I got some iPhone Prototypes

[Brooklyn8]

The plastic screen makes the front of the phone look a little hazy, but when the screen is on you can't really tell. Fingerprints show up easier on the glass, and your finger doesn't move as smoothly on the glass as opposed to the plastic. However the glass is probably more scratch resistant. (However out of the 2 the glass model has more scratches than the plastic one)

 

[Warbrain]

The plastic screen makes the front of the phone look a little hazy, but when the screen is on you can't really tell. Fingerprints show up easier on the glass, and your finger doesn't move as smoothly on the glass as opposed to the plastic. However the glass is probably more scratch resistant. (However out of the 2 the glass model has more scratches than the plastic one)

They went with glass for the ability to stand up to more damage. But I keep an anti-glare screen protector on my iPhone and that's how the plastic screen iPhone prototype looks.

 

[jav6454]

Nice pieces of history there. How on Earth did they manage to get past Cupertino's hands I don't quite get it. Well if a MBA prototype did go out, why not an iPhone?

That aside, I recall in the keynote of the iPhone that Steve had two separate teams working on the iPhone. One team dedicated to software with bogus hardware and another team working on hardware with bogus software. I recall this was to prevent the whole iPhone thing from going public (just like the Al MacBooks). It also meant very but very few people ever saw the whole device all together. I recall Steve saying only him, AT&T CEO and 8 other people had seen it.

In any case, I brought all that up because what you have on your hands is the hardware portion of the iPhone's development. The software is alpha software at best, however, I am surprised since even this alpha software can do the majority of the functions our official released 1st Gen iPhones can.

I imagine Apple made at least 1000 of these to test out, since no factory in China would make only a couple (60 or 40 to say). I may be wrong on this bit. It would be interesting to see the software developing stage of the iPhone, but I am sure we will never see that.

Oh and by the way, I concur with a previous poster who warned against updating it to 2.2.0. The hardware might be different and there may be problems. So its best no to touch the software. It will be interesting to dump the whole firmware. Since its alpha software, maybe all the Apple security is not there for developing reasons. The iPhone Dev Team can have a look at unencrypted files that can help out in unlocking the iPhone in the 3G version in the future once current exploits run out.

Edit - This thread should be in iPhone section for all to read.

 

[KyPosey]

very cool find!

 

[Nyxx]

Contact DevTeam

What an amazing find! Thanks for sharing. Those are very interesting photos and insight into early iPhone development. (Skank is the new black. -lol) I agree that as little should be done to them as possible, especially not upgrading to another firmware version (probably wouldn't run anyway).

I think it's a great idea to contact the iPhone Dev-Team, the people who provided us with the all the jailbreaks and unlocks for free, the last being Pwnage and Yellowsn0w. They might be able to find useful tidbits for their work by dumping files from the early phones. The best way to contact them is probably Twitter because it's quick and they don't have to wade through the 1000s of comments on their blog to hear you.

DevTeam contacts
Members on Twitter: MuscleNerd, planetbeing, Pumpkin, pytey
Email: blog@iphone-dev.org
Blog: blog.iphone-dev.org

 

[Brooklyn8]

Ok, if an admin wants to move this to the regular iPhone forum that is fine. I went on the iphone-dev irc and someone told me to email a guy named "saurik" so I did. Maybe he will have an idea on how to dump the firmware.

I agree, this must be a hardware prototype. There various hardware tests and tweaks you can access. I read the Wired article about the development of the iPhone, and they they did talk about how the software and hardware guys were seperate.

 

[jaw04005]

You know I wonder if these are the phones that were sent to AT&T to test? I remember reading reports that AT&T had "test phones" that were software incomplete.

They were used to test network functionality nationally months before the actual release date.

Great find, nevertheless.

 

[Brooklyn8]

That would make sense as well, possible reason for how they were leaked.

 

[SuperMacMan]

Ok, if an admin wants to move this to the regular iPhone forum that is fine. I went on the iphone-dev irc and someone told me to email a guy named "saurik" so I did. Maybe he will have an idea on how to dump the firmware.

I agree, this must be a hardware prototype. There various hardware tests and tweaks you can access. I read the Wired article about the development of the iPhone, and they they did talk about how the software and hardware guys were seperate.

Saurik = Cydia Developer

Anyways, this is a REALLY NICE FIND!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!! WOW!!!

Don't try putting 2.2 on them or anything.

I like the software (basic but cool). "Skark is the new black"

I think this was the Hardware Devs phone - with the proper hardware but bogus software, while the Software Devs were given bogus hardware but the software to work on. Certainly not Apple style.

Anyway, absolutely awesome!!

 

[svndmvn]

kind of off topic: Is it possible the glass screen is better for capacitive qualities? The Nokia 5800 has plastic screen and I think it's a bit rubbish. There has to be a reason why the new Macbooks have glass trackpads. They should also be more resistant in time.

 

[Brooklyn8]

Thanks for your help so far guys, I have gotten in contact with the dev team too. They say the software should be helpful to them so that is good news.

 

[macfearless]

OK, here are some more quick pics-

Comparison picture of plastic screen vs. glass screen: http://img383.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iphoneaan3.jpg

SMS menu screen(when I press compose message, the software crashes back to the main menu): http://img383.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iphonebgk4.jpg

WiFi screen: http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iphonecxr0.jpg

Text Entry screen: http://img220.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iphonedxb6.jpg

I'm surprised that no one has freaked about the landscape text keyboard in that last picture... Very good find.

 

[MST]

Has anything like this ever been seen before?

 

[iParis]

Has anything like this ever been seen before?

Not that I know of.
I know that some people have gotten their iPod touch shipped only with the diagnosis setting but no OS.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Not that I know of.
I know that some people have gotten their iPod touch shipped only with the diagnosis setting but no OS.

As far as I know, the closest thing is a prototype MacBook Air someone scored a few months ago. It was pretty neat but nothing that had the fake software on it. Very cool.

 

[MacbookAlum1536]

That is so awesome and how much did you pay for them

 

[Fonzijr1964]

This is very very cool to see how the phone developed. Very rudimentary os



Your sig hurts me and makes me cry.

 

[Brooklyn8]

Some new pictures of the prototype's built in browser:

eBay: http://img117.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iphoneebayuw5.jpg

Digg: http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iphonediggyf9.jpg

 

[jav6454]

quite a impressive site to see those pics

 

[iCantwait]

HOW MUCH WERE THEY?? can we see the ebay lot??

But sweet find, and its cool that you had the option for turning data off (cool for me anyway with my 500mb cap)

and the lack of 'iPhone' on the back, well, bitches be crazy

and how many GB?

 

[powaking]

Thanks for your help so far guys, I have gotten in contact with the dev team too. They say the software should be helpful to them so that is good news.

PLEASE keep us all informed on what Saurik and the Phone Dev have to say and what they find as a result of this. We are ALL intrigued and anxious to know what else they are able to find.

 

[vista.john]

So sweet!

 

[Brooklyn8]

I got them for $300 via [buy it now]. I have no idea how much flash memory either model has... Also, it looks like I may be sending at least the working model to a dev-team member to have the firmware dumped so it can be used for iphone development. I suppose when they get the firmware dumped they will know how useful it will be

 

[Lucbert]

I don't think that it's usefull, the 2G is already hacked and unlocked.

 

[Tallest Skil]

I don't think that it's usefull, the 2G is already hacked and unlocked.

Yeah, because that's all that we can do with the iPhone hardware...

There is SO much beyond unlocking a phone...