Hi Gary,
Recently I’ve seen in the local news that somebody found the iPhone 4G at local bar which is now posted all over the web/youtube speculating that it’s the new upcoming iPhone 4G. Can you speak to this… it’s looks impressive and the handy work from Apple. Thanks!
— Dracula
It is almost certainly real, because Apple asked for it back, and Gizmodo complied.
But the question remains: What was is? A version of the iPhone, certainly. But is it just a protoype? Very possibly.
A lot of people have commented about its looks, but that isn't something we should be paying too much attention to. Apple R&D no doubt puts together prototypes all the time. They don't have these manufactured, they make them in shops. So they may not look at all like what we will get. They may have the same features, though.
Or, it could be a just an idea that they are testing out. I'll bet they have rooms full of weird iPhone and iPod designs. They must test out hundreds of features and hardware parts before deciding on which ones to include.
A forward-facing camera, for instance. This prototype had one. But why wouldn't an engineer at least try out a forward-facing camera? It doesn't mean it will be in the iPhones we get.
This could be a prototype of the next iPhone. It could be a prototype of the iPhone after that. It could be just an idea and we will never see an iPhone quite like this one.