Tech model Nothing has been caught passing off inventory photographs from skilled photographers as samples taken by the Phone 3. 5 pattern photographs that Nothing claimed had been captured by the machine had been truly licensed pictures taken with different cameras.
The photographer behind one of many photographs has anonymously confirmed to The Verge that it wasn’t taken utilizing the Cellphone 3, and that Nothing had bought the picture license through the Stills inventory picture market. The Verge has seen the EXIF file for the nameless photographer’s picture, and may verify it wasn’t captured utilizing the Cellphone 3. In keeping with the EXIF information, it was taken in 2023, lengthy earlier than the Phone 3 was released this 12 months.
Roman Fox, one other photographer who captured the automobile headlight, additionally confirmed to Android Authority that Nothing had paid for his picture, which was taken in 2023 utilizing a Fujifilm XH2s digicam. Nothing’s demo samples had been accompanied by the message: “Decide for your self. Right here’s what our neighborhood has captured with Cellphone 3.”
In a statement posted on X, Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis says the inventory photographs featured on dwell demo models had been placeholders that ought to have been up to date. Nothing is “actively rectifying” the state of affairs, in response to Evangelidis, describing the fakery as “an unlucky oversight” with “no sick intent.”
“An preliminary model of the LDU [live demo unit] must be submitted with placeholders round 4 months earlier than launch, to be applied and examined as we ramp up in direction of mass manufacturing,” stated Evangelidis. “As soon as we enter mass manufacturing, these placeholder photographs are changed with picture samples by means of a brand new model of the LDU, together with remaining product renders and movies. On this case, it was dropped at our consideration that some dwell demo models’ inventory imagery weren’t up to date.”
Licensing pictures that had been by no means supposed for public use is a bit perplexing, particularly provided that Nothing’s previous process concerned utilizing pictures that had been truly shot utilizing the corporate’s older telephones. This isn’t the primary time that a phone company has been caught using pretend photography examples, however you’ll suppose that Nothing would be taught from these errors.