And that was just fine for a while. The problem now is that we’re just months away from a new iPhone, and then what will we have? Three models of iPhone on the market? Each with slightly different capabilities? Catering to slightly different capacities? That’s just not the Apple way.

If this terrifying prospect was keeping you up at night, rest easy, because news from Europe of an innocuous packaging mixup hints at the upcoming availability of an 8GB iPhone 3GS. An eagle-eyed customer in Germany posted on the apfeltalk.de discussion board that his refurbished 8GB iPhone 3G arrived sporting a SKU packaging label describing something the same, only different — an 8GB iPhone 3GS.

Image by .david at apfeltalk.de

The customer, known as .david on the Apfeltalk.de message board, had this to say (translation by Google via Gizmodo):

Seems to be an iPhone 3G (back and no compass, FW) 3.0.1 on it. However, the packaging is clearly designed for an iPhone 3G [S] 8GB. Ordered was a refurbished 3G iPhone 8GB.

Vote: who have a refurbished iPhone 3G in a new packaging of the packaged iPhone 3G [S] 8GB, because the enhancement is clearly new. Which clearly indicates that the sale of the iPhone 3G [S] 8GB immediately imminent.

.david’s mind is made up; he’s certain this means an 8GB iPhone 3GS is on the way. Another possibility, of course, is that this is a typo. But I tend to agree with my Teutonic neighbor. Apple’s next revision to the iPhone is not too far away, and it makes sense to establish the 3GS feature-set as the de-facto for all iPhones moving forward. Because, y’know, that magnetometer makes a difference!

What’s your take on this? Obvious indicator of things to come, or some dispatch technician’s unfortunate mis-type?

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Of the more-than 200 features for which Apple applied for patents, the latest approved patent has been unearthed recently by Cell Passion. And this one isn’t for the iPhone, but for the packaging it comes in!

One of many diagrams in the Patent

Of the 17 designers named in the patent, “Ive; Jonathan P. (San Francisco, CA)” and “Jobs; Steve (Palo Alto, CA)” stand out.

You can view the full patent file, including many more diagrams, here.

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Initial Impressions

The look and feel of the new MacBook Pro is one of luxury. The aluminum shell has clearly enjoyed hours of planning, thought and tedious design work before being unleashed. It’s hard to fault the physical make-up of the new machine, with the only arguable exception being the glossy display. From the short time I have spent using the MacBook Pro so far, the screen really doesn’t seem to pose a problem — it is by far bright enough to offset any reflection or glare.

The packaging is clearly reduced from the predecessor, but there’s still plenty of room for all the box contents. It goes to show the amount of wastage which is common in computer packaging.

We’ll spend a little time getting to grips with the new machine, and will follow up shortly with a full review.

Check out the full gallery below.

 

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