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Apple legal hasn't forced the pictures to be removed, so it must be fake.

That's actually a very good point. Apple in the past has asked to take down images that were more than likely real. I doubt that if this was real that no one at Apple would have not noticed it by now.
 
That's actually a very good point. Apple in the past has asked to take down images that were more than likely real. I doubt that if this was real that no one at Apple would have not noticed it by now.

I agree, it's only on every apple site...
 
Like others have noted, I don't believe Apple will head towards removable batteries. They take up valuable space with the extra hardware to release the cover/battery, and that allows for more things to go wrong with the phone.
Plus dirt, water, and dust will have a better chance at getting into the phone's internals.

The design is okay. Nice to see a change from the 3G/3GS, but I hope they refine it before release.

Hoping for more news to come though! It's exciting!
 
no, I think the images suggest the side metal piece slides off. not the entire back.

arn

Looks like a prototype enclosure: Battery access and visible seams on the casing would be standard in a pre-release test model; engineers need access to the guts. Users won't get that same access.
 
Given that at best this is a preproduction unit, the user replaceable battery could very well just be for testing purposes. If Apple is indeed going to be going the HD route with this product I'm sure the battery would have to be more powerful than the ones in previous devices and why make a bunch of test mules with battery compartments that you can't replace when you can make one test mule and swap different batteries out until you find the one you like?

Apple has pretty much ignored user replaceable batteries in all of their products and I don't see them changing gears on that now and I'd say the likelihood of that happening is slim to none.
 
Apple legal hasn't forced the pictures to be removed, so it must be fake.

They haven't done so for a while (iPhone, iPad, iPod nano leaks) as it is usually seen as confirmation. Until Steve Jobs does the keynote it'll be a 50/50 divide between people believing it is real/fake. Sometimes no action is the best action.
 
That's actually a very good point. Apple in the past has asked to take down images that were more than likely real. I doubt that if this was real that no one at Apple would have not noticed it by now.

Apple stopped doing that a while ago. For example the iPod nano 4g picture were leaked in advance and Apple never asked them to be removed.
 
It will not have a user replaceable battery.

This is a prototype for starters, second, that hole he calls the battery release is actually a mic, see the mic on your iPad.

Next, there's no way the battery cover will be over top of the ringer/orientation lock switch and volume buttons.

The phone is legit, but these additions are just wrong.

The mic hole is not at the TOP of the phone, which is where the image take of the (alleged) battery release hole is shown.
 
just like how the real iphone 3g weren't. if they remove them it confirms them real.

And on the other side of the argument if they don't ask them to be removed you think they're fake. When companies ask stuff to be removed they are just stupid frankly because you're right - it confirms the legitimacy. If I were Apple and this is indeed fact I would just ignore it because once it hits the Internet it's out of your control anyway and by ignoring it many people will think it's fake.
 
(the photo with the red arrows seemed too blurry to me to decipher. Seriously, how can that be reliable evidence? Can your really definitely tell that other object is an iPad? Explain.)

It was from this story prior to the iPad launch. It was confirmed as the iPad in some kind of testing frame. (red annotations are mine)
 

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Not going to happen. Apple will not put in a user replaceable battery. Their whole product line right now is around making battery tech in such a way that the user never has to replace their own battery. They will not suddenly go back on that and make the batter replaceable. The only caveat to this is if they have upped the proc so much in the new iPhone that battery life is now terrible and IMHO, if that's the case SJ would have already nixed it.
 
This is not an iPhone, no matter how much people want it to be one.

I'm not trying to be rude, just informational

You aren't being informational; you are just stating your opinion.

I am inclined to believe Gruber:

I am not certain that this looks like the actual production unit Apple intends to ship to consumers. I think it’s a testbed frame — thicker, with visible (un-Apple-like) seams, meant to fit in 3GS cases so as to disguise units out in the wild. It’s hard to tell from the photos. But I think it is the real deal in terms of the internals and display being next-gen iPhone hardware, and the new glass back. Put another way: the front looks legit, the back looks legit, but the sides I’m not sure about. A front-facing camera and 960 × 640 display are two things I believe are slated for the next iPhone.
 
I completely disagree with the fact that it is a removable battery. Apple would never make the battery removable. Come on that's one of their signature traits. That pin hole is an AMBIENT NOISE MICROPHONE. It is used to detect the noise in the background and automatically adjust the volume of the ear piece so you can hear. How would a pin release work for a rear door anyways?

This was a weak justification from Mac Rumors.
 
The next iPhone is such a long way off! We'll hear about it in June and it'll probably ship in July. AHH!!! My 3G seems so ancient!
 
i don't like it

idk but i just don't like the design. it just doesn't correlate with the rest of apple's line of products. they've repeatedly stayed away from removable batteries, and the boxiness of that design and the protruding buttons is just not very apple-ish.
 
I hate to see Apple's products get exposed to the public months before they're available. It gives the competition/copiers such a huge unfair advantage. It essentially punishes the innovator and makes R&D free for everyone else. :(

It's too late for anything to come of it now it this case, but I sure hope whatever dumbass got drunk and left their Apple prototype in a bar gets fired and made an example of.
 
I'm sure that there still is a good amount of refinement that will be done before the fourth generation iPhone's launch. Personally, I wouldn't mind a user-removable battery. I'm considering getting a battery pack for my iPhone 3GS, anyway, but now I think I'll wait since replacing the battery would be more convenient.

The design is a nice change. Aluminum sides combined with a glass/ceramic back could be great. A glass/ceramic back should be about as scratch resistant as the display, which is difficult to scratch. As long as Apple has figured out how to keep it from cracking when dropping it, a lot of people will be very happy with the durability of the fourth generation iPhone. I would love a device that is difficult to even get slightly damaged.
 
Are you kidding?! I'd LOVE to be able to carry one or two extra batteries in my bag. As it is, I generally carry two externals anyway; a user-accessible battery would be fantastic.


Very few people actually do this. Mind you, most of us carry our phones in our pockets. We don't take our backpacks everywhere, as I assume you do (what with carrying those extra external batteries).

Here's the thing: Many of us aren't willing to give up sleek design (seams) for a removable battery. Just plain simple.

Ceramic back though? I guess Apple really is taking this to a new dimension. Seems unlikely, but we can't do anything except wait... and speculate :rolleyes:
 
The design is just awful. It seems so strange that Apple would go such a route. Nothing aside from the front screams Apple/iPhone to me. The whole thing just looks terrible. I thought Apple might make the iPhone look like the iPad, which would be acceptable. But this is terrible.
 
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