Apple 2.0

Mac news from outside the reality distortion field

3G iPhone watch: What's in those brown cardboard boxes?


A few hours after an enterprising reporter staked out the West Coast distribution center of Quanta Computer — a trusted Taiwan-based Apple manufacturer — and came back with photos of large stacks of brown cardboard boxes presumed to hold 3G iPhones (see below), something that looks a lot like one those boxes showed up in Australia.

The photo shown here was posted early Friday (local time) on MacTalk Australia:

"Late yesterday afternoon MacTalk received the above photo from a very reliable source who can not be named for obvious reasons (fear of assassination by the Apple Secret Police I presume). Word on the street is that resellers across the country have also received similar packages. As seen by the picture, it's (sic) contents are protected under NDA until Tuesday June 10 – does that date ring a bell to anyone?" (link)

June 10, I am informed, is what day it will be in Australia when Steve Jobs delivers the keynote in which he is expected to unveil the new iPhone.

Fear of violating an Apple (AAPL) nondisclosure agreement (NDA) must be very powerful indeed if it can reach halfway around the world and keep the recipient of this package — whose name and address have been blacked out — from opening it a couple days early

Here, as promised, are what those boxes looked like stacked outside Quanta's West Coast shipping facility in Fremont, Calif., courtesy of iPhone stalker Brian Caulfield/Forbes.com. There's plenty more where that came from here.

[Australian photo reposted by permission of MacTalk Australia.]

So when is th 3G phone coming ?

ex ped: July 11.

Posted By Dolly, NYC, NY: June 9, 2008 2:51 PM

If an aussie was to open it at 12:01am on the 10th it would not be violating the NDA (well, the short message on the box) and that would make it before the keynote.

Posted By Mj: June 6, 2008 8:56 PM

Fake. I looked at metadata for that picture it is inconsistent. i.e. meta data says that it was taken by iPhone and has f stop. (meta data from iPhone pics has no f stop or iPhone as picture device). The point is that Author of the pic was trying so hard to make this pic to look real that he failed. Rumors just getting ridiculous at this point.

Posted By iSmashPhone, Philadelphia PA: June 6, 2008 1:45 PM

About stamp*****

Just dig this…

"It's not. That's the certification stamp dealie from the box manufacturer that tells you how much it can safely carry etc. Like this one.

God I know some useless shit."

Posted By dragon10, Belgrade Serbia: June 6, 2008 1:15 PM

The author of this article should go back to the grammar book before writing for such a well-known organization.

"As seen by the picture, it’s (sic) contents are protected under NDA until Tuesday June 10 – does that date ring a bell to anyone?” (link)"

It should be …its contents not it's contents!!!

ex ped: The error was MacTalk's, not mine. That's what the "(sic)" is supposed to indicate.

Posted By maia, new york, ny: June 6, 2008 12:34 PM

who cares! the 3G iPhone is coming, we all know it, who cares if its this month or next month?

Posted By Ben, San Francisco, CA: June 6, 2008 12:24 PM

NO!!! WWDC is 10AM San Fransisco hour… so that means 3AM in Sydney…

When the stores open in the morning the whole world will know about it

Posted By Thierry, Hong Kong: June 6, 2008 11:10 AM

FAKE

Posted By Jim, Rotterdam, Holland: June 6, 2008 11:04 AM

Hmmm. 10:00 AM in Sydney is about 6:00 PM the day before in Cupertino. Opening this thing at the beginning of the business day in Australia would be mere hours after Job's address, not really the next day…

Posted By Ed Baize, San Diego, CA: June 6, 2008 10:59 AM

So, so fake it should have an iStockphoto attribution…

Posted By Marco, Toronto, ON: June 6, 2008 10:44 AM

Fake photo. Why would the box label be on top of the circular stamp? This is a fake.

Posted By London, UK: June 6, 2008 10:39 AM

June 10 (in Australia) is in fact the date Steve Jobs delivers his address (in the US)…

Posted By Nick, Seattle WA: June 6, 2008 10:37 AM

You're a journalist?

Sic is a Latin word meaning "thus", "so", "as such", or "just as that". In writing, it is placed within square brackets and usually italicized—[sic]—to indicate that an incorrect or unusual spelling, phrase, punctuation, and/or other preceding quoted material has been reproduced verbatim from the quoted original and is not a transcription error.[1]

It had a long vowel in Latin (sīc), meaning that it was pronounced like the English word "seek"; however, it is normally anglicised to /'sɪk/ (like the English word, "sick")

Posted By dennis, phoenix arizona: June 6, 2008 10:29 AM

Ever hear of Point of Sale materials? Apple would not be that stupid to ship any new rumored iphones on a 4 week cargo ship. Ever hear of Fed-Ex?

Posted By Billy, New York, NY,: June 6, 2008 10:26 AM

Actually, June 10 is the date OF the WWDC keynote in Australia, not the day after. When Steve Jobs takes the stage, it will be June 9 in the US, but it will be June 10 in Australia. So the owner of that package can open it even before the Jobs keynote without violating the NDA.

Posted By Jason, Houston, TX: June 6, 2008 10:25 AM

Tuesday in Australia is Monday in the US…

Posted By Chuck U. Farley – Anytown: June 6, 2008 10:20 AM
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt

Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Steve Jobs, goes the old joke at Apple, is surrounded by a reality distortion field; get too close and you believe what he's saying. Apple has made believers out of millions of customers — and made a lot of investors rich — but Philip Elmer-DeWitt believes that an ounce of skepticism never hurts when writing about the company. He should know. He's been covering Apple – and watching Steve Jobs operate — since 1982.
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