Gizmodo snagged a prototype of what is almost certainly Apple’s next iteration of the iPhone, which an Apple software engineer lost at a bar. The site analyzed the phone and broke it down, but parent company Gawker may now face some legal hot water for trafficking in stolen property, having paid a thief $5,000 for the phone.

Here are the phone’s specs, according to Gizmodo:

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) 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

If Apple holds form on past iPhone releases, this sucker could be out within a couple months, and possibly on other networks than AT&T, including Verizon. Anyone want to pick this one up for something much, much less than $5,000?

How Apple Lost the Next iPhone [Gizmodo]

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