A new spy shot claiming to show the next-generation iPhone has emerged, and it appears to show a forward-facing camera.
If the spyshot does indeed show the new iPhone, a forward-facing camera would be a cool but surprising feature. Although high on many iPhone users’ wishlists — it would enable iChat videoconferencing from anywhere — the feature seems too Dick Tracy to be true, especially with AT&T’s bandwidth-challenged 3G network.
A forward-facing camera was mentioned in a recent Apple patent granted April 16 — although this doesn’t mean much. Apple patents everything, and a ton of patented features never see the light of day.
(Mockup of an iPhone video iChat by Graham Bower of MacPredictions.)
Published by an Italian iPhone fan site, iSpazio, the spy picture shows an iPhone with an all-black frame, not a silver one, which is consistent with many rumors.
The earpiece on the new iPhone is higher than current models, and below it is a glowing green light — just like the activity light on MacBook iSight cameras showing the camera is in use. The glowing light is slightly offset, which adds a small measure of authenticity to the picture.
On the iPhone’s screen is a new voicememo app that will be included in the iPhone OS 3 (Here’s a video of Apple’s Scott Forstall showing it off).
The iSpazio site claims the picture was sent to them, and was snapped on the screen of a computer “inside the Apple site.” What this means is unclear. Is it a snap of a screen taken inside Apple, or a hidden page not yet published on the Apple.com website?
For some reason, iSpazio removed the symbol showing the iPhone’s wireless carrier using Photoshop before publishing the picture.
The screen appears to show a webpage announcing the new iPhone’s immediate availability. The screenshot includes a line that says, “Available Today.” There’s also half of a tagline that reads in part: “..ny, curios, advanced. The new iPhone is for ev…”
The “ev…” at the end must mean “everyone.” But anyone got a clue what the “…ny” at the beginning might be?
Link to the iSpazio spyshot.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
