News: 0178894714

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Nothing Caught Using Stock Photos as Phone 3 Camera Samples

(Wednesday August 27, 2025 @05:20PM (msmash) from the caught-in-4k dept.)


Phonemaker Nothing [1]used professional stock photos to demonstrate its Phone 3's camera capabilities on retail demo units, according to The Verge. Five images the company presented as community-captured samples were licensed photographs from the Stills marketplace, taken with other cameras in 2023.

The Verge verified EXIF data confirming one image predated the Phone 3's release. Co-founder Akis Evangelidis acknowledged the photos were placeholders intended for pre-production testing that weren't replaced before deployment to stores.



[1] https://www.theverge.com/report/766543/nothing-busted-using-fake-phone-3-photo-samples



Re: (Score:3, Funny)

by Anachronous Coward ( 6177134 )

Move along, this is all about Nothing.

Re: (Score:2)

by LuniticusTheSane ( 1195389 )

Nothing is the name of the company that makes the Nothing Phone 3.

Re: (Score:1)

by Tablizer ( 95088 )

That's because the company's name is "Nothing". There used to be a music group called "The", but the confusion caused too many cancelled events and lost sales.

Nothing and Nobody (Score:2)

by Roger W Moore ( 538166 )

Nice try to avoid trouble but I doubt a trick pulled by Odysseus in ancient Greek legend to fool a cyclops is going to work in the modern day with lawyers.

Re: (Score:2)

by rossdee ( 243626 )

I thought that was Perseus

But they are going to have to something about the name of the company

Typical PR (Score:4, Informative)

by fabiomb ( 5315421 )

I remember a decade ago a new phone (can't remember if it was a nokia) with a super camera and in the reflection of a picture you can see the photographer with a huge DSLR, it was fantastic, a ENHANCE CSI situation searched: 2012 [1]https://fstoppers.com/product/... [fstoppers.com]

[1] https://fstoppers.com/product/nokia-busted-faking-mobile-phone-footage-stabilized-camera-system-5360

Listen to Elliot (Score:2)

by careysub ( 976506 )

I am currently re-re-watching Mr. Robot and just saw a Season 4 episode where the Elliott main character comments on the massive privacy and security implications of everyone uploading pictures to the Internet without thinking about all the data that is embedded in the files (such as the exact location and time it was taken).

Here we have a phonemaker forgetting that their fake staged images have the camera information embedded in the file if they don't scrub it with some utility.

Re: (Score:2)

by HiThere ( 15173 )

It *is* possible that his silly explanation is the truth. That they just accidentally left a "fill in later" image in place. (There's a reason text users frequently use "lorem ipsum" for that kind of purpose.)

Re: (Score:3)

by Mirnotoriety ( 10462951 )

It *is* possible that his silly explanation is the truth. That they just accidentally left a "fill in later" image in place.

“The photographer behind one of the images has anonymously confirmed to The Verge that it wasn’t taken using the Phone 3, and that Nothing [1]had purchased the image [theverge.com] license via the Stills stock photo marketplace.”

[1] https://www.theverge.com/report/766543/nothing-busted-using-fake-phone-3-photo-samples

Re: (Score:2)

by HiThere ( 15173 )

I don't know the licensing policies of the "stock image" sites, but it's not unreasonable that they might have a license to use stock images, rather than that particular stock image. In which case it could have been left in by mistake. I believe lots of companies use lots of stock images for a variety of different purposes.

Now if they licensed that particular image, then he's almost certainly lying rather than just probably lying.

Re: (Score:2)

by Mirnotoriety ( 10462951 )

.. it's not unreasonable that they might have a license to use stock images ..

Give it up man!

Nobody did Nothing nowhere (Score:1)

by Tablizer ( 95088 )

Cops: "This looks suspicious, whaddya you guys up to?"

"Nothing"

I bet (Score:2)

by The MAZZTer ( 911996 )

Someone was using those pictures as placeholders as they were not provided with actual camera pictures, and they either forgot to replace them or the real pictures were just added to the mix and the stock photos remained. This is why placeholders have to be explicitly marked as such or otherwise be something nobody would sign off on (I used nyan cat for such things myself).

"Nothing Caught Using Stock Photos" (Score:2)

by Chris Mattern ( 191822 )

Well, they should probably try using some other bait.

Nothing is what it is (Score:2)

by Bill, Shooter of Bul ( 629286 )

If you like nothing, there is nothing wrong with that. All that I can say in favor of nothing is that it adds nothing to its products, but on the other hand, it doesn't add anything to the products. So if the product nothing is marketing was good before they don't touch it, then great. But if the product was crap before, it will be released as crap. They're mostly a transparent branding company that just adds nothing branding and does the regulatory bits to get it importable.

In other news (Score:3)

by slazzy ( 864185 )

"Nothing" was also a placeholder intended to be replaced with the phone companies real name.

They're quick with a lie... (Score:2)

by newbie_fantod ( 514871 )

...so I now know what not to buy.

Nothing... (Score:2)

by joshuark ( 6549270 )

Nothing caught. Well the classic song summarizes it perfectly...

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

Perhaps Apple should us this song playing on the next iPhone? :)

JoshK.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX2bE-OBtwk

Apathy Club meeting this Friday. If you want to come, you're not invited.