New iPhone Expected at Apple Developer Conference

Apple announced the dates Wednesday of its Worldwide Developers Conference, where the company is expected to introduce a new iPhone (even though tech blog Gizmodo may have spoiled the surprise).

Taking place June 7 to June 11 at San Francisco's Moscone West convention hall, the five-day conference includes hands-on sessions for software developers to become familiar with iPhone OS 4 and Mac OS X. In previous WWDC events, Apple has announced new products during a keynote presentation that kicks off the conference.

Apple announced new iPhones during both WWDC 2008 and WWDC 2009, so we expect the introduction of a fourth-generation iPhone. Because the conference is software-centric, we can also expect more details about the next iPhone operating system, iPhone OS 4, which was previewed in early April.

Meanwhile, the tech community is still bubbling with a mixture of excitement and anger over Gizmodo's publication of a lost iPhone prototype, which many believe is a near-final version of that fourth-generation iPhone. Apple engineer Gray Powell reportedly left the iPhone in a bar, which was retrieved by an individual who later sold the device to Gizmodo. The tech blog published photos and videos of the device and later returned it to Apple.

Police have since launched an investigation on the case of the missing iPhone, which involved raiding the house of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen and seizing his electronic equipment — an action whose validity is being disputed. Wired.com's Threat Level reported Tuesday that police have identified the finder of the phone, but a name has not yet been disclosed to the public.

See Also:

• What to Expect From Apple at WWDC 2009
• WWDC Report Card: Wired.com Grades the Apple Rumor Blogs
• Apple Debuts Aggressively Priced iPhone 3GS, MacBooks
• Expect Next iPhone Hardware, Software in Early July

Copy-and-paste on iPhone OS 3
Jon Snyder/Wired.com