This is our take on the new iPhone HD/G4, leaked to the wild. Thanks, Gizmodo.

In the past couple of days, there have been tons of rumors swirling around about whether or not the device that Gizmodo found is an actual prototype of the next generation iPhone HD/G4. We have held off on publishing anything about this because we wanted to be sure that as much information as possible was gathered, so that we could make an informed guess as to the validity of the iDevice featured on www.Gizmodo.com.

Now, after the full story has been released, the bottom line is simple: This device is real.

While the outer shell may not be the same come shipping time in June/July, all of the internals have been investigated as well. With that being said, let’s jump into the actual story.

HOW IT WAS OBTAINED

This story starts in a place called “The Gourmet Haus Staudt”, a German ale house where software engineer Gray Powell frequents. Let’s meet the man who really ‘let the dogs out’.

Mr. Gray Powell is a graduate of North Carolina State University who according to Gizmodo.com is also a talented amateur photographer. Here, he can be seen enjoying one of those fine ale’s:

His specific job at Apple is to work on the baseband, which is the portion of the phone used to unlock the Apple devices from their official GSM carrier and allow the ability to have that device used on any GSM carrier of choice, worldwide. This baseband is also the tool that allows the iDevices to actually send and receive phone calls, so yeah, it’s a pretty big deal. Everything went down on March 18, 2010, while Mr. Powell was in the process of intently enjoying various and numerous servings of those fine imported ale’s in celebration of his 27^th birthday in the Redwood City area of California. Who can blame the man? Getting wasted on your birthday is simply a part of being a man, right? Right. But unfortunately, this is the night that his entire life had changed. Using this new iPhone prototype, Gray was seen updating his facebook page with this entry: “I underestimated how good German beer is”. That was the last facebook entry he would ever make using the field tested version of this iPhone prototype, which to the naked eye was disguised to look simply like an iPhone 3G[s]. At this time, it’s vaguely reported that Mr. Powell left his iDevice on the stool that he was sitting on to go to the bathroom, and then proceeded to leave the establishment to go home, with the iDevice slipping his mind, and being left behind.

APPLE’S PHALYNX

Now, anyone who knows the history of Apple knows that when this company decides to keep something hidden, which is just about everything they do in the field of research, development, prototyping, and the like, they have better security measures than most government agencies. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t doubt that Mr. Powell is under surveillance right now by ninja hitmen ready for him to venture off into a sparsely populated area. I kid, I kid, but I do have no doubt that he has been interviewed (no doubt, Jack Bauer style) by Apple’s internal security to see if he is a further risk to corporate security. I’d also bet that the company is keeping a close eye on him at the current time as well. But Apple is also known for keeping CIA-style secrecy constantly enforced as a business practice, and in this case, the “leak” was not malicious. It was a simple mistake by a man celebrating his birthday. It’s something that any man could and probably has done in the past. On Twitter, people have been making comments that Mr. Powell did it on purpose because they find it hard to believe that someone would just leave an iPhone behind in a bar. Now, from a personal observation, people do this ALL THE TIME. As a sidejob, I actually work as a security officer (*ahem* ‘bouncer’) in two New York City nightclubs which I alternate weekends with. I am telling you that with my own eyes, at least one smartphone is left behind each weekend. I’m not talking about the cheap little pre-paid cell phones, or the ‘lesser’ cell phones. I’m talking about Nexus One’s, G1’s, Blackberry Storms, iPhones, iPods, you name it, it’s been left behind. So I can’t blame the man for making an honest mistake. But apparently, people are doing just that.

Apple is in a catch 22. On one hand, this man has violated, in the worst way, everything that Apple had attempted to keep a secret. One of their best selling items had a prototype, and now everyone knows about what to expect. This is not a blurry, secret photo that was leaked. These are not random ‘rumors’ strategically released days before release about what will most likely be released on the new phone. This IS the new phone. Every detail has been released. More on that in a little bit. On the other hand, if Apple fires the man for making an honest mistake, ESPECIALLY after they got their prototype back, they will take a huge PR hit and look like a major douche. It will be interesting to see how they will play this one out.

THE ACQUISITION

Supposedly, there was an exchange of words between the man who ended up going home with the prototype, and a random inebriated man who pointed out the desolate iDevice about what went down, but I don’t believe it for a second. Why? Because as I stated earlier, I work in nightclubs. If there is a cellular phone that’s been left behind, especially one that’s worth a chunk of money, people will begin to circle that thing like sharks in a feeding frenzy. First they try to be inconspicuous, and take a seat or stand close to the device. Then, they will keep their eyes open to see if the owner comes back from the bathroom or a cigarette break, and when they don’t, they will watch the bartenders to make sure that they don’t get caught. While they are focusing on all of these things, they don’t realize that they are being watched by security and without fail, every time, they will move in for the kill with every intention of stealing the damned thing and making a quick getaway. Now, I can’t speak and say that’s exactly what happened in this specific situation, but I have seen that exact situation happen exactly as I described many times in my life. And frankly, that’s how I BELIEVE it REALLY went down.

From that point, the theif good citizen decided to play with the iDevice (to obtain contact information about the phones owner no doubt, so that he could return it. *cough*) and discovered that it was running a “new” operating system. Most likely, this was 4.0 before it was released to the developers. 007 claimed to have attempted playing with the camera app, but stated that it crashed a total of three times. He stated that he thought it was just an iPhone 3G[s]. Finally, supposedly thinking about returning the iDevice the next day, he left the establishment.

Little did he expect, the next morning when he woke up, he attempted to play with the iDevice and discovered that it had been remotely wiped/erased via MobileMe. Only then, after finally sobering up, did 007 realize that there was something different about this ‘iPhone’. He claimed that it felt different in his hand, and he noticed that there was a camera in the front of the phone, facing the user. At this point, 007 attempted to call Apple and find someone who would take him seriously, but all he got was transferred around like the hot potato, with nothing more than a ticket number for his time. He assumed that eventually his ticket number would move up high enough, but his phone never rang. You know, the one that he didn’t steal. It never rang. He apparently held onto the iDevice long enough because he didn’t want to turn it in to a young Apple employee who would probably turn around and sell it on eBay. Why use a middle man, when HE, the ‘finder’ could make the profits, right? See, he was a thinkin’ man…

Weeks later, Gizmodo received this iDevice, after paying between $5,000 – $10,000 for this iDevice. Hey, screw eBay when you could commit corporate espionage, right? The pay is better! Upon receipt of this device, Gizmodo called Apple and obtained the contact information for Gray Powell, and contacted him telling him that they had his device. Despite sounding strangely like a ransom call without the ransom demand, the iDevice was returned to Apple. BUT NOT WITHOUT BEING RIPPED APART AND EXAMINED, which takes us to…

THE BELLY OF THE BEAST

Now, all of the below photos are from the Gizmodo website. Here are a few:

Since they said it best when describing this phone, I will simply repeat what they have said. Regarding what is 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

And regarding what has been 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

You can catch a few videos of this iDevice over at www.Gizmodo.com, so its definitely worth taking a look.

ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END…..

To conclude this EPIC FAIL on Apple’s part, they more or less politely asked Gizmodo to return the iDevice back to Apple, pretty much confirming that this is in fact a legitimate prototype, ending the speculation. A copy of the correspondence that Apple sent Gizmodo can be seen here:

So in conclusion, I am pretty much certain that we caught a glimpse into the future when it comes to the iPhone HD/G4, and I don’t know how to feel about it. On one side of the token, I am impressed that so many new features were added, such as FINALLY adding a front-facing camera, which will undoubtedly allow video chat finally. While the battery is not much better, adding only a meager 16%, for iPhone 3G users who are upgrading they will be overjoyed because they never got the small 12% increased battery upgrade that came with the 3G[s] battery life, so in total, all iPhone 3G users who upgrade to the iPhone HD/G4 will experience a total of a 28% battery increase, which is pretty significant, I guess. On the other side of that same token, now we pretty much know all about the new iPhone, and there is no mystique left, no excitement about future Apple announcements, and in an odd way, I feel oddly cheated about that. Now, Steve Jobs has nothing new to reveal to us, no closing “bang!” comments to impress us with.

Ultimately, I guess we will just have to let this magical piece of hardware impress us with its function once it’s released. IF NOTHING ELSE, I hope that because of such a major leak, it gives Apple incentive to push the release date ahead so that we can get this tech goodness ASAP!

What are your thoughts on this? Feel free to sound off in the comments below, or DM me on Twitter @FEARtheSERVER