Is Apple Angry or Thrilled with iPhone 4.0 Leak?

image: Gizmodo.comFirst, let's get you up to speed if you missed all the excitement: Over the weekend engadget reported a prototype (or finished?) iPhone 4.0 has been found in the wild, apparently misplaced at a bar. Turns out those wily guys and gals at Gizmodo actually had the phone and posted all the details about it today.

Let's take this at face value for a minute: If Apple really did "lose" the phone, don't you think they could use things like the find my iPhone feature to locate the device, or have the person who lost it carefully re-trace their steps? (I'm sure Apple would've been happy to supply a few extra hands to look as well.) That person would've been summarily fired, unless it was Steve himself, or say Johnny Ive.

Once the phone was lost, what would the chances be of it finding its way to a tech blog, and another tech blog being tipped off within days of each other. (To clarify, Gizmodo says they've had the device about a week.) Perhaps once the phone made it Gizmodo, and nothing was posted (say, right before Microsoft's Windows 7 announcements) more info was "leaked" to Engadget to ensure the story ran.

So which is it? Is this truly an accidental leak that is showing off the great new features of the new phone and stealing the thunder from the competition, or was it a calculated leak to make sure everyone knew what was next from a company notoriously tight-lipped about future products?

Either way, the question remains, is Apple angry at the leak, or thrilled that everything is going according to plan?

iPhone OS 4.0: More Than We Expected

Wow.. Color us impressed. In one of the lower key Apple events (considering it came on the heels of the iPad launch) Apple laid out the new bells and whistles in iPhone OS 4.0 while making a preview available to developers today, and the OS available this summer.

Highlights include:

Full access to the still/video camera for developers.

Bluetooth keyboard support

Multitasking (without the battery drain, according to Jobs)

GPS apps can continue to give you directions, even after you "quit" them via multitasking

Also, receive skype calls anytime, even with the phone locked!

Folder hierarchy/organization for apps: group apps together as you like.

Buy once, read anywhere (iPad, iPhone, etc) from the iBookstore

Open mail attachments in other apps.

Also, an interesting development with iAds: Apple will integrate the ad system into the OS itself, and sell/host the ads, keeping 40% of the cut. Look out Google. (we'll talk more about this in another article.)

The major downside is to utilize all the features, you'll need an iPhone 3Gs, or iPod Touch 3rd gen. Jobs says some of the features will work on the iPhone 3G and 2nd Gen touch, but not, notably, multitasking. And if you ran out and bought an iPad, it looks like you'll be waiting until the fall for the new OS.

We shouldn't expect any operating system to be backwards-compatible forever, but it looks like the ground rules have been set, and to stay up-to-date in the mobile OS arena, you'll need new hardware much more frequently than on the Mac.

iPhone 4.0 Software Announcement Coverage (Or Not)

Hi everybody...

In just a few minutes, Apple will unveil details about the next iPhone OS, 4.0 If you're a frequent visitor, you know we usually do a live video show , along with your comments, and reaction from around the web. Unfortunately, due to some local utilities work, our broadband is down, and will be for most of the afternoon. So, while we'll definitely have a blog post summarizing the announcement, we won't have live video. For the best liveblogging, of the event, check out our friends at either engadget or gizmodo.