SlashGear

Images purporting to be of the upcoming third-generation iPod touch have been spotted in the world, believed to be retrieved by a recycler of Apple tech after the company threw a prototype away.  Tipped as a “durability test” handset – hence the damage – the iPod touch 3G shows a camera lens mounted in the top middle of the rear panel, which certainly corroborates with leaked case designs we’ve seen before.

Video after the cut

Early skepticism centered around the quality of the image in the camera portion of the iPod touch, which led some to suggest that it had been Photoshopped into the rear casing.  However a higher-resolution picture – which you can see in the gallery below – seems to confirm that hasn’t happened.

Other points in its favor are the red internal motherboard, traditionally used by Apple in its prototype devices, and the video you can see below.  The images and video were sent to Canadian radio DJs Covino & Rich, who also published the following quote from their source:

According to that man (he works with Apple)…

“-to show it’s real. If you look at the board, it states Apple 2009 very clear. The 2nd gen AKA iPod touch out now, has 2008 on it. They haven’t revised the 2008 touch. I will compare them in pic in a sec.

-BTW, these phones NEVER leave Apple and this one left but it was a durability test phone, so that’s why the screen is all gridded off and cracked.

-The side by side picture is the inside of the current gen vs the 3rd gen (one coming out in September).

-I acquired this from a guy that I buy parts phones and iPods from. I believe he’s a recycler in ***********, so what most likely happened is that Apple threw this away and he some how got it and sold it for parts.”

[via MacRumors]