The NEW iPhone!

Apple has been the source of a number of very poorly kept secrets this year.  First, of course, was the iPad.  More recently, Apple announced a new version of the Macbook Pro line with Intel i5 and i7 processors.  (Mine is currently en route from Shanghai.)  We have come to expect the replacement of the iPhone to occur in the summer, usually in June.  While Apple has made no official announcement to this effect, it seems likely that there will be some new hardware to complement the new iPhone OS 4.0 software which recently debuted. 

Thanks to a few too many beers, what appears to be a prototype of the next iPhone fell into the grubby paws of Gizmodo.  They proceded to disassemble the 3GS cowling covering the new device, and found underneath, well, the next iPhone:

Here's the low down:

What's new


• Front-facing video chat camera

• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)

• Camera flash

• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)

• Improved display. It's unclear if it's the 960x640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the "Connect to iTunes" screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.

• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack

• Split buttons for volume

• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic



What's changed

• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound

• An aluminum border going completely around the outside

• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)

• Everything is more squared off

• 3 grams heavier

• 16% Larger battery

• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

Pretty cool.  Reason enough to pass on trading my 3G on a 3GS. 

We're all hoping the Apple engineer who left this precious thing in the bar won't get fired over it.