In “boy, am I glad I’m not the person who made that mistake” news, a prototype for Apple’s next iteration of the iPhone was evidently “found” in a bar in Redwood City, California last week, and Gizmodo has loads of pictures and videos to prove it.

The specifics of who exactly found the iPhone and how it ended up in Gizmodo’s hands isn’t clear at this time, but the specs of the iPhone sure as hell are, as Gizmodo performed a battery of tests and breakdowns of it, all of which led them to assert that the device is in fact the 2010 iPhone. This, coupled with reports that Apple has admitted to having lost said prototype and desperately want it recovered, seems like evidence enough to believe this to in fact be the real deal.

Here are the spec highlights for the next generation iPhone:

• 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 960x460 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
• 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

This is hardly the last we’ll be hearing about this story, so definitely stay tuned. All I can think of now is how the person who lost the phone must have felt when he/she got home and realized they didn’t have the phone anymore. Terrifying. Also, I haven't practiced law in years, but there are laws against selling found property to the highest bidder (assuming that's how Gizmodo came to acquire the lost iPhone) without first making a reasonable attempt to return said property to its owner. Needless to say, this is one story you'll definitely want to keep an eye on over the coming days.

Source: Gizmodo