The Next Generation iPhone

As many of you might know Gizmodo, a Gawker Media owned blog recently acquired what appeared to be the next generation iPhone. When I use the term acquired I really mean paid $5,000 to get their hands on the device. This particular iPhone was left at a bar near Apple’s campus back in March. Being the good samaritan he is, the person that found the phone tried twice to no avail to return the phone to Apple (sounds like a system fail to me). The individual then sold the device to Gizmodo.

They tore apart the phone and worked tirelessly to confirm it was a legitimate Apple piece. Gizmodo indeed deemed that this was in fact made by Apple deducting that it was more than likely the next generation iPhone. After making sure they had their ducks in a row they blasted it out on Gizmodo and every other Gawker media blog ensuring their readers knew about it as well. The news picked it up, and before you knew it, all Gawker servers could not handle the amount of traffic they were receiving. They were forced to turn off comments.

Apple contacted Gizmodo and requested that what belonged to them be returned. Gizmodo said they would be happy to return the device as long as they had a written request (essentially confirming in black and white that this was an Apple device). Apple sent a written request which of course Gizmodo posted. That folks, is the story of how we got a glimpse of the new iPhone.

The Next Generation iPhone

Below is what Gizmodo posted as to their findings of what’s new and what’s changed:

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 960×640 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), 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