Engadget’s quite confident they’ve got pics of what could be the next gen iPhone. I had some initial doubts, assuming Apple would have had them yanked and given the unexpected, but not unattractive, seams/gaps. But both elements can be explained away… Apple may not want to show their hand by having their legal staff write letters and word on the street is that this could be a hand-milled prototype.
As handsome as the device is, real or otherwise, the way it’s played out in the blogosphere has been unusual… in seeing Engadget’s original post revised a number of times and word that the “owner” has been shopping around a hands on for $10,000. Assuming this is a legit iPhone HD prototype, paying for info could open a legal can of worms. Dependent on who possesses the phone and how it was acquired. Also, unexpected is Gizmodo’s radio silence on the matter. Are they making a play at the device, do they believe it’s fake, or do they fear being frozen out of a review unit? Curiouser and curiouser.
We rarely speculate on rumors here and I don’t have the Apple sources Engadget and Gruber do. So, I’d rather focus on the sorts of iPhone enhancements it would take to get us to upgrade or switch carriers.