Rumors are flying that Apple will announce a new, smaller version of the iPhone at MacWorld, the company's big annual conference Jan. 5 to 9, 2009.
MacWorld is traditionally where Apple CEO Steve Jobs makes his biggest product announcements — including, two years ago, the announcement of the first iPhone. And it does make sense that the iPhone will receive some kind of upgrade.
But the "Nano iPhone" that iDealsChina is so excited about is probably a fake. Sorry, Apple fans. It's just not that much smaller than a regular iPhone 3G, and it's hard to imagine Jobs getting excited about something that's just a little smaller (and lacking 3G). Plus, as soundasia.com points out, iDealsChina is a "questionably reliable" source.
Instead, consider the imaginary iPhone Shuffle mockup that Wired.com threw together, above. This would be a truly revolutionary "companion phone" for people on the go. Need to make a call? Use voice dialing to call up anyone on your contact list, or speak the numbers aloud. Need to add a new number to your list? Do it on your computer, then sync. Want to see the list of recent calls? Ditto: Do it on your computer. Between calls, just listen to the music and podcasts you've loaded on the device, since it also works like a standard iPod Shuffle.
We decided to skip putting in holes for the microphone and speakers; to use this phone's calling capabilities, you'll need to connect an iPhone headset. Sorry, no speakerphone either. You know how Jobs doesn't like practical things such as buttons and holes messing up the clean lines of his designs.
We would put an accelerometer in the iPhone Shuffle, though. Why? So you can shake the phone to dial someone at random!
Think you can do better? Show us your future iPhone concept art! Enter your own mockups in the widget below, or vote for the ones you think are the best.
And yes, there will be prizes! The top-ranked entry (as of 4 p.m. Pacific time on Dec. 19, 2008) that is actually an iPhone concept will win these two valuable prizes:
a real iPod Shuffle (a $49 value!) a genuine Chinese iPhone knockoff, the amusing and almost totally useless HiPhone. Just be sure to give us a URL where we can reach you in the entry form below. Good luck, and may the best fake iPhone win!
