Another IPhone Prototype found

Almost a month after an iPhone 4G prototype was found in a US bar, reports of discovering a second next-generation prototype of the gadget in Vietnam are making rounds.

The secret gadget, identified by technology experts as being similar to a version found recently in a Silicon Valley bar, was given to a mobile phone accessory dealer in Ho Chi Minh City.

However, it remains unclear how the device, which has a front facing camera and has the distinctive Apple markings, arrived in Vietnam or if it is actually an Apple product.

Some claimed it might be a fake Chinese model, reports the Telegraph.

And if the discovery is confirmed, it would mark a second serious breach in Apple's legendary wall of secrecy in as many months.

In March, a technology news blog, Gizmodo, published details of an "invaluable" 4G prototype after it bought it from a blogger who found it in the American bar.

It created a furore after details emerged last week that Steve Jobs, the Apple co-founder, personally tried to stop its publication.

Lawyers for the 55-year-old multi-billionaire claimed publication of the new generation phone's secret features would be "immensely damaging" to the technology giant.

The website, which is owned by Gawker Media, was handed to the website by a 21 year-old blogger, Brian Hogan, who sold it for 5,000 dollars.

And now, a Silicon Valley police task force is investigating the website after the company, roughly valued at 242 billion pounds, claimed the prototype had been stolen.

The latest pictures and video of an iPhone 4G were published online by the Vietnamese Web site Taoviet last week after they were posted by the dealer, Tran Manh Hiep.

The phone in the photos, are almost identical to the one which was lost in March and published by Gizmodo, the New York-based website.

Apple is due to release the 4G iPhone in the summer.