Gadget blog says it obtained next-generation iPhone

Technology blogs were buzzing on Monday after gadget site Gizmodo published pictures of what it said was Apple's next iPhone.

Gizmodo said the next-generation iPhone was found "lost in a bar in Redwood City" near Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, and turned over to the popular website.

Gizmodo said the phone was disguised as the previous iPhone model, the iPhone 3GS, which came out last year.

"We get false tips all the time," Gizmodo's Jason Chen wrote in a blog post.

"But after playing with it for about a week... there is so much evidence stacked in its favor that there's very little possibility that it's a fake," Chen said. "In fact, the possibility is almost none.

"We got it. We disassembled it. It's the real thing," he said.

Chen said new features of the phone include a front-facing video camera for video chat, a camera flash and an improved regular camera with a larger lens.

He said it uses a micro-SIM card instead of a standard SIM card.

Chen said the phone has a slightly smaller screen than the last iPhone, a flat back instead of curved back, is thinner than the 3GS, three grams heavier and has a battery that is 16 percent larger.

Apple is notoriously secretive about its products, refusing to divulge details about them until they are publicly unveiled.

Technology blogger John Gruber said in a post on his Daring Fireball blog that "it's been an open secret to those of us in the racket that Gizmodo purchased this unit about a week ago, from those who claimed to find it.

"I called around, and I now believe this is an actual unit from Apple -- a unit Apple is very interested in getting back," Gruber said. "It is my understanding that Apple considers this unit stolen, not lost."

(c) 2010 AFP