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iPhone 4G almost certainly exists, video evidence surfaces

Mysterious bar-floor iPhone touched, caressed, plugged in

iPhone 4G almost certainly exists, video evidence surfaces
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Earlier this morning, we filled you in on the secrets of a mysterious device found on a San Jose bar floor.

Purportedly the latest iPhone, with 80GB of storage, a front-facing camera, and chunky aluminium design, everyone from technology pundits, internet sceptics, and quizzical news editors have been trying to determine if this thing is real, a hoax, or a fantastic slice of viral marketing from Apple.

Well, it looks like the floor-crawling finder has passed the device onto Gizmodo - giving it a hum dinger of a scoop - and the writers there are pretty certain it's a legitimate iPhone. For one, Daring Fireball's John Gruber has said that Apple did indeed lose a prototype phone, and it wants it back. Whoops.

Also, the phone hooks up to iTunes and acts just like an iPhone would, albeit with different product identifiers from the 3G or 3GS phones. And, if that wasn't enough proof, Gizmodo opened the whole thing up and peered at the components, many of which were labelled APPLE. They fit snugly, too, so this wasn't someone's 3GS crammed into a sardine tin.

So what's new? Gizmodo says the "Insert the USB cable" icon on screen was much higher resolution and quality than the current iPhones. Apple has apparently remotely killed the device so that's the only graphic Gizmodo has seen.

There's also a front-facing camera, and the back one is larger and sports a flash. There's a MicroSIM slot on the side, a second mic up top for noise cancellation, and the volume control is split into two separate buttons.

It features the glass or shiny plastic back for better mobile connectivity. Compared to the iPhone 3GS it has a slightly smaller screen, it's three grams heavier, but the battery is 16 per cent bigger.

Once again, take all of this with a handful of salt, but it's looking and more and more likely that Steve Jobs will pull a very similar device out of his Levi 501 Blue Jeans later this year.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer