A look at an original iPhone prototype

Seeing what looks like a full iPhone attached to it (I know it's just the screen, but the inclusion of a taped-over home button is interesting) gives me kind of a "Thinking quickly, Dave constructed an iPhone using a circuit board, some tape, and an iPhone" vibe.

If anything a big board like this is one way to ensure it&#x27;s not easy to steal.<p>The on-board (pun intended) documentation - &quot;Do not connect battery without removing J49&quot;, etc - is pretty neat too. Is this something that&#x27;s fairly standard in the industry?

The &quot;M68&quot; name is interesting, given that Apple has a long history with the M68K processor, which isn&#x27;t involved here. I wonder if it&#x27;s a nod to the first Mac or the Lisa.

That&#x27;s really interesting. Whose job is it to actually design and develop the prototype board? It seems like that team would have to know quite a bit, if not nearly everything, about the device.

Why the anonymous source? 10 year old secrets in a rapid-development technology seem like non-secrets, so who&#x27;s willing to &quot;leak&quot; but not be identifiable at this point?<p>Maybe Apple has strict secrecy rules that are only partially enforced? I don&#x27;t quite get it.

&gt; &quot;many of the engineers working on the original handset didn’t even know what it would eventually look like&quot;<p>This is a stretch. Guaranteed that if you are working on just chips then you might be living in just your own silo.

Is it me or does it look like the top layer has reaaaaally thick copper? Look at how it differs between areas with those squares contra area without. Looks like it&#x27;s very very thick. Perhaps the solder mask.

Is the checkerboard pattern on the top layer for aesthetics, or is it functional for EMI reduction.

Does it connect to my airpods though? :)