{"id":59247,"date":"2025-08-05T03:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T03:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/59247\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T03:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T03:48:15","slug":"possible-iphone-17-spy-photo-is-a-lesson-that-cameras-are-everywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/59247\/","title":{"rendered":"Possible iPhone 17 Spy Photo Is a Lesson That Cameras Are Everywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple’s mission to put a camera in everyone’s hand may have backfired.<\/p>\n

The Apple community is buzzing about a photo posted on social media recently that purportedly shows an unreleased iPhone 17 being tested in the wild.<\/p>\n

In the photos, shared by X user @Skyfops, a person wearing sunglasses and a hat holds up two phones while walking down the street. One of them clearly looks like an iPhone with its Apple logo covered by a piece of black tape \u2014 the other device looks a bit different.<\/p>\n

The second device, which appears to be in a case, has a camera lens placement that looks similar to that of current models, but the relocated lidar and LED flash stand out.<\/p>\n

The X user who shared the photos said he captured them in San Francisco’s Union Square. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.<\/p>\n

If legitimate \u2014 Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote in his recent “Power On” newsletter<\/a> that it was “likely” an iPhone 17 Pro \u2014 it would be a rare example of an unreleased iPhone being captured in the wild. And, like the viral Coldplay Kiss Cam moment<\/a>, it’s yet another reminder that cameras are everywhere these days.<\/p>\n

Longtime Apple fans likely remember the famous iPhone 4 leak<\/a>, where an Apple employee left an unreleased test model at a bar, and Gizmodo got a hold of it and published a detailed analysis of the device in 2010.<\/p>\n

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Apple is famously secretive, but it still needs to test unreleased products in real-world conditions, not just the lab. To do this, it often uses special cases that camouflage the device’s outward appearance. That unreleased iPhone 4, for example, was found in a case that made it look like an iPhone 3GS.<\/p>\n

As for the iPhone 17’s form factor<\/a>, reports emerged last year that one of the models in the lineup would be a major redesign, a noticeably slimmer model. Informally referred to as the “iPhone 17 Air” within the Apple community, the device is expected to sacrifice some of the cutting-edge tech found in a “Pro” model in order to deliver on a thinner form factor.<\/p>\n

Morningstar analyst William Kerwin said the firm expects a new form factor from Apple this September. However, he’s not yet convinced that a “slim” version would be enough to meaningfully move the needle on iPhone sales, saying that it’s what’s beneath the hardware that’s more important.<\/p>\n

“We still think that Apple improving its AI software offering is the most critical strategy for revitalizing iPhone unit sales growth,” Kerwin said.<\/p>\n

Despite the new placement of the flash, Forrester analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee told BI that “incremental enhancements” are still the name of the game for Apple.<\/p>\n

It’s all about making the iPhone “a little bit better \u2014 a little bit slimmer,” he said.<\/p>\n

Have a tip? Contact this reporter from a non-work email and device at jhart@businessinsider.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple’s mission to put a camera in everyone’s hand may have backfired. The Apple community is buzzing about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[517,44490,270,21087,36412,44488,44487,44493,4536,44491,165,44485,26192,44486,74,44489,44492],"class_list":["post-59247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-apple","tag-bit","tag-business-insider","tag-camera","tag-case","tag-current-model","tag-form-factor","tag-forrester-analyst-dipanjan-chatterjee","tag-iphone","tag-led-flash","tag-mobile","tag-other-device","tag-reminder","tag-spy-photo","tag-technology","tag-wild","tag-x-user-skyfops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}