White iPhone Video Displays Alternative iOS 4

It may not be a glimpse into Apple’s iOS future, but it’s certainly an interesting artifact from the past.

On 19 April , the Vietnamese website Tinhte posted a video clip of a white iPhone 4 in action – complete with what seemed like a new multitasking menu, with thumbnail images of open apps arranged on a grid. This differed from the current multitasking model in iOS, which presents open apps on a tray along the bottom of the screen, and thus seemed significant enough for the blog Engadget to repost it.

Unreleased version of iOS 4

The Apple-centric blog 9to5Mac soon posted another video from Tinhte showing off the particulars of the white iPhone, including the camera aperture and (via the Settings menu) 64GB drive.

A little later, Engadget updated its original post, suggesting that the Expose-style multitasking and other features were indicative of “an early, unreleased version of iOS 4” and “probably not something to get your hopes up about”.

In a few isolated but notable incidents, Vietnamese websites have offered up interesting tidbits on upcoming Apple products. In May 2010, the online forum Taoviet posted images and video of a prototype iPhone 4, roughly similar to the one dissected the previous month by Gizmodo.

The white iPhone 4 is to arrive sometime this spring, according to multiple sources including Apple executive Philip Schiller.

In the meantime, speculation is rampant about Apple’s next iPhone and major iOS overhaul. Current rumours suggest that the iPhone 5 could include Apple’s A5 proprietary processor, 8-megapixel camera, hardware upgraded to enable 3G FaceTime video conferencing, and NFC (near-field communication) technology, which would allow the smartphone to act as an electronic wallet.

iPhone 5

Rumours also abound that Apple plans to delay the iPhone 5 past the usual summer timeframe for its smartphone releases, to sometime later in 2011. Other sources have suggested to blogs like TechCrunch that iOS 5, the next iteration of Apple’s mobile software, will also see a later release, although its features will almost certainly be previewed at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

“The new iOS will be heavily built around the cloud, and we could see several new services launch from Apple that take advantage of this,” read TechCrunch’s 26 March report. “But much of the cloud stuff will be talked about first at WWDC.”

Although Apple’s mobile devices command a healthy market-share – particularly the iPad, which dominates the tablet segment – the company faces aggressive competition from the growing family of Google Android devices. In a lawsuit filed on 15 April in US District Court in San Francisco, Apple accused Samsung, one of the more prominent Android-based manufacturers, of patent infringement – goading Samsung to claim it would fire a counter-lawsuit right back.