A number of you have sent in this tip which points to an article in the French newspaper, iGeneration. A rough translation of the French text follows (French speakers: Feel free to "clean up" our translation!):"This morning, anyone with the current edition of '20 minute day' [which appears to be a french magazine] would have found a special 'Apple Expo' Booklet. What do we find in the middle of this booklet? A photograph of what would be the iPhone. It takes on the form of the iPod, and has a 20Gb Hard Drive. Fake or Scoop? We tend to side with the former, but who knows these days?"
"Fake or scoop" indeed. Reader Simon writes, "I've seen the paper, I live in France. They're covering the Apple Expo and it's a totally real newspaper." Time will tell (though I wish it had a lid, as I'm scratch-phobic).
Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Update: False alarm, true believers. Apparantly the image of the phone is a mock-up that was used on the cover of the UK's MacUser magazine. Now I feel better about it not having a flip-lid.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-12-2006 @ 7:36AM
Jeffler said...
Looks legit! Boo yah!
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9-12-2006 @ 7:39AM
Petrus said...
I BUYING ONE OF THOSE IN ABOUT 5 HOURS TIME!!!!!!!
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9-12-2006 @ 7:39AM
wackybit said...
It looks kinda nice though!
http://www.happle.org/divers/iphone.php
Another link
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9-12-2006 @ 7:39AM
TheChillPill said...
It's fake - the same photo appeared in PCPro Magazine earlier this year (the link in the comments thread of that article also confirms this).
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9-12-2006 @ 7:44AM
nathan sykes said...
I'm afraid its not real, it was from the cover of MacUser magazine from the UK about 6 months ago.
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9-12-2006 @ 7:45AM
Alex said...
I think its a fake, in Apple product renderings the reflection does not appear so bright that detail is lost in the screen of the product, plus the middle button of click wheels is given no individual reflection, and why have MP3 player controls on the click wheel of a phone. It would be more useful to have contacts, texts, internet, menu etc. The screen is also not rounded at the corners which all Apple products tend to be.
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9-12-2006 @ 7:47AM
totalester said...
Must be fake.
But as fakes go, it looks pretty nice!
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9-12-2006 @ 7:49AM
David Lightman said...
As stated above that image was created for the UK MacUser magazine several months ago. It's nice, but a fake.
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9-12-2006 @ 7:50AM
Benjamin Müller said...
@wackybit
at the least the lower left image of the link you posted is fake .. you can still see some pixels of the "9" on the right earbud where they "cut-n-paste" it out of the upper one .. fake, real fake, fakest .. and not even creative .. shame shame.
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9-12-2006 @ 7:55AM
coooly said...
PDF version of this 20 minutes edition : http://pdf.20minutes.fr/journal/20060912_PAR.pdf
It's clearly a fake :)
We know that apple can't use iphone name :/
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9-12-2006 @ 7:58AM
Ed said...
The headlines a good pun though...
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9-12-2006 @ 8:05AM
Mike said...
http://www.happle.org/divers/iphone.php
Concept Image By MCI Digital...? I can't make that out. look at the left of the back shot
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9-12-2006 @ 8:06AM
philip said...
black headphones = fake
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9-12-2006 @ 8:10AM
Adam said...
You guys are *really* going nuts with the rumor reporting for this event. It's almost getting hard to take you seriously at this point.
Might want to exercise some editorial control - everyone seems to be making a fool of TUAW.
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9-12-2006 @ 8:25AM
thebjwilliams said...
Didn't a french newpaper/magazine le Figaro blow the cover of the ROKR phone last year?
Can you even still buy one of those?
Does anyone care?
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9-12-2006 @ 8:27AM
Shawn said...
Hey everyone, the iTunes music store is down. It now says "it's showtime, the itunes store is being updated." Notice that is says iTunes store, not iTunes music store.
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9-12-2006 @ 8:31AM
andrew harrison said...
yay! that's my translation!
coupled with my overheard quote, i'm pretty much the most famous person on the internet by now.
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9-12-2006 @ 9:03AM
John said...
No offense TUAW, but I have other rumor sites that I visit. I come to TUAW for other interesting Mac tidbits and a personal look into the Mac community, not OMG-iPhon... oh wait it's a mocku... oh wait look at... no nevermind. Can we leave the rumors to the "professionals"? Thanks.
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9-12-2006 @ 9:10AM
mrtotes said...
Sorry it's definitely the front cover of MacUser UK (26 May Vol22 No 11). It states on the front cover just to the left of the image "Concept image by MDI Digital". The article inside it refers to reviews 9 mobile phones covering their iSync and bluetooth compatibility as well as camera quality and how to access the Internaet through one. Each phone gets a mini review too. Very useful article even though I couldn't help but want the mockup on the front page!
The telephone number on the mock-up's screen will take you to Dennis Publishing advertising department in London.
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9-12-2006 @ 9:55AM
igrec said...
The people at "20 Minutes" acknowledged it's a fake :
http://www.casualtek.com/2006/09/12/iphone-encore-rate/
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