Debunk: Schiller's front facing iPhone 3G camera
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jun 12th 2008 8:02AM
posted Jun 12th 2008 8:02AM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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The one on the left is probably the proximity sensor and the one on the right is the ambient light sensor. Nothing to see here people!
agreed...
Agreed too. That's what it said on the patent file anyway.
Look at the top of a gen 1 iPhone in bright sunlight and you will see all the sensors.
As catachip stated, I'm pretty sure those are sensors.
Hmmm. I hope it is a camera though. and I hope they announce some better camera specs, because al he said in the keynote was 'camera'. Hmmmmmmmmmm indeed.
It isn't, and they already announced the camera specs. Keep hoping though.
Because we need people walking on the streets and driving while video conferencing. And don't you already have the capability to video conference with your MacBook + MacBookPro?
Web browser... because we need people walking on the streets and driving while surfing the net. And don't you already have the capability to surf with your MacBook + MacBookPro?
Er, what macbook?
The one on the right is clearly hot wing sauce.
RIIIIGHT, but the question IS.. what BRAND of hotwind sauce?
Pets Texas hot?
Tobasco Chipotle?
Super Duper Ass FIRE Hot Sauce?
you decide.
Now I understand why Engadet Posts suck so much. The maturity level of the average poster is very low. Lets attempt to be witty to get ranked up instead of posting something worth while. Yuck.
actually Jesus i like seeing funny things on the internet, thats half of the reasons i read the comments is for stupid funny things that make my day. i mean isn't that what the internet is for?
yes it is, but also porn...
lol.. has to be the sensors. wishful thinking!
Conspiracy theories ahoy!
Would be nice to surprise us, just like they did when they allegedly increased battery life on the original iPhone a month before it was released... I was like, "isn't this thing already half-way manufactured?"
I don't remember that happening but anyway...
With all the spotlight that was on Apple it would have been smarter to show off a front-facing camera and surprise us with GPS or something.
It's obvious that there is no front facing camera and most likely never will be one, Apple is clearly being stubborn about it, much like A2DP, MMS and video recording.
This generation of the iPhone was about addressing the major complaints of consumers...no 3G, closed OS, too expensive, impossible to get in most countries. It's like a lot of people on the internet have said, this was about making a $500 phone $200 so it's in more people's hands. Then once everyone and their mom have a iPhone, they'll start boosting the specs in gen 3 to get people to buy up to the latest/greatest.
Remember this press release of increased battery life and glass displays they announced just 2 weeks before the release date? http://www.tuaw.com/2007/06/18/iphone-delivers-up-to-8-hours-of-talk-time/
I'm just saying... anything's possible.
I agree, it's just the sensors visible in bright light. That's also why in some of the other shots it's not visible, it's only when the light shines on the phone at a certain angle.
It is the same on the current iPhone, in normal lighting you can't see them, but shine a light on them and they are visible.
Does the word 'obsessive' suggest anything to you?! and I AM a mac fanboy!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=j6Yt2DakywI
ive chopped out the bit you need to watch, so you can waste just 10 seconds rather than 10 minutes.
"speach" LOL
The spot on the left in the picture within the top left frame, looks like a girls face....a dead girl's face.
AIIYEEEE.
Actually it kind of look's like the outline of the Virgin Mary...
AAAAAHHHH
What the hell case is Phil using... It makes the iPhone look butt ugly
His iPhone makes his iPhone look butt ugly?
For those not keeping score, Apple only recently put out the call for a digital camera engineer to work on bringing a _good_ camera to the 3rd Gen iphone 3G. Uh ... which I guess would be the G2 iPhone 3G, or the G3 iPhone, or iPhone 3.0, or iPhone 3G 2.0, or ... oh screw it.
No new camera 'til next year.
Hey guys. What I'm about to ask is probably cause for burning at the stake around these parts, but wasnt there a link somewhere so you could get the Engadget RSS feed minus any iPhone news?
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/tired-of-iphone-and-or-apple-news-on-engadget/
So, you cant make video calls on the iPhone now its got 3G?
Oh well, im sure they will release another version with that feature for you apple fanboys to suck up sloppily of the dirty Apple showroom floor.
No i am not a MS fanboy i just mate apple.
You mate apple?
You must like them a lot.
So how does the mating work? I mean seriously.
I think Apple is just playing it safe with the whole forward facing camera thing - something to save for the third iPhone.
A lot of people moaned about the lack of 3G in the iPhone v1, but 6 million people still bought one! For the same reason, i believe Apple is waiting to hold this feature back for now.
It would very welcomed in the iPhone 3G though!
Where's that sans Iphone RSS feed at? This is terribly dull.
http://pipes.yahoo.com
Doesn't work...
Considering Engadget writers manage to shoehorn iPhone references into just about every post, that feed would also be terribly dull.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/20/tired-of-iphone-and-or-apple-news-on-engadget/
If you squint real hard you can just about make out... YEA! Macbook Air 2 spotted at the top right! omg first!
Even if there was a camera on the front and both cameras had more than 2 megapixels someone would still whine that it doesn't have flash or it doesn't capture video. Big deal! It's an iPhone not a digital camera. God what was everyone expecting from the 3G I Phone? A phone, an iPod, a video player and a God dam dishwasher?
The N95 8gig can do everything you said, apart from dishwasher obiviously. Though the iPhone has the amazing web browser mmm.
I actually watched the keynote last night. Engadget pretended like the demos were boring, but frankly, they were a lot more interesting than the 3G iPhone announcement. Of course, maybe it's easier to sit thru the demos when you're not anticipating the "big news" announcement, but dayum. The games and apps the 3rd party developers made look absolutely incredible. That musical instrument/band app was *awesome*. I'm not a gamer, but I foresee myself spending entirely too much money on iPhone games to have something to do on the airplane or whatever.
It's fascinating how Apple's control over the platform, while stifling some grassroots innovation, also makes it a massively fertile platform for others to develop on. The level of support by 3rd parties is incredible.
Well since the announcement was like a wet Tuesday in Grimsby that wouldn't be difficult.
The "camera" you are seeing on the phone is just city lights reflecting off swamp gas. Nothing more.
They can be the proximity and light sensor but the one on the left is really big for a sensor maybe it could be a future prototype version but I doubt the camera would be hidden behind the black glass since it would get less light for the video/pictures and just as the 2-megapixel camera on the back it really needs a lot of light in order to take good non-blurry pictures.
Take a look at apple site. All iPhone pics have this corner obscured....
There's also no iPhones with real life hot wing sauce marks on them in the Apple official pictures.
why the hell would the iphone have two cameras, on the back and on the front. idiot. the corner is not blurred it just makes the screen look dam sexy.
Video conferencing is so 2000, almost all phones have it, but I have never seen anyone using it.
Those are not the sensors, the sensors are located in a row above the "ear speaker" and not to mention the sensors are no where near that large.
Now, like Ani said the pictures on the website black out where this would be camera is located, so you can't tell from the website if it does or does not exist.
I did load up the 360 degree view of the iphone and rotated and saw nothing on the phone that would indicate a camera, but that does not mean it isn't there.
I would love to have a front facing camera so you can take a picture of your "oh face" and a picture of a girls "oh face" without fumbling with your phone.
But oh well, im getting one regardless, and im going to probably keep my aluminum one for nostalgia purposes. Killed the poor phone before it's birthday :( that's sad.
There isn't any special secret about the camera - it's specifically been said that there is NO front-facing camera. There's nothing to wait and see about, it simply does not exist and never will for at least a few months.
A bit off subject however, does anyone know which case is being used in the photos???
Have you ever seen what your head looks like through the angle of a front-facing camera on a cell phone?
Seriously, there is a reason to why noone ever uses this "feature".
It would be kinda neat if you could hook up, say a notebook sized webcam to this type of phone and do a video conferencing but the front-facing cam I can do completely without.
sod the phone, I am just interested in this mating apple thing! Is this a new accessory that I haven't heard about?!?! :-)
I think Apple is going to release a bunch of press releases just before the release like last year to keep the hype up.
Remember this?
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/06/18iphone.html
"Apple also announced that the entire top surface of iPhone, including its stunning 3.5-inch display, has been upgraded from plastic to optical-quality glass to achieve a superior level of scratch resistance and optical clarity."
The 3G iPhone is bad ass and fast. Only $200 my ass. Apple hooks us up for a change but then we get raped by AT&T Monthly charges. A decent plan will run you about $140 a month. Forget that sh:t
Apple isn't hooking anyone up. AT&T is the one footing the bill for the 3-400 bucks they knocked off the price. They're recouping it through mandatory contracts and higher fees.
i guess the comment i poseted earlier from my iphone never went threw. well what i said was, yea i agree that it is a sensor of some kind, if anyone has used an ipod touch you can see the circular senors by looking at it, and in the silicone cases theres a cutout for it. and the other thing i said was, that if u go on the apple site and click 2.0 for current iphone users, it shows the original iphone, but at the top it shows a 3G symbol.. whats up with that?
http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/
and heres a picture for what i mean
http://images.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/images/enterprise20080609.jpg
wow!!, now that i pointed that out, apple changed the symbol over to wifi
Lets take a huge jump back. How do we know the phone used was even a 3G phone. All the demos were done before the 3G phone was introduced. I haven't watched the HD feed, but if you look at the menu bar, I believe it has a "E" Now, okay, 3G could have been turned off, but lets also look at the fact the phone has a cover, and there aren't any iPhone 3G covers shipping yet. Sure, Apple could have their own, but I think what we are looking at is a first generation iPhone with a mass market case with lots of fingerprints on it. Good "Spy" work in missing the obvious.
Headphone port is on the side.......debunked.....
you need to go debunk yourself you moron, the headphone jack is in the same location on both the old iphone and the new one, one is recessed, one isn't.
The picture above shows one that is recessed.
headphone port on the side.... what iphone have you been using, you dolt.
Just look at the 360 d tour in the gallery on the apple site... there is nothing there... besides I don't think they were even using 3G iPhones- they were using 1st gen.... at no point did they us the 3G... If they did they would have shown it... besides I think that was just a smudge on the screen.
A camera wouldn't never be covered in tinted glass. That's absurd.
If this had a front facing camera, it would go against what I think of my cell phone. I bought a bluetooth headset so that I wouldn't have to pull out my phone and hold it while I'm talking. If there were a front facing camera, you would pretty much have to stop what your doing on your phone call. Even if it's optional, it would only work with other people who have an iPhone, of which I only know 1 person who has one. The rest of my friends are more practical with their phones and have blackberry's or some HTC product.
front facing camera = bad idea anyway.
Regardless if it is a camera or not I really want to know which case that is they are using in the pics. Anyone??
it might be a camera!
look at the new case for iphone 3g:
http://www.marware.com/PRODUCTS/iPhone-3g-cases/Sport-Grip-for-iPhone-3G
Some may say these are ambient light sensor and proximity sensor but one of two holes is double size - why? - look here:
http://www.intomobile.com/2008/05/01/new-3g-iphone-design-rumors.html
Verdict: we have 3 sensors in new iphone or 2 sensors and camera.