Why is Apple shipping items in boxes that are upside down? In the OP the box shows the ISO circle under the "label." Could this be because the faker needed a box that looked to be unopened so he took a box he already had and FLIPPED IT OVER to the already taped side? I believe so. Ive never seen an Apple box with the ISO circle on the top of the box.
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Australian Resellers Receive Mysterious Boxes
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Hiya Apple Marketing Folks. I know you're out there. I can hear you breathing. 
I was just thinking about Peaces speculation yesterday about this being underground marketing"...
Carenstation87s sudden appearance right before launch, reminds me of imLucids sudden appearance on the AppleTV take2 board just before launch. They both claim to be Apple insiders and both post very lucid, credible information about the product.
For an extra twist here, Baffles, shows up in a similar timeframe in the 3G cycle. He baffles and distracts us while he steers the discussion safely away from the actual product and onto a cardboard box . Nice job, sir. (There might have been a Baffle-esque persona in the appleTV board too, but to be honest I wasnt following that one closely and may have missed him - anyone remember?)
Oddly, Both imLucid and Carenstation87 (the truthful ones) speak with the same voice. Compare their style of posting.
So heres what I think:
Theyre marketing personas, designed to control and redirect pre-launch speculation.
Baffles plays bad-cop. His job is to baffle and distract us with fuzzy info and irrelevant discussions. He occupies us so we have no time to generate unrealistic (damaging?) product speculation.
The imLucid and Carenstation87 personas are the good guys. Yay! They're wheeled in when we throw Baffles overboard. Their job is to establish credibility by slowly drip-feeding us genuine info. Steer pre-launch buzz and, more importantly, quash unrealistic product expectations that might cause Mondays unveiling to fizzle. (What!!! Theres no BeamMeUpNowScotty button! MacRumours promised me one!! What a crap phone ) I like Carens melodramatic touches, btw: ...i have 8 minutes until the connection dies .... Very "Mission Impossible". Thrilling stuff!
So thats what I think this is all about. A bit of harmless marketing fun. Certainly Different.
And I apologize to the above named if Ive mischaracterized any of your roles. Just playing the game, you know.
I was just thinking about Peaces speculation yesterday about this being underground marketing"...
Carenstation87s sudden appearance right before launch, reminds me of imLucids sudden appearance on the AppleTV take2 board just before launch. They both claim to be Apple insiders and both post very lucid, credible information about the product.
For an extra twist here, Baffles, shows up in a similar timeframe in the 3G cycle. He baffles and distracts us while he steers the discussion safely away from the actual product and onto a cardboard box
. Nice job, sir. (There might have been a Baffle-esque persona in the appleTV board too, but to be honest I wasnt following that one closely and may have missed him - anyone remember?)Oddly, Both imLucid and Carenstation87 (the truthful ones) speak with the same voice. Compare their style of posting.
So heres what I think:
Theyre marketing personas, designed to control and redirect pre-launch speculation.
Baffles plays bad-cop. His job is to baffle and distract us with fuzzy info and irrelevant discussions. He occupies us so we have no time to generate unrealistic (damaging?) product speculation.
The imLucid and Carenstation87 personas are the good guys. Yay! They're wheeled in when we throw Baffles overboard. Their job is to establish credibility by slowly drip-feeding us genuine info. Steer pre-launch buzz and, more importantly, quash unrealistic product expectations that might cause Mondays unveiling to fizzle. (What!!! Theres no BeamMeUpNowScotty button! MacRumours promised me one!! What a crap phone
) I like Carens melodramatic touches, btw: ...i have 8 minutes until the connection dies .... Very "Mission Impossible". Thrilling stuff! So thats what I think this is all about. A bit of harmless marketing fun. Certainly Different.
And I apologize to the above named if Ive mischaracterized any of your roles. Just playing the game, you know.
I was just thinking about Peaces speculation yesterday about this being underground marketing"...
Carenstation87s sudden appearance right before launch, reminds me of imLucids sudden appearance on the AppleTV take2 board just before launch. They both claim to be Apple insiders and both post very lucid, credible information about the product.
For an extra twist here, Baffles, shows up in a similar timeframe in the 3G cycle. He baffles and distracts us while he steers the discussion safely away from the actual product and onto a cardboard box
Oddly, Both imLucid and Carenstation87 (the truthful ones) speak with the same voice. Compare their style of posting.
So heres what I think:
Theyre marketing personas, designed to control and redirect pre-launch speculation.
Baffles plays bad-cop. His job is to baffle and distract us with fuzzy info and irrelevant discussions. He occupies us so we have no time to generate unrealistic (damaging?) product speculation.
The imLucid and Carenstation87 personas are the good guys. Yay! They're wheeled in when we throw Baffles overboard. Their job is to establish credibility by slowly drip-feeding us genuine info. Steer pre-launch buzz and, more importantly, quash unrealistic product expectations that might cause Mondays unveiling to fizzle. (What!!! Theres no BeamMeUpNowScotty button! MacRumours promised me one!! What a crap phone
So thats what I think this is all about. A bit of harmless marketing fun. Certainly Different.
And I apologize to the above named if Ive mischaracterized any of your roles. Just playing the game, you know.
makes sense... If it's true.. very clever. I like.
Still, it could be all the same person. Caren's did say he had another account on here.
makes sense... If it's true.. very clever. I like.
Still, it could be all the same person. Caren's did say he had another account on here.
Indeed. Maybe caren and lucid are the same marketing person? That would explain the same 'voice'
I was just thinking about Peaces speculation yesterday about this being underground marketing"...
Carenstation87s sudden appearance right before launch, reminds me of imLucids sudden appearance on the AppleTV take2 board just before launch. They both claim to be Apple insiders and both post very lucid, credible information about the product.
For an extra twist here, Baffles, shows up in a similar timeframe in the 3G cycle. He baffles and distracts us while he steers the discussion safely away from the actual product and onto a cardboard box
Oddly, Both imLucid and Carenstation87 (the truthful ones) speak with the same voice. Compare their style of posting.
So heres what I think:
Theyre marketing personas, designed to control and redirect pre-launch speculation.
Baffles plays bad-cop. His job is to baffle and distract us with fuzzy info and irrelevant discussions. He occupies us so we have no time to generate unrealistic (damaging?) product speculation.
The imLucid and Carenstation87 personas are the good guys. Yay! They're wheeled in when we throw Baffles overboard. Their job is to establish credibility by slowly drip-feeding us genuine info. Steer pre-launch buzz and, more importantly, quash unrealistic product expectations that might cause Mondays unveiling to fizzle. (What!!! Theres no BeamMeUpNowScotty button! MacRumours promised me one!! What a crap phone
So thats what I think this is all about. A bit of harmless marketing fun. Certainly Different.
And I apologize to the above named if Ive mischaracterized any of your roles. Just playing the game, you know.
Very interesting. I agree totally. Imagine the let down if for example, there was no GPS? Apple is very innovative and ingenious and I agree they would be actively "steering" the rumors in the right direction. I think everything that Carenstation89 is correct, but I'm sure has purposely not let everything out of the bag, so there are still some surprises left for Monday.
HOLD ON .... 16GB was £329 when they still sold it here..
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/06/0...-colors-check-video-chatting-check-and-check/
hang on, its now changed to £374???? the site may just be messed up..
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/06/0...-colors-check-video-chatting-check-and-check/
hang on, its now changed to £374???? the site may just be messed up..
Delusions of grandeur would apply to you, my English buddy, for thinking that you have the absolute answer on the matter. You, with 100% certainty, know that this is a pile of crap, and you are a renegade on this site, bringing truth to the ignorant masses. That's very kind of you, The Omnipotent One from Hampshire...
I like this thread for the same reason I like Indiana Jones: It takes me away from the everyday monotony that is reality. Oh, but I happen to think that this may be true, just like their might be a G-d, in some form, but how the hell would I know...ya mean? I'll stick to Agnosticism, it gives me a way out...
Did anyone happen to notice at what time this morning Carenstation87 got banned?
Also, Arran's speculation sounds plausible and intriguing.
Also, Arran's speculation sounds plausible and intriguing.
Perhaps. But don't worry sassenach, you'll fit right in here
Welcome to the group. Anything else you'd like to share?
They're banned? Really? How does that happen?
And thanks. I really should be writing spy novels or something. Better money
Look back at their last post. Under their username is their site "ranking", and caren is banned. A mod finally caught up with this part of the thread, and having multiple accounts, which caren openly admitted, is cause for instant removal. It's in the forum rules.
Alright, i've heard enough of this Hoax business, so here's the deal. I am a sales manager in an Apple store in the United States and i can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that we also received boxes like this and they have been sitting "unopened" in the back of our stores for about 4 days now. The box you are seeing in the photo is enclosed in another box, that box is a plain brown box with only a shipping label. The photos are in fact real. We have had training guides and and documentation on the new iPhone for almost 3 weeks now. An Apple representative came and replaced our hard wired firmware erasers with new bases last week and installed a 3G AT&T base station in our store. The only reason such a tight lid has been kept on this is because Apple sent out a notice that any leaked information would result in instant termination. Let me give you an idea about what this new phone will be like.
Here is what I can without a doubt CONFIRM for you:
3G (Obvious)
Increased space: 16 and 32gb models.
Real GPS
Three colors : White, Black, and Red
Video Conferencing
New Firmware on the device (also obvious)
3.2 MP Camera (Camera APP also received an update with new features such as zoom, brightness control, resolution, etc...)
SMS App update (now includes MMS and Video messaging support)
Price drop: starts at 300
There are a few more cool things i'll let you wait for the keynote to find out about.....there are a few things no one is expecting.....
And oh.......not phone.....but phone's (more than one model)
Good Day
PS.
I am a regular on this site but created a new username and signed up through a proxy just for safety......hope you dont mind the spoilers.
I just had a thought and wonder if it has anything to do with the launch of a new 3G iPhone. Between all the subsidy info, etc, I began to think how this would work. AT&T is losing a lot of money by people buying iPhones and not activating them in the store (buying and selling unlocked).
I have been buying the refurb phones and recently bought a new one from my local AT&T store, unlocking them and making a fortune on ebay 250 a pop.
I have been going to this store locally for a while now and recognize all the regular employees, but last week when I stopped by to pick-up one of their last few 8Gb iPhones in stock the crew was completely different. There were two guys working on the computers like the tech people at my work. It looked like they were upgrading the computers with software or something of the kind. The third guy in the store was from the main corporate store he said. I didn't think anything of it, but now that this above post said they have updated the Apple store stuff a few weeks back I started to get curious. Do you think they are updating their computers to support activation of iPhones in the store so you have no choice to, but to activate it and give AT&T your money? For me it doesn't matter since I use AT&T.
Just some food for thought.
Like offering a date at the movies a "popcorn surprise"... ...using the jumbo-size box, of course!
I said it for the single Australian box and I'll say it for caren...
If you have the balls to tell us the specs, then you'd have the balls to post pictures confirming it.
FAKE.
If you have the balls to tell us the specs, then you'd have the balls to post pictures confirming it.
FAKE.
I hope they include a currency conversion app/widget then
Currency conversion? This is 2008! When I'm at the store I want to wave my phone over the bar code on the shelf or the package, and see the price in a currency of my choosing! Oh and sales tax added on automatically.
Thank you caren for all your info.... I actually believe you and am very excited to buy my first iPhone on the 16 !
Although, I kinda wish they kept the colors the same as now.... I love the black/silver but I am sure I'll love any iPhone.
Although, I kinda wish they kept the colors the same as now.... I love the black/silver but I am sure I'll love any iPhone.
Excuse me? I have delusions of grandeur? For commenting that *I* found this thread to be totally nonsense and a waste of *my* time? Who the hell are you? Where in my comment did I state that I make 100% confirmation that it's all BS? I'm a renegade? WTF? Omni-potent? We're all entitled to our own opinions on anything that appears on MR, I made mine, as I have that right, I do not however have the right to specifically 'out' a person and if you read my post you'll see I did no such thing...you on the other hand.......
Well, there has actually been many attempts at that, even as far back as the old "pocket PCs" from 5-10 years ago that they connected to a bar code reader for books and looked up prices at amazon over a serial-connection to a cellphone that was used as a dial-up modem. This was for the crazy garage sale people who bought books and sold them on ebay auctions and Amazon.
Obviously, more recently with camera phones and powerful processors, a digital picture can now decode the bar code. I believe there are aleady a few apps that do this on the market, and there is a particularly good implementation using Android which could easily be adapted to the iPhone. Apparently there is some free web service database on the internet of products and their associated decoded barcode numbers. This could be an awesome thing when you are looking around at a [insert your country's popular big-box electronics store] store and want to check out prices online at ebay/amazon/shopping.com/etc.
*edit: As far as the currency selection, that would be the simplest part to do with a currency converter web service. Sales tax could also easily be added in by the state you are shopping in (even out of your home state via GPS)
If there is no pay-as-you-go its jailbreaking for me again!
Steve, you have been warned!
No offense, but I don't think Steve cares what you do. I am pretty sure he will sell more than 10 million by the end of the year and will be quite satisfied. He is (apple is) sitting on almost 20 Billion in Surplus as well. Not bad, even though he was ruthless in getting there...
Engadget is claiming the unboxing of this so called '3G iPhone' a fake - you be the judge.
I concur with Engadget and call fake; simply because if you hold down the control button (^) and zoom in with your mouse to where the 'front facing camera' is - it seems as though someone used a circular paintbrush from Photoshop or spray can from Windows Paint in gray to lay in the camera. Also, upon further inspection - it seems as though there's an incredible amount of noise in that area.
Simply looks like a Colorware iPhone; clearly someone that has too much time on their hands to create a fake letter and put said items in a box.
Photo:
I concur with Engadget and call fake; simply because if you hold down the control button (^) and zoom in with your mouse to where the 'front facing camera' is - it seems as though someone used a circular paintbrush from Photoshop or spray can from Windows Paint in gray to lay in the camera. Also, upon further inspection - it seems as though there's an incredible amount of noise in that area.
Simply looks like a Colorware iPhone; clearly someone that has too much time on their hands to create a fake letter and put said items in a box.
Photo:
It is a paint brush of some kind. You can see the jaggies there, while other areas just have the usual amount of noise that a fake photo has.
Rings true!
I read the entire thread today.
There was a lot of white noise and disinformation, true!
But, I believe that the info carenstation87 provided is true...
...minor details like the NDA-labeled box being packaged within a nondescript box... that's exactly how it would be delivered, to prevent unwanted curiosity by the courier or someone on the receiving dock.
Carenstation87 gave a lot of info, but none of it was earthshaking, rather "good to hear" confirmation of existing suspicions and rumors.
The way Carenstation87 answered questions was also credible: without hesitation and concise.
Because Carenstation87 didn't or wouldn't post images does not, necessarily, disqualify him... image posting requires a URL and that can be easily traced.
Finally, Carenstation87 did not do an information dump, but added little details... and left some things to be discovered.
As some others have said, this may have just been creative marketing by Apple.
If so, all the more reason to believe the details provided.
I read the entire thread today.
There was a lot of white noise and disinformation, true!
But, I believe that the info carenstation87 provided is true...
...minor details like the NDA-labeled box being packaged within a nondescript box... that's exactly how it would be delivered, to prevent unwanted curiosity by the courier or someone on the receiving dock.
Carenstation87 gave a lot of info, but none of it was earthshaking, rather "good to hear" confirmation of existing suspicions and rumors.
The way Carenstation87 answered questions was also credible: without hesitation and concise.
Because Carenstation87 didn't or wouldn't post images does not, necessarily, disqualify him... image posting requires a URL and that can be easily traced.
Finally, Carenstation87 did not do an information dump, but added little details... and left some things to be discovered.
As some others have said, this may have just been creative marketing by Apple.
If so, all the more reason to believe the details provided.
To me, all his answers were best guess answers, nothing new, nothing that hasn't already been discussed. What's more is, nobody here can give him hell once WWDC is over, because, coincidently, he cannot come back here...... I just don't understand how people suddenly believe a 'nobody' who simply reiterated what has already been discussed, with no proof of who he is, what he does, or how he got the info. How is it more believable coming from this person than the many people who have discussed the same rumours here for a while now?