As you all know, it has been more than a year since the iPhone 4 was introduced to the market. This is of course despite a couple hiccups that lingered around its initial release such as the infamous antennagate scandal, the iPhone 4 is still considered to be a roaring success and is definitely considered to be one of the most popular smartphones available in the market today. And as Apple’s followup to its successful iPhone 4 comes comes to a close, the tech industry is treated to a lot of rumors and news about the next iPhone hardware. And now we are once again treated to another rumor regarding the iPhone 4S.
According to a source from Twitter-like Chinese micro-blogging website called Sina Weibo, the leaked images below are allegedly the engineering test unit of the iPhone 4S. If anyone can recall, there have been rumors spreading around that Apple will release an iPhone that will feature a modest upgrade over the iPhone 4. According to the tweet of the Sina Weibo user who has sourced the image:
It comes with a test mode GUI, and I tried to restore the phone using iTunes, but both iOS 4.3.4 and 5.0 beta release failed with error 3194. I tried to edit the hosts file, but it still doesn’t work.
There should be no changes for the internal hardware. It’s not an A5 processor, the rear camera is still 5 megapixels.
If you notice in the leaked images, this so called iPhone prototype unit bears a strong resemblance to the current iPhone 4. One could argue that this is the next generation iPhone but only tested in an iPhone 4 casing. When plugged into a computer, the device can be detected by iTunes, although the icon of the device that’s displayed is rather different than the normal iTunes icon.
But as it turned out, this allegedly leaked images of the iPhone 4S is nothing more than an iPhone 4 prototype although it seems to be a legitimate one. According to an update by M.I.C Gadget:
It’s a very early iPhone 4 prototype. Why? Two things. It has both sensors not working, the Nike plus and Bluetooth. Next, the phone has “Soundwave” and “Rumble” on it, they are iPhone testing programs which have been used since the 3GS. This device is NOT iPhone 5 prototype (N94). It is authentic, and Apple is scrambling to find the leak now.
With the iOS 5′s release this September, and being the most likely operating system of Apple’s upcoming smartphones, it just makes no sense that the next iPhone protype runs on iOS 4 rather than the iOS 5. So this particular leaked images of iPhone 4S are nothing more than just a false rumor or maybe just an attempt to troll the internet considering how popular Apple’s hardware are.
Apple’s next iPhone is expected to be announced in September during Apple’s Music Event and there are rumors floating that it will hit the stores at around October. As the expected announcement of the next iPhone fast approaches, we can expect more rumors and leaks such as this