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This design is a slam dunk in the design world.

After reading your post, I'm thinking that the little rubber bumpers might serve as grips as well. I can remember dropping the original iPhone (and the 3G, to a lesser extent) because I had sweaty palms hitting the metal. Two rubber bumpers would mitigate that.
 
It's funny how some people can't accept that this is the next iPhone and continue to brush it off as a prototype and not a production unit.

People, this is the final design.

It's funny how some people just know that this IS the final design when they haven't the slightest idea.
 
Green = on, all is well
Yellow = missed notification or text message
Red = missed call

I swear, if anyone else starts putting multicolored LEDs on any device, I'm going to get a lawyer to start a class action lawsuit. Don't you people know that 7% of all males and .4% of all females are color blind? It is probably one of the most prevalent handicaps on the planet. And yet companies insist in putting their darned multi-color lights to indicate status of devices. Get with it people. This is the 21st century. There has to be better and more elegant solutions at this point. The world is constantly accommodating for other handicaps. How come this one continuously gets ignored?
 
Not to worry. They just got a hold of another prototype case, and not the production case.
I wouldn't make too much of the term "prototype", it's more likely a pre-production model or a manufacturing sample, near-identical to the final design.

I'm getting deja-vús of The Phantom Menace here...

When rumors about the title started to emerge, people didn't believe it.
When Lucasfilm officially announced the title, they still didn't believe it (it's a working title, it's a smoke screen etc).
When the full-length trailer was released and had the TPM title on it, they still insisted "just you wait and see... this isn't the REAL title... the real one will be revealed soon".
Then the posters arrived and eventually the movie was released, and the title was.... drum roll... The Phantom Menace.

But I'm sure there's still someone out there somewhere half expecting George Lucas to announce the REAL title, 11 years later...
 
Design Inspiration

There are two things from my childhood that this design makes me think of. One was a tape measure with a built in level, and a leather front and back. The other is a bit more fuzzy; can't remember if it was metal and leather or plastic.

Both of them used the fake seams for visual (and tactile?) relief. It is actually appealing, but I don't think any of the iphone photos do the concept justice.

While I doubt the seams are functional, it is possible that they are part of a captive spring mechanism to hold it together.
 
There are two things from my childhood that this design makes me think of. One was a tape measure with a built in level, and a leather front and back. The other is a bit more fuzzy; can't remember if it was metal and leather or plastic.

Both of them used the fake seams for visual (and tactile?) relief. It is actually appealing, but I don't think any of the iphone photos do the concept justice.

While I doubt the seams are functional, it is possible that they are part of a captive spring mechanism to hold it together.
Engineer types have commented that it's probably for shock absorption. Nobody tried before to do a phone with an all-metal body with ceramics on the back and glass on the front, there's usually a lot of plastic involved which solves the shock absorption problem automatically... so the seams might be there to ensure that the back and the front don't shatter into a million pieces of zirconia and glass when you drop the phone (which you know you will do at least once). I'm wondering if the metal itself can handle the fall, though. I've seen pics of severely warped MBAs and MBPs after relatively mild accidents...
 
Counting down to your door being kicked down in 3...2...1...
Boring! Next year, it'll be something like:

"MacRumors gets a hold of iPhone 5"
2 days later...
"We interrupt this program to bring you an important news bulletin:
the editors of MacRumors along with all its' members seem to
have gone missing from their homes, after the apparent leak of
a 5th iPhone-- *reporter gets zapped* ... cut to iPhone commercial
 
I swear, if anyone else starts putting multicolored LEDs on any device, I'm going to get a lawyer to start a class action lawsuit. Don't you people know that 7% of all males and .4% of all females are color blind? It is probably one of the most prevalent handicaps on the planet. And yet companies insist in putting their darned multi-color lights to indicate status of devices. Get with it people. This is the 21st century. There has to be better and more elegant solutions at this point. The world is constantly accommodating for other handicaps. How come this one continuously gets ignored?

I swear, if anyone else starts a class action lawsuit about multicolored blinking lights I'm going to get a lawyer and start a class action lawsuit. Don't you color-blind people know that 7% of the US economy goes to lawyers? They're probably one of the most common drains on the economy on the planet. And yet color-blind people insist on putting their darned class action lawsuits in my legal system. There has to be better and more elegant solutions at this point. The world is constantly eliminating other forms of parasites besides lawyers, how come lawyers continuously get ignored?
 
For some reason, I just don't like the sandwich design.
Just wish the final design could look more like this
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I agree.
 
I hope the back is glass like that one rumor.

Anywho, will DEFINITELY be buying one regardless. Still have my launch model and it's not cutting it anymore. Edge is so slow. This is going to be a complete godsend I cannot wait.

Let's hope the speaker quality is improved. The 3GS wasn't bad, but hey, I'm greedy. :p
 
I swear, if anyone else starts a class action lawsuit about multicolored blinking lights I'm going to get a lawyer and start a class action lawsuit. Don't you color-blind people know that 7% of the US economy goes to lawyers? They're probably one of the most common drains on the economy on the planet. And yet color-blind people insist on putting their darned class action lawsuits in my legal system. There has to be better and more elegant solutions at this point. The world is constantly eliminating other forms of parasites besides lawyers, how come lawyers continuously get ignored?
I suppose you must feel giddy with your sense of cleverness right about now. Try to control your rampant euphoria.
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS (OS4.0b3): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/8A260b Safari/531.21.10)

karlfranz said:
I swear, if anyone else starts a class action lawsuit about multicolored blinking lights I'm going to get a lawyer and start a class action lawsuit. Don't you color-blind people know that 7% of the US economy goes to lawyers? They're probably one of the most common drains on the economy on the planet. And yet color-blind people insist on putting their darned class action lawsuits in my legal system. There has to be better and more elegant solutions at this point. The world is constantly eliminating other forms of parasites besides lawyers, how come lawyers continuously get ignored?
I suppose you must feel giddy with your sense of cleverness right about now. Try to control your rampant euphoria.

Clever, amusing - that post was so full of win, it made me chuckle. And I'm not being sarcastic. ;)

Fortunately I'm among the 98.7% of Americans who do not suffer from color blindness; I sincerely hope Apple wouldn't cripple the iPhone just to pacify the other 1.3% ...
 
I swear, if anyone else starts a class action lawsuit about multicolored blinking lights I'm going to get a lawyer and start a class action lawsuit. Don't you color-blind people know that 7% of the US economy goes to lawyers? They're probably one of the most common drains on the economy on the planet. And yet color-blind people insist on putting their darned class action lawsuits in my legal system. There has to be better and more elegant solutions at this point. The world is constantly eliminating other forms of parasites besides lawyers, how come lawyers continuously get ignored?

Thank you. :)
 
Those of you who bitch about the case design, do you not use a case? I just think it's so funny that really all you see is the face anyway. I personally like the design, but I know I'm going to have a cover anyway so no care.
 
Those of you who bitch about the case design, do you not use a case? I just think it's so funny that really all you see is the face anyway. I personally like the design, but I know I'm going to have a cover anyway so no care.

I actually love the new design pictured above (if that turns out to be the actual production model). My wife even said she would think about giving up her Nokia E71 for one of the new iPhones, even though she hates typing on mine.

:apple:
 
Apple designs are becoming more and more generic, first the MBP began looking like PCs and now this iPhone which looks a lot like the tons of other smartphones out there now.

You need to take a look at PCs again then. It is ugly out there man.
 
I wouldn't make too much of the term "prototype", it's more likely a pre-production model or a manufacturing sample, near-identical to the final design.

I'm getting deja-vús of The Phantom Menace here...

When rumors about the title started to emerge, people didn't believe it.
When Lucasfilm officially announced the title, they still didn't believe it (it's a working title, it's a smoke screen etc).
When the full-length trailer was released and had the TPM title on it, they still insisted "just you wait and see... this isn't the REAL title... the real one will be revealed soon".
Then the posters arrived and eventually the movie was released, and the title was.... drum roll... The Phantom Menace.

But I'm sure there's still someone out there somewhere half expecting George Lucas to announce the REAL title, 11 years later...

I just hope the new iPhone doesn't suck the way that movie did!
 
Wow

i hope this phone is as good as we all hope it will. front camera for video chat and all but if the front camera is for video calls over wifi so will the video be clear and will yo be able to make a video caller id that would be cool. WHAT OTHER STUFF AN WE EXPECT :cool:
 
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