadget was the first to publish images of the device with Gizmodo following suit days after. Leaked images are nothing new, but these were different, these were taken with a real camera and not a cell phone. In other words, the next generation iPhone was in the hands of someone who had either stolen it or found it. (More on Techland: The Story and Aftermath of the lost iPhone)
Turns out, Gizmodo had purchased the prototype iPhone from 21-year-old Brian J. Hogan for $5,000. It’s unclear whether or not Hogan found it or stole it out of an Apple engineer’s bag at a bar in Redwood City, CA, on March 18. Many expected Apple to issue a cease and desist within minutes of Gizmodo’s hands-on story being published but it never came. Apple’s general counsel sent a letter to Gizmodo Editorial Director Brian Lam asking for the device to be returned to its rightful owner. What transpired after is anyone’s guess but a week later police raided the home of Gizmodo Editor Jason Chen. According to Chen, everything from business cards to cameras to computers were confiscated in the raid. Little else is known. Jobs discussed what little he could about the situation at D8 last week.
Surface level repercussions are slowly starting to bubble up on the surface. When it became apparent that Apple PR was making phone calls to invite press to this year’s WWDC keynote, Gizmodo reached out to no avail. Here’s what Lam said in a blog post this past Friday, “It’s no surprise: Apple has not responded to our requests to attend the WWDC keynote on Monday at 10am PST.”
Hardware
Prototypes of the purported next generation iPhone have been showing up in Vietnam and elsewhere the last few weeks. All of the devices have been remotely wiped or running diagnostic software. Software aside, we know a few things about the next gen iPhone hardware based on teardowns of prototype devices.
• Apple’s A4 processor, currently only available in the iPad(review), has been found in prototype iPhones
• Front facing camera (no word on how this will work, most likely Wi-Fi for video chats)
• Rear camera flash
• ~16 percent larger battery than the iPhone 3GS (5.25 WHr at 3.7V)
• Physical dimensions are approximate 4.50 x 2.31 x 0.37 inches
• Micro-SIM
• 16GB model confirmed, no word on other capacities
• 960×640 LCD
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AAnUHePbe4]
Not much more is known aside from the drastic outer appearance of the new iPhone. Rather than a tapered back, the upcoming iPhone has a flat back. It also has individual buttons for things like volume up/down as opposed to rocker buttons. A white version has surfaced but unlike previous generation white iPhones, the façade of the new one will also be color matched to the back. The screen is said to be slightly smaller than previous gens but “improved.”