Loads of fake Apple shots hit the web: 3G iPhone pre-WWDC edition

It's a few days before a big Apple event, and you know what that means: a ridiculous amount of really bad fake Apple product shots. Actually, you have to hand it to this first guy, pictured above. It's mildly convincing and sites are starting to pick it up -- the story goes some dude grabbed these pics from a Photoshop template his friend was working on and then posted it to Flickr, a scenario reminiscent of those iPod nano phatty shots that turned out to be real. Except there are a few issues with this one:

• Our source who played with the 3G iPhone told us explicitly there is no front-facing videoconferencing camera.
• Even still, when we were ferreting around the new 3G iPhone firmware today, we were keeping an eye out for altered or additional camera drivers, something to indicate a front-facing camera. Nothing.
• The text explanation for Exchange and iChat are so bad as to make the whole thing unbelievable. (Apple's doing video chat for Windows? Huh?) But that's not all!
• Say, wouldn't that exchange logo be in the Apple banner that's up at the Moscone right now? All the other iPhone icons are.
  
• No Apple design would be laid out the way this guy's got his page laid out here.
• Did we mention that the red design on the right is missing the power button? (Thanks everybody!)
• Bottom line: looks pretty, but so very fake.

Click on to see the other one going around right now, a supposed opened box from a confidential 3G iPhone shipment. Uh huh.

[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]

Lay your gaze upon this sorry bastard, which we were sent a bunch of times before it started stirring the cauldron of speculation on the MacRumors forums.

• Weird, unfamiliar green icon? Strike one...
• Ever since the iTunes store launched, iPhone box art has shown the store icon in the fourth row / fourth column position. This box art only has three rows from the top.
• Really? Apple sent out a single boxed 3G iPhone totally unguarded with only a confidentiality letter to keep it safe? Please.
• Wait, no, the iPhone didn't even come with the letter -- the stamp has been blacked out. So Apple mailed this letter separate from the supposed super-NDA device? Really.
• And then this person got this 3G iPhone, dared to open it, and then proceeded to take only one obscured photo?

It's like this second one was whipped up just to insult all our collective intelligence or something.

[x20mar @ Jun 7th 2008 1:23PM]

Actually I think we mind end up seeing a Mac netbook, they are all the rage these days

[JakePT @ Jun 7th 2008 3:21AM]

That second pic is based on the one that appeared on MacTalk.com.au

That Box is from a reseller but no one has said it has an iPhone in it. It could be marketing materials or whatever. The point is when that photo of the box went around the internet, someone made fake pic of the box open, the original box in the original picture hasn't been opened.

Also it needs to be said the first time MacTalk posted a rumour about the iPhone and Australia it has ALL come true. The box they saw is from one of the sources of that info (a reseller).

[xSwamp @ Jun 7th 2008 3:34AM]

Look, that pretty much debunks the top one, look at all the mistakes.

http://forums.mactalk.com.au/21/50670-iphone-design.html#post520215

[A.J. @ Jun 7th 2008 3:47AM]

As an AT&T sales rep: The new iPhones shipping with 1.1.3 and 1.1.4 have the iTunes icon "left justified" and not "right justified" as you say... unless I'm horribly mistaken...

[samgross144 @ Jun 7th 2008 1:25PM]

You might be, but I'd have to say that if they came out with a new iPhone, the icon would be moved. It's been that way since January, yet all of the promotional materials have been wrong.

[iB3nji @ Jun 7th 2008 3:53AM]

For the photo with the iPhone box in that carboard box you say is fake. To me there is small iPhones printed on the side of the box which isnt the case with the current one.

[TareX @ Jun 7th 2008 3:58AM]

No front video cam? Are you guys sure about your "source"?

That's not good.

[Steffen Jobbs @ Jun 7th 2008 9:07AM]

No front facing camera and no true GPS would be a total bummer. If this is the case, Apple would be making a serious mistake unless they plan on making several models.

[TareX @ Jun 7th 2008 9:32AM]

Having a 3G phone targeted at youths primarily without a front camera is a terrible move.

I hope you're right and there are many models thought I doubt "many models" sounds like something Apple would do.

[AznLA @ Jun 7th 2008 4:14AM]

A couple of things that kinda give it a way for me... One is the use of "dot dot dot" on the screen ("Video Chat With ..."). I don't think Apple uses that convention in their software. It would probably just say "Video chat with ".

The other is the guy on the photo... Apple usually finds good looking, and dare I say, white guys, on these ads that look hip and kinda yuppy. This guy looks a little too crazy to be on an Apple ad.

[dohspc @ Jun 7th 2008 5:44AM]

yes they would be using "John Appleseed" or that creepy guy in all black who does their demo videos. Not some jacked up looking dude who looks way too excited to be talking to a woman over a video phone. Plus the way he is holding his new iPhone during his video chat looks all wrong. Fake...

[jpxdude @ Jun 7th 2008 4:46AM]

I hope we see an iChat for windows. Not used any other videocam application that has this quality! Plus i'll be able to remove the AOL bloatware from my EEE....yeah iChat on the EEE *drools*

[biorunner @ Jun 7th 2008 4:55AM]

It's a shame if the lack of video chat rumour is true. It's the one thing my awful Nokia N73 does well. I guess we'll see on Monday.

[Steve @ Jun 7th 2008 5:19AM]

Well apart from the unlock button missing on the second one, the back looks like its completely enclosed in aluminum which we know isn't possible because the iPhone can't get any signal through a heap of metal, hence the plastic bit on the current iphone.

[fourthletter @ Jun 7th 2008 5:28AM]

So the 3G iPhone is launching without a front facing Video call camera ?
Way to go Apple, still releasing new phone products that don't have features that my 3 year old Nokia n70 had.
How about an iPhone nano that features a plastic cup and some string ?

[Nohone @ Jun 7th 2008 5:54AM]

So not only are there rumors after rumors about Apple products that never appear (iTablet, Beatles on iTMS that was supposed to be announced at a Superbowl 3 years ago, the Apple/VW car, etc.), now Engadget is "reporting" information that they know is not true?

Sad.

[Wei @ Jun 7th 2008 8:11AM]

The front facing camera would be kinda cool though.

[AussieDude @ Jun 7th 2008 8:16AM]

Lol, so fake, silly bastards.

I live in Australia and here it is already tuesday (10th of June), so 3g Iphones are available in stores. Actually I'm writing this post using my new 3g Iphone and its kinda cool.

[Magnificen7 @ Jun 7th 2008 8:30AM]

Wow, is your Australia on a different planet? Cause the Australia here isn't even at Sunday yet.

[Andrew @ Jun 7th 2008 10:00AM]

yur an idiot aussiedude

[d @ Jun 7th 2008 11:22AM]

well I for one was LOLing after reading your post.

[adrian @ Jun 7th 2008 9:04AM]

What is it with these people who keep producing fake Apple product pictures?, Have they got nothing better to do with their time.

[Joe @ Jun 7th 2008 9:06AM]

Couldn't this photo of the Australian iPhone be of an iPhone Mini, or a different smaller iPhone since there are only 3 rows of icons?

[redelephantlabel @ Jun 7th 2008 10:11AM]

I'll buy it. This one seems too deliberately different from the current firmware to discount that easily. I dunno about that box shot, but the first one seems plausible.

[therenbackagain @ Jun 7th 2008 10:27AM]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27431673@N02/2557744582/in/photostream
:Looks at corners of the photos
I see you are running photoshop...

[Some Kid @ Jun 7th 2008 10:32AM]

just watch the second gen iPhone be a slider phone like the chocolate with a iPod configuration on the front and then a sliding keyboard coming down from tthe bottom or a qwerty coming out from the side like the glyde
that wont happen but that should be the actual second iPhone, not a updated version of the first

[johcagaorl @ Jun 7th 2008 10:49AM]

I can definitely see a (RED) version happening.

What about those speaker holes on the back, that strikes me as something apple wouldn't do.

And how come no one has brought up the fact that based on the icons and other things that the iPhone 2 has 3 buttons on the side?

[xValentine @ Jun 7th 2008 10:52AM]

Would be great if it's real.

But based on the past rumored pictures of an Apple Product that's only a week to be released, most of them ends up to be true. *cough*iPod Nano/Classic*cough*

:)

[Alexander Muse @ Jun 7th 2008 11:03AM]

Check out these shots of what happens if you open a REAL embargoed 3G iPhone Box:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexmuse/tags/embargoiphone3g/

[hutz @ Jun 7th 2008 11:45AM]

Perhaps the 3G iPhone may not have a front facing camera in conventional terms but instead utilise Apple's patent for the following...

"...an LCD display embedded with thousands of microscopic image sensors that would allow users to video-conference while looking straight into the "camera.""

http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/26/apple-patent-embeds-thousands-of-cameras-among-lcd-pixels/

Any denials of a front camera are therefore because a) you can't actually see it or b) you could argue it's not technically a "camera"

Just a thought...

[MannyV @ Jun 7th 2008 11:47AM]

It may be that the rumors are conflicted because Apple's going to pop out multiple iPhone versions, each with different feature sets.

Basic: 3g, no GPS, like today's phone but better.
Better: 3g, GPS
Best: 3g, GPS, video

[Vidit Bhargava @ Jun 7th 2008 11:55AM]

yawn.....boring!!!
let the real thing come out

[rodreinoso @ Jun 7th 2008 11:56AM]

yeah, thats a fake. It only takes to look at that "video conference" picture to realize it's just a bad joke. I mean, look at that guy... that is not the kind of face apple would use in one of their packaging designs. Lets face it: if apple is to launch video conference with the next gen iphone, we won't see anything but a young, pretty face in that box.

[Joe Martinez @ Jun 7th 2008 12:38PM]

It's fake. The "ad" says "iPhone now integrates seamlessly with your corporate Microsoft ActiveSync server". The only problem is that there's no such thing: ActiveSync is part of Microsoft Exchange server. On Apple's existing site about the 2.0 beta (http://www.apple.com/iphone/enterprise/), they never refer to ActiveSync without putting the word Exchange in front of it.

It might seem like a small thing but it's not: Apple is very consistent in naming conventions, particularly when they are talking about another company's product.

Of course, it could have been early text that's since been updated but I doubt it.

[SecretSquirrel @ Jun 7th 2008 3:08PM]

The wording may be off, but the concept is real - I am using Exchange on my current iPhone as part of a beta. It friggin' rocks.

[gaspacho @ Jun 7th 2008 12:55PM]

Is it fake because there's a mexican in it?

[Brian @ Jun 7th 2008 1:08PM]

I think that this is not an apple ad but a mockup. Not to be racist but I dont think apple would put a mexican guy in the phone ad but would put one of their other iphone actors/actresses like Anna Haro or someone to that affect.

[Jason Gold @ Jun 7th 2008 1:37PM]

i believe it's three days.

[Jason Gold @ Jun 7th 2008 1:45PM]

what about a green status light for the camera like they have on the computers?

[huffthedank @ Jun 7th 2008 3:17PM]

Any ideas on 3G data plans for the new iphone?

[huffthedank @ Jun 7th 2008 3:57PM]

nevermind

[Gman @ Jun 7th 2008 4:05PM]

I don't get why people even care what the 3G iphone looks like from the outside. If the rumors are true, and all the upgrades are internal (3G, GPS, etc.), then it would look the same outside.

[Phoenix @ Jun 7th 2008 4:49PM]

Notice that those pics were taken on an iPhone

[Kweenie @ Jun 7th 2008 5:44PM]

LOL @ iPhone (red).

[JewWithASmallNose @ Jun 7th 2008 11:01PM]

actually if u watch the keynote... when he announces the AppStore... its a weird green unfamiliar icon

[Iroc7 @ Jun 8th 2008 12:02AM]

These guys really need to get a life

[boss-hogg @ Jun 8th 2008 12:15AM]

yawn..........

[fakespotter @ Jun 8th 2008 2:56AM]

original picture is fake here's why...

the girl is the one who would be taking the picture, not the moron in the big screen image...

here's the clue, she has a completely black background yet a perfectly even illuminated face... This means her picture was taken with a still camera with a flash either at night or in a very dark room...

The screen from the iPhone would not illuminate her in such a way, she would have a blueish hue to her from the iPhone screen reflection otherwise... The should would most likely be taken where it's supposed to represent both video parties...

Also why is it that this other guy has his mug on camera, that would mean two 3G iPhones were used... So how did these two characters get their hands on two 3G phones on a network that they would need access via AT&T for and for which getting access to right now would be impossible and would also make it extremely easy for Apple to trace back to the point of origin due to digital footprints that AT&T would have on record!!!

FAKE!!!

[shaun @ Jun 8th 2008 3:52AM]

Also why is it that this other guy has his mug on camera, that would mean two 3G iPhones were used... So how did these two characters get their hands on two 3G phones on a network that they would need access via AT&T for and for which getting access to right now would be impossible and would also make it extremely easy for Apple to trace back to the point of origin due to digital footprints that AT&T would have on record!!!

FAKE!!!

That is so funny^^^^


lmfao wow man, you're "deep"

[Jon Biddell @ Jun 8th 2008 7:08AM]

I can't believe you people - who the hell do you think leaks all this crap... APPLE THEMSELVES !!!

Look at the publicity they're getting !!!