Upcoming Apple Store in Hamburg, Germany pranked by Windows fanbois (Updated)

When new Apple Stores are under construction, it's common for the front of the store to be hidden in a large black wooden structure. Yesterday morning, the black box at the new store in Hamburg, Germany was plastered with a nicely painted and quite artistic Windows logo, which was later painted over by a worker with a ladder and bucket of black paint. German Apple fan site iFun.de was sent some photos, allegedly by three different readers.

Being the skeptic that I am, I ran the photos through the Forensic Error Level Analysis tool to see if these were real photos or just nicely Photoshopped images. You can see the results here:

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

The results were inconclusive -- while the Windows logo did show signs of being a pasted-on Photoshop artifact, the appearance of colors on a stark black background can also cause artifacts to show up in the analysis tool. Closer inspection under magnification showed reflections of the correct shades in the window to the right of the logo.

So, it's up to TUAW readers to make the call. Are the photos real? Or did iFun.de get pranked instead of the Apple Store? Leave your comments below.

Update: Looks like the prank was real. The video below shows how the antic was pulled off.

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