NoWhereElse.fr originally posted these images depicting what might be the next iPhone. They show the matte black casing, lack of chrome border, and front facing camera that have been rumored.

It is worth mentioning that, as MacRumors points out, there haven’t been any valid sources claiming that the iPhone will be getting video chat (which is presumably what the front facing camera would be for) it is possible that this “rumored” video chat feature is nothing more than wishful thinking that got a little out of hand, somehow managing to morph into (what many, possibly misguided, people believe to be) a legitimate rumor. It is something that a lot of us would find very useful. But, the amount of power necessary to capture video and push it over the network would certainly take a toll on the battery, so much so that Apple might not want to even go there. At least not until they can get an efficient enough battery to do it right. Baby steps, isn’t standard video capture and MMS enough?

If this video chat actually is the real deal though, TUAW wouldn’t be too out there by bringing up the possibility that the next iPhone could be named the “iPhone Video.”

I do want to go on the record saying that I believe these images are actually fake. Not just because it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to fake them, but also because when you blow the image up there appears to be a line across the phone at roughly the top of the bottom four icons. This line marks a sudden change from fuzzy to significantly less fuzzy, not just on the screen but on the bezel around the screen as well. This change doesn’t appear on the surface around the phone, only on the phone.

I’m by no means an expert at analyzing images but if I was to give you my best educated guess, I would say that this image is fake.

(Engadget currently mirroring the images).

Update 6/7/09: Gizmodo posts some more images (with iSpazio watermarks, I can’t find the original post they appear on), most likely from the same source as the images above, showing more of the next generation iPhone in action. The video chat interface looks very cluttered and honestly, what is the likelihood of him being able to convince someone else with the next iPhone to talk with him while he takes a picture of the device?

Update 6/7/09: Gizmodo has done some more extensive analysis on these latest crop of supposed iPhone images. They come to the same conclusion as I did, but for different reasons.

Update 6/8/09: Gizmodo has confirmed that the iSspazio images are fake. The picture showing video conferencing in action is just an iPhone with a screenshot from the Skype app. The terrible part is that the image’s watermark obscures the Skype icon.

Update 6/10/09: Obviously all of these images were fake. WWDC Keynote 2009.