Hasta La Gadget!

Is this the iPhone 4G (or iPhone HD)? There’s no way to tell for sure, but these photos which made their way into our hands certainly do a convincing job of making us think that’s very much the case. Apparently the phone was found on the floor of a San Jose bar inside of an iPhone 3G case. Right now we don’t have a ton of info on the device in question, but we can tell you that it apparently has a front facing camera (!), 80GB of storage (weird, right?), and isn’t booting at this point (though it was previously, and running an OS that was decidedly new). It’s not clear if this is definitely a production model, or just a prototype that found its way into the world, but it’s certainly a compelling design, no matter how you look at it.

There may be a chance to get some more face-time with the handset, but we wanted to get these photos to you guys ASAP. Stay tuned, we’re working on more details as we type — for now, enjoy the gallery below!

Update: As a number of observant commenters and tipsters pointed out, this looks almost exactly like a Twitpic posted by TUDream on February 20th, which we’re throwing after the break if for whatever reason the source link goes down. It’s low-res, shows an indiscriminate bit of the inside, and some mysterious button / possible SIM slot in the middle of the other side. The mic holes on this pic seems to be larger, too.

Continue reading iPhone 4G: is this it?

iPhone 4G: is this it? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So Opera Mini for iPhone has proved to be kind of a big deal, and that HTML-laden beacon of hope is putting a twinkle in some other developers’ eyes. Take Skyfire, for instance. CEO Jeff Glueck posted this week a congratulations to the Opera team for its inclusion in the iTunes app store — a surprise to many, us included. He also explained that “this will certainly accelerate our strategy on iDevices,” and seeing as its only product is a mobile browser with Flash and Silverlight, Jeff certainly has our attention here. That said, we’re not exactly getting our hopes up, especially since the App Store’s rules have always forbidden any app from running a code interpreter and we don’t see how SkyFire can bypass that aspect of Flash and Silverlight entirely, even though it uses a server-side rendering model similar to Opera Mini’s. We’ll see what happens.

Skyfire boss on possible iPhone port: ‘stay tuned for news’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple dropped iPhone OS 4.0 on us last week in a big way, and we spent plenty of time breaking down and exploring the details. But, there are apparently a few gems left to be discovered, like dedicated support for in-car use — possibly even with an Apple-branded mount of some sort. When put into this mode the iPhone generates a simple menu that’s fed over video output (demonstrated after the break) while the handset becomes a remote control… which may or may not be a good idea as more and more states ban cellphone use of any kind while driving. The developer hooks for such functionality appear to be in the iPhone API and, while it’s all rumorsville at this point, Apple would be blind to not try and cash in on the auto integration market — even if it is a little late to the party.

Continue reading iPhone OS 4.0 paving way for Apple-branded car kit?

iPhone OS 4.0 paving way for Apple-branded car kit? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nobody likes getting lost, and nobody likes paying too much for a reheated lunch at a franchise restaurant when there’s a mouthwatering family joint hiding just around the corner. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s an app that solves those problems — quite a few of the things, as it turns out. We took a look at the top iPhone navigation choices in the App Store and narrowed it down to the five below, then threw in a no charge option for kicks, covering a range of prices from free to to upwards of $120 per year. As it turns out there’s a very tangible difference between the discount and the “premium” options here, but is that extra really worth it? Read on to find out.

Continue reading iPhone GPS navigation head-to-head review

iPhone GPS navigation head-to-head review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not quite at the height of Apple frenzy, but looking at the bell curve, we’re only a standard deviation or two from its zenith (we imagine the fever pitch will be in tandem with Saturday’s iPad launch, if history and human nature tells us anything). Of course, that doesn’t stop the rumor mill from amping up production, and so on with the show! First on the docket, remember last month’s discovery of multitasking comments in the iPhone SDK 3.2 beta? Well, Apple Insider’s apparently got it on word from its network of sources that OS 4.0 will in fact include multitasking, with app switching purportedly done by double-tapping the home button and selecting the appropriate active app icon. If you ask us, that sounds similar in function to command / tab switching, but the people claiming to be in the know liken it more to Expose for OS X.

Taking a step back to focus on the actual hardware for a moment, iPad in Canada is hearing that local Apple store employees have been told April 24th is a “black out period,” meaning no one is allowed to take that day off. That usually coincides with major product launch, and we did hear the international iPad debut would be late April, but Apple’s yet to make its non-US plans concrete. It is the last Saturday of the month, however, and perhaps it’ll coincide with the other countries as well. As always, none of this is confirmed and shouldn’t be taken as gospel in any way, shape, or form. We can’t stop you from getting your hopes up, but don’t blame us if those dreams get shattered by a sucker punch of reality.

Apple rumor twofer: Expose-like multitasking in iPhone OS 4.0, international iPad launch on April 24th originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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