prototypes

Criminal charges recently filed against two men who allegedly sold a prototype iPhone to Gizmodo.com have a not-so-obvious side effect.

A successful conviction in San Mateo County will make it easier for Apple to win a civil suit against the gadget blog, if it pursues one as its lawyers threatened last year, legal experts tell CNET.

"Will the criminal case help them? Absolutely," says Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who's a former federal public defender. "They're going to learn a lot more about what happened." (See related story … Read more

Photos of a supposed fifth-generation iPod Touch have cropped up online today, first appearing on MacRumors, then later on gadget site Crunchgear. Both show an alleged prototype iPod Touch with two interesting features: 128GB of storage and a capacitive home button.

The current generation iPod Touch tops out at 64GB, putting the version in the pictures at double the capacity. As for the home button, this would be an interesting move given that it has been a moving part on Apple's iOS devices since the original iPhone. Apple briefly dabbled in non-moving, touch-activated buttons with the third-generation iPod, before … Read more

COLOGNE, Germany--Sony's two translucent-mirror cameras are going to get a big brother, an advanced model geared for enthusiasts, the electronics giant said Tuesday.

The Sony Alpha 33 and 55 arrived earlier this year sporting an SLR look but lacking a mirror that flips out of the way when it's time for the photo to be taken and the light to go to the sensor rather than the viewfinder. Instead, these models use a translucent mirror that sends most of the light to the sensor but shares some with an autofocus subsystem. Sony's SLT (single-lens translucent) cameras use an electronic viewfinder; there's no optical viewfinder.

One result of the SLT designs is a camera that can shoot 10 frames per second with autofocus continuously engaged and that can use autofocus even when shooting video. Another result is demand for a55 and a33 that pushed back until 2011 availability of Sony's A560, which uses the same image sensor.

So it's probably no surprise that Sony is pushing ahead with further models. … Read more

For months, little news has surfaced about the police investigation into the sale last spring of a lost prototype iPhone 4. That may soon change.

Stephen Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, Calif., told CNET today that police are close to wrapping up their theft investigation and could forward their final report to his office within the next few weeks. Wagstaffe will then review the information and determine whether to file criminal charges.

As part of the investigation, police interviewed a "number of Apple employees" and other people connected to the case, including Apple CEO … Read more

Just after Canon announced second-generation 300mm and 400mm telephoto lenses for its SLRs, the Japanese camera maker also said Friday that it will show prototypes of revamped supertelephoto lenses with 500mm and 600mm focal lengths.

The two prototypes, officially called the EF500mm f/4L IS II USM and EF600mm f/4L IS II USM, are second-generation successors to the current products introduced in July and September 1999, respectively. They'll be on display at the Photokina show in Cologne, Germany, later in September, at which the spotlight shines brightly on high-end gear.

Canon was characteristically reserved about the prototypes, saying release dates and specifications haven't been decided, but the company appears to be applying the similar revisions that it brought to the 300mm and 400mm lenses: better image stabilization, better image quality, and lighter weight.

"The EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM and EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM are being developed as L (Luxury)-series lenses equipped with a high-performance image stabilization system," Canon said. "Employing fluorite and other special optical materials to correct for a variety of aberrations, the lenses aim to realize high-resolution, high-contrast imaging performance in a lighter-weight body design." … Read more

Apple has ended a nearly 10-year partnership with engineering-design firm SurfaceInk, after the latter showed off a tablet prototype of its own, according to The New York Times.

SurfaceInk CEO Eric Bauswell told the Times on Thursday that they parted ways after SurfaceInk recently unveiled a 12.1-inch, Linux-based tablet--a potential rival to Apple's iPad. Bauswell said that Apple viewed the product as a threat.

SurfaceInk, which also has a turnkey business that creates and licenses products, has enjoyed success in the tech world. According to its site, the company's clients have included Hewlett-Packard, Palm, and Belkin.

Apple … Read more

Authorities have finally begun examining the computers, server, and other electronic gear seized from a Gizmodo editor as part of the investigation into a missing iPhone prototype.

Stephen Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, told CNET on Wednesday that a court there had appointed a "special master" to search the items seized from the home of Jason Chen in late April. The court has asked the special master to collect only information that pertains to Gizmodo's dealings with an iPhone prototype that the blog purchased for $5,000.

In March, an Apple employee lost … Read more

Records released Friday in the ongoing investigation into a lost prototype iPhone painted an unfavorable picture of Brian Hogan, the 21-year-old student who found the device and later sold it to a gadget blog.

According to police records released as part of an affidavit in San Mateo County (Calif.) Superior Court, Hogan's roommate, Katherine Martinson, told authorities that Hogan knew the identity of the owner very soon after finding the handset but had no intention of returning it. Robert Gray Powell, a 27-year-old Apple engineer, lost the phone in March after a night of drinking in a Redwood City, … Read more

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--A San Mateo County judge on Thursday refused to consider a request by media organizations to learn the justification police used to search a Gizmodo editor's home for information about the sale of a possible iPhone prototype.

Judge Stephen Hall rejected the group's request for a hearing on Thursday, instead assigning it to the judge who granted the search warrant last month and who is expected to hear arguments next week.

The District Attorney's Office opposed the request filed by CNET, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, the Los Angeles Times, and other news organizations in … Read more