Early 2005 iPhone Prototype Looked More Like a Thick iPad MiniArs Technica shares several photos of an early functional prototype of the iPhone from 2005, revealing a device closer in size to a thick iPad mini than an iPhone. The photos were sent to Ars by an anonymous former Apple employee who worked on the project in the early 2000s. The prototype is 5x7 inches in size, and nearly two inches thick - though much of the thickness was to accommodate features like serial and Ethernet ports installed purely to use the device in a development environment.Apple watchers have seen all manner of iPhone prototypes pop up on eBay, in court documents, and in leaked photos. But most were either close approximations of the first iPhone that was released in 2007 or of later models. What we don't often get to see is early Apple prototypes, those from way before the iPhone started to look like a phone-like object. That's why we were excited to receive photos showing an in-house version of the iPhone from early 2005. The images to Ars through a former Apple employee who worked on various Apple hardware projects in the early 2000s and was thus exposed to some of the earliest versions of the iPhone. Ars Technica points out that the Samsung ARM chip used is "a distant relative of the chip the first iPhone ended up using, just older and slower." Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories • Apple's iBookstore Twitter Account Accidentally Retweets Obscene Message • Philips Releases Open APIs and SDK for iOS Controlled Hue Lighting System • Mozilla Will Not Release an iOS Version of Firefox Due to Apple's Limitations on Third-Party Browsers • PayPal Creates iOS SDK to Integrate Checkouts and Payments Directly in Apps • Launch Center Pro Updated with New Actions and Redesigned Action Composer • Ambify for iOS Sets Philips Hue Lights to Music • Monetization of Social Networking Apps Taking Off on iOS • iOS Devices Still Account for Vast Majority of In-Flight Internet Use
http://www.macrumors.com/2013/03/11/early-2005-iphone-prototype-looked-more-like-a-thick-ipad-mini/
