Next-Gen iPhone Spotted?Next-Gen iPhone Spotted?

A fuzzy image of what could be the rear side of the next-generation iPhone is making its way across the Internet. It looks like a shrunken iPad more than an evolved iPhone. Real or not, Sasktel's CEO accidentally said the next-gen iPhone is coming in June.Whether or not the images are genuine is up to you to decide. It looks real enough, but the images have been edited in Adobe PhotoShop CS4, according to the file metadata. That should tell you all you need to know.

Even if they are fake, I like the aluminum design. I'd love for Apple to take its iPad and MacBook design language to the iPhone. The problem is, this design could interfere with the cellular radio. Remember, the original iPhone had a metal back surface, too, but also an area that was covered only in plastic to allow the radios to function properly.

What's really interesting is that the originator of the this image didn't think to include a flash. It has the same simple hole for the camera on the back, but nothing else to indicate that the device would have a flash. Based on code that developers have dug out of the iPhone OS SDK, the next-gen iPhone could support a flash.

Beyond this, yesterday SaskTel CEO Robert Watson accidentally outed the next-gen iPhone when speaking to his local newspaper. He said, "The good news is that (Apple) is coming out with a new version of the iPhone in the June time-frame and they're going to put us on that. So we're quite excited about that." (In case you're wondering why you've never heard of SaskTel, that's because it is a small wireless operator based in Saskatchewan, Canada.)

Is Watson party to information from Apple about the next iPhone, or is he really just guessing? I'll let you decide.