Lots of questions were answered with the introduction of Apple's iPhone back in January, but an important one still remains: how do the photos look like? I've been searching for "taken with an apple iphone" on Google for well over a month now (not constantly!!) and I guess it was worth it.
First pictures showed up on Flickr the other day and I can say they look pretty awesome for a 2 megapixel camera (at least one of the two). In fact, the second one looks like crap.
Here's the EXIF data from one of the images:
Camera: Apple iPhone
Aperture: f/2.8
Orientation: Rotated 90 degrees clockwise
Date and Time: 2007:04:21 10:23:45
Color Space: sRGB
Tag::EXIF::0xA500: 11/5
Compression: JPEG
Image Width: 1600 pixels
Image Height: 1200 pixels
We also Googled the Flickr user, but we still have no idea if she's an Apple employee or just some lucky guy not. Either way, check out the photos below:
Update: Both pictures have been taken down from Flickr. First they were marked as private, then deleted. It also turns out that the person who uploaded the pictures is an Apple employee. According to a commenter, one of the pictures was taken in a
steakhouse called Alexanders', in Cupertino, CA, just three miles from the Apple HQ.
Via Flickr
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67 comments
wow, the second one looks like it was taken with a sidekick, lol.
@jake: I'm guessing it's because of the lights coming from the front which is making the second pic look so crappy.
the first picture is much nicer than the one my nokia makes! And it's only 2. megapixels? How is that possible?
The guy set the pictures to private. Something's going on here.
Pretty impressive for a 2 megapixel camera, I must say. This just made me think more about getting one.
it just goes to show you, lighting is everything :P
A 2 Megapixel camera doesn't = Good picture. It just means a BIG picture resolution wise. Besides, these pics are very small (400 * 500 px), so you can't see the detail. The first pic is clear, but it has a horrible blue overtone. And while the second pic looks very grainy, it's also subject to bad lighting.
Megapixel is only part of the equation - at the size above, a 1 megapixel with a Leica lens will produce a vastly better picture than a 5- megapixel with a lens from Fisher Price. Megapixel important if you want to print large sizes but at 4x6, your lens is more important than whether it's 1 Mega or 3 mega - it's exactly like engine size. A 400 horsepower 8 cylinder in a BMW is great - you take that same engine and drop it in a 1984 Cavalier, you'll have a mismatch.
Like people have been saying The lense is the main determining factor of how a picture is Going to turn out. An average consumer doesn't need anythign bigger than a 5-6 megapixle camera. The only people who do are proffesionals who are going to be working a lot in photoshop or are gong to be making huge prints of there pictures.
We now know Richard D. James eats toast.
how come this story was buried on digg and the one from mac rumors is still on there? That's pretty unfair if you ask me!
It's a woman's profile on flickr. She's the one in the second picture.
excellent legend of zelda hoodie!
to me, the quality looks great for a phone. I have a digicam and I'm carrying it everywhere so I really don't need a camera for my phone, but it's good for a quick shot!
It all looks legit, I don't know why people are complaining about this. I think she screwed up and when she realized the pictures are on the whole internet she removed them.
It has also been confirmed that she is an apple emplyee. I think that's all the proof you need.
The restaraunt (at least in the second photo) is a steakhouse on Wolfe, at Vallco Mall, called "Alexanders'", in Cupertino, CA. This is about 3 miles from Apple HQ, and since the phone is in testing stage, this adds more credibility. Alexanders' is annoyingly costly, and you walk by the huge cuts of meat on the way to the hostess' podium
uuuuuum
I can just guess her new work away message.
"We're sorry - the Apple jr. product developer you're trying to reach has been canned...."
don't believe the second one is... horrible quality! no way!
I'm pretty sure I saw the toast guy presenting onstage at WWDC in 2005 or 2006. He might have been one of the Dashboard engineers, but I'm not completely certain.
so what if it is taken with an i phone. Hello? cameras on phones have been here since a few years ago. Looks like a lot of people are really dumb enough to be fooled by smart marketing.
tsk. tsk. tsk.
Googling for "toast is a powerup" results in a flikr user called "meriko" living in S.F. ;-)
Interesting
Trinidadian :
"A 2 Megapixel camera doesn't = Good picture. It just means a BIG picture resolution wise. Besides, these pics are very small (400 * 500 px)"
thats 0.2MP my friend. 2MP are usually 1600x1200
Yes stausi, but the original photos are 1600x1200.
That poor woman is going to be "toast" tomorrow (erm, later today).
To the owner of this site: You could've copied the image to another Web server and posted this same article (referencing the image from its copied location), but without identification tracing it back to its source.
By identifying that it came from Flickr, the ensuing witch hunt has identified that the photo-taker (the subject is her husband) is an Apple iPhone team member, and the fact that she probably snuck one of the test units off-campus will undoubtedly result in her being fired as a result. I bet she didn't even realize the EXIF info was uploaded in the image, too.
I hope you feel good about yourself for having gotten this girl canned. Shame on you!
those pics look sucks (than any other mobile phones)
@Riot
She won't get canned! Maybe Apple deliberately uploaded the pictures to Flickr just to create more interest for the iPhone! If anything, she'll get a raise.
haha, why does everybody keep saying that you were typing it constantly?? I'm guessing you searched for it once every other day, considering the fact that the photos were uploaded on April 26, and you posted the article on April 28.
The second one is disgusting, I won't buy that phone....
... ;)
but it is disgusting, anyway.
The guy in the first shot looks a lot like Derek to me:
http://www.obsessionwithfood.com/
Oops, Derrick.
Apple is very quick to fire people for stuff like this. The problem is that this kind of thing has a real and measurable effect on the apple stock price and on product sales. Apple loses either way. If word gets out that the photos suck, then they lose marketing momentum and possibly get a lower share price. On the other hand, if word gets out that the iPhone is the best camera in the world ever and that it will replace an entire professional photo studio, then when it comes out and it's just a decent camera, the backlash is usually brutal and again share prices are affected.
My guess about what happened is that this person was working on the iphone's image processing, decided independently to take test shots outside of apple, took some good personal photos that she wanted to keep, and loaded them onto her personal machine, then to her personal flikr account, not remembering that there was exif data. I'm guessing that if she had limited herself to less interesting work-related shots for testing the iPhone's camera, this wouldn't have happened.
The best thing for Apple shareholders is for apple's marketing department to have control, rather than the web at large. In fact they all sign NDAs and have at-will employment agreements. There is no end to the reminders to keep everything confidential. So when an apple employee slips up and leaks, there is very little sympathy from management. I used to work there and probably shouldn't be posting this.
Hmm, it looks like Derrick Schneider (guy in the first photo) is a Senior Programmer at Edusoft, according to Linkedin.
I agree that it looks like Derrick. He's been a Mac person since he was a kid, writing "Zen and the Art of Resource Editing" in the late 80's and "The Tao of Apple Script" in the early 90's. Has always had long hair pulled back that way. Super nice guy.
Looks like the ID is correct:
www.edibleeastbay.com/ pages/contributors.htm
3/4's down on left is DS
Congratulations, you got someone fired. I wonder if they have a family to feed.
Great detective work. I love internet sleuthing! You people make me smile. :) Now get your overpaid 4ss3s back to work! ;)
On another note... I doubt she'll get fired. She's likely authorized to use a prototype (housed in a non-iPhone-ish enclosure) and the taking of photos is probably regarded as normal behavior.
First, it's not a she unless that she is on some serious testosterone shots and undergoing a sex-change, given the 7 PM shadow.
The person whose flickr account these pictures were posted to is a female. The gender of the male in the photo is not in question.
"Alexanders' is annoyingly costly, and you walk by the huge cuts of meat on the way to the hostess' podium"
Well, costly if you think Grade A6 Kobe beef can be found at Costco.
Can someone please post a copy of that second picture? :D I wanna see that one too!
the second picture is right under the first one.
that guy looks like a woman, or is it?????????????
you people still asking the gender of the person in the photo?? read the comments, he's a GUY !!
and now! the first image to be taken with an Google Phone:
omfglmfao.com/index.php/site/first_image_taken_with_a_google_phone/
The "toast" picture was taken in Vitale, the restaurant in the Hotel Americano in SF. hotelvitale.com/dining
see left third of here:
http://hotelvitale.com/images/dynamic/header/main_restaurant2.jpg
The "virtual tour" link make it certain.
Wow look I can take pictures with the iPhone too here is my EXIF data from pictures I took:
Camera: Apple iPhone
Aperture: f/2.8
Orientation: Rotated 90 degrees clockwise
Date and Time: 2007:04:29 13:33:21
blah blah blah...
Show me the screen shot of that EXIF data and maybe it will be believable. Until then this is just text that anybody can write and post.
Jules, you idiot. Unless you can edit the EXIF data AND get an Apple iPhone employee to post it, then you don't know what you are talking about... cause that's what it would take to imitate these photos.
Um. That woman in the second photo is an exgirlfriend. She does not work for Apple. She's living in Georgia and is visiting her friend (the owner of the flickr account) who, indeed does work for apple
First photo:
Girl or Guy?
Ollie: According to another post, the person in the first photo is wearing a Zelda pullover so despite the obviously male features it's GOT to be a woman. :)
Or, it's very clever Apple marketing.
By providing "regular" shots it makes it more believable that it's not specially-tailored marketing.
By having one decent and one sub-par quality pictures it shows that camera is same quality as any other 2MP fixed-focus plastic lens camera, so don't expect anything more.
By flickr account holder's reaction and taking down the pictures it makes it even more believable that it's "slip up" and "real".
Apple has to maintain the hype about the phone. They do read all the blogs and news and forums. They see what people want to see. So Apple gives to them - picture here, screenshot there (albeit no real-life screenshots out there yet)
My 2 ct...
Dami, that's just what the CIA wants you to think.
Here is the result of my investigation into the iPhone photos:
www.appleiphonereview.com/rumors/photos-taken-on-an-iphone-all-but-confirmed-see-proof/
she's purdy....
I think both of these pictures are not good at all. Too bad quality to come from a brand new product.
More pics of Derrick for comparison:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissanicole/134886117/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissanicole/110154177/
http://www.eatingbritain.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/derrick_pic.jpg
from a photographer's point of view the first image just has wrong white balance. focus, lighting, noise level, distortion etc. is too good for a phone. the second one is a lighting desaster to start with. If the camera was able to measure the need for some overexposure (no flash...) and compensate with an iso-adjustment up into the 800s or higher (the noise) it is - again - too good for a phone. If they *are* from a phone, leaking them deliberately – absolutely makes sense.
The fon is one thing...but you've got to have a supporting network...and I don't mean Alltel...VZ seems ok in SW Fla & metro areas..
Toast guy speaks.
Nice read :)
spectacular
I Want To Knw The Latest apple iphone Cost....
These iPhone photos beat my Motorola Razer pix hands down. I'm looking forward to the 2008 models.
It is quite impressive but I think SE's phones are much better like w800i/w810i/k750i for 2MP
Is that a guy or a girl
in first photo?
D:
omg seriosly wat is dat thing in the first pic guy...girl...both??? plz answer i just need 2 no is there lyk a new species????
-from ME