Prototype iPhone was left at bar by Apple software engineer - Page 2

I learned one thing from this whole thing.

At least there's AT&T cellular coverage at Gourmet Haus Staudt!

If the phone is fake: giz = lame

If the phone is real: giz = lame

Im a high school teacher that enjoys Apple products. Ive owned all three versions of the iPhone, four Macs, Airport Extreme, all three versions of Aperture, several versions of iWork and Final Cut Express (which was used to edit home movie DVDs of my children as a holiday gift for the grandparents, something I continue to hear about years later). I simply love what Apple does and Im constantly amazed by what they come out with. Im putting aside some of my teachers salary now to purchase an iPad, which Im also excited about. In the coming years I will hopefully continue to read and hear that Apple has done it again! as they bring spectacular technology to the market that actually is for the rest of us. Or at least for people like me.

\tAt first I was excited with this weekends pics of what may be the upcoming iPhone. Then I wasnt. Its not the intriguing changes in the design. I just feel a little cheated.

\tIve realized that I WANT Steve Jobs up on that stage showing me something I havent seen before. As long as Apple comes out with wonderful products they will naturally--and rightfully--lead the industry. I want to learn about emerging products when Mr. Jobs and the gang at Apple are ready to present them, and not a moment before. Especially not like this. If they didnt keep things under wraps, the rest of the industry would steal their sweat and tears and call it innovation once theyve copied the design for themselves. Just look at the recent history with the iMac, iPod and iPhone and you see a industry trying to catch up.

\tWhat have we come to? Paparazzi TechnoHounds, ready to pounce on a story this large and perhaps cost some poor guy his job who was actually working to CREATE one of these stunning products? Have some of the technology folks on the net fallen to the ultimate low--consuming a kind of celebrity gossip because theyre essentially bored?

\tThese picture--and the tawdry story that goes with them--is not a victory or a celebration for the TechnoGeeks that surf the web in packs. It is nothing to crow about. And it doesnt feel like the right thing. Im not clicking on anymore of these stories. Ill wait for a guy named Steve to get on stage with a product that is genuinely ready to be revealed.


inertialnav@me.com

I'm sorry folks, that is not the next iPhone, there's no way that was made by Apple. You can tell a mile away that it's not a Jony Ive design. I'm not sure how this story about the Apple engineer fits into it, it's possible--knowing the source (Gizmodo)--that the whole thing is concocted. Believing a Gizmodo story about an Apple product would be like believing a Fox News news release about Obama.

Everything about this story is fishy, from the unsharp photos on through to the constantly changing facts. I think Gizmodo is having a ball with it, and it sure is spinning up its page counter. It knows Apple won't step in to question it, since this would only give Gizmodo even more attention.

In any case, I would file this under the Late April Fools category.

Hey, go clean your mind out with soap!

Even if he didn't outright steal this and made up the story I'm pretty sure that this could still be deemed theft. You have to turn things like this into the local police and if the owner doesn't claim it you may be able to get it.

If this is truly Apple's property expect the person that "supposedly" found this to be served very very soon.

For those who don't think you could get a Prototype iPhone out of Apple your fooling yourself. It was revealed after previous launches that Apple had teams of people out using the new versions before they were launched to see how they performed. As a baseband software developer he would be one of a small group who could do this as he would need to test baseband performance to be sure everything was working correctly. With the disguise and how common iPhones are nowdays no one would have noticed unless something like this happened.

the plastic back of 3gs looks cheap especially white one...not only looks but even sounds and feels cheap in hands.

P.S. i like this new design but no more than the design of the original iPhone

Wow... this was such a controlled leak.

well..there goes the lederhosens

Could someone go down to that bar and tell them they have an open and shut civil case against this guy. Even if Apple never claims the phone it would be the property of the bar. That $5000 belongs to them.

I like it. I was thinking that with a 3G iPad, I would just skip the next iPhone. The front facing camera and the overall newness of the design intrigues me enough to make me want to upgrade. I think Apple may have done it again.

I understand the "oh my god" factor the Gizmodo writers have probably had when they came upon this.

I just hope for them that this iPhone doesn't turn out to be planned and Steve calls them suckers in 2 months because someone's credibility is going to go bad.

We all know multiple prototypes meant to deceive float around. Additionally, the guy wasn't fired even though he would be considered a liability and I find it hard to believe an Apple engineer would have a top-secret iPhone 20 miles from the campus to be "accidentally" left in a bar and didn't use MobileMe to track it before they killed it.

Wonder what Apple thinks of his Myspace Zune background.

Gizmodo has made a strategic decision to play in the big leagues. Seriously big.

If Apple chooses to play the game of secrecy, along will come upstarts to push the envelope. This is all, of course, similar to, but nothing compared to how the took the New York Times took on the Pentagon, and Washington Post took on the US Presidency.

This is the beginnings of the modern day equivalent.

Outlets like AI -- and all of us, who regularly contribute here -- will have some interesting decisions to make in this brave new world as situations like these present themselves and evolve, in the future.

That said, this whole story is getting curiouser and curiouser. I love it.

Yeah, Gizmodo is just total scum. Gruber has referred to Brian Lam as a "hack" a couple of times, but I think he's being nice in saying that much. Gizmodo is the lowest of the bottom feeders when it comes to tech journalism.

The thing that I find amazing is that they publish the guys story that stole the phone (the guy they bought it off of), complete with that unbelievable part about how a mysterious third-party anonymous drunk guy gives it to them (presumably this provides them room to say they didn't steal it or even pick it up, and that it was given to them, etc.), and they give them complete anonymity. I mean that guy is the actual culprit of the piece, even more so than Gizmodo. Then they publish a gigantic picture of Grey Powell with an empty mickey of booze in his hand and tell everyone what a loser he is?

Protect the criminal and trash the unlucky employee? How noble. Not.

I think it's totally believable that an Apple employee like Grey with what might be a booze/drug problem could have dropped the phone, but everything *after* that sounds completely fake to me. It's so similar to the kind of convoluted ridiculous story a kid makes up when he's been caught doing something wrong.

According to Gruber, Steve Jobs is really, really mad about the whole thing. I really hope Gizmodo is finally forced to take some kind of responsibility for all their childish antics. I'd like to see Brian Lam's mug shot myself.

It would make my day.

I'll bet you all a half a penny that another related big tech news story hits the blogs tomorrow. And it won't be good news for either Gawker or Gizmodo.

And the Gray guy? If this wasn't an Apple ruse then Gray is history plain and simple. His tech career is over.
.......that is if he's lucky. \

How do you come up with that? Just because something was left in the bar... doesn't make it the bar's property.

I usually like the stuff you post, but this makes it sound like you are comparing the guys at Gizmodo to Woodward and Bernstein? That's just rude.

Woodward and Bernstein were journalists. They had integrity and they played by the rules. Gizmodo is so many millions of miles away from that ideal it's funny. Gizmodo engages in classic "yellow journalism" which is almost the exact opposite of real journalism.

Former!

A 27-year-old former Apple software engineer who was field testing Apple's unreleased fourth-generation iPhone...

It's good to know the guy is still alive and working at Apple for as long as it takes to clean out his desk...

No more field test iPhones for you... so says the soup Nazi!

So a little thunder has been taken away with regards to the iPhones redesign. I am more interested in the demo of iChat as well as if Steve will tell us if the iPhones AT&T exclusivity is over...

Best of luck to that engineer... will Apple give him a reference at least?... I'm kidding! Mistakes happen or S*it Happens! It'll be alright Apple... it's only two months away! Better than having this happen six months ago...

What are the odds that Apple would pull strings and force Gawker into shutting down Gizmodo? Do you all remember what happened to ThinkSecret?

Why..?

NOBODY fucks with the Jesus! He'll put that gun up your ass and pull the trigger till it goes click.

In other news the NYT picked up the story and Jobs authenticated it.

Sorry, just had to...

From the movie Smokey and the Bandit...

"Sheriff Branford: The fact that you are a sheriff is not germane to the situation.

Buford T. Justice: The god damn Germans got nothin' to do with it."

Small.

As I (vaguely) recall, ThinkSecret was some Harvard undergrad dorm type of outfit.

Gawker/Gizmodo are much larger, and more serious business. (For instance, Katie Couric does not simply refer to random web outlets in her nightly news reports). They will fight, and like crazy. It will, imho, end up being the kind of 'free press vs. corporate suits' battle that Apple will be unwise to take on. David v. Goliath.

Not dissimilar to, say, Obama taking on the Drudge Report.

Apple has better things to do. It should pick its battles. The sales of the next gen iPhone are not going to be affected one iota by this. Smile, shrug, say 'no comment,' and move on.

Does it really matter? I'm sure he is in the witness protection program by now...

I'm just curious as to the bounty Apple will place on their Wanted: Dead or Alive posters...

How about:

2) If you ever find an iPhone/iPad, TRY TO FIND OUT WHO LOST IT AND GIVE IT BACK TO THEM

He started ThinkSecret as a high school student I believe.

Perhaps you think I am excusing what these guys are doing. Or that I am elevating them to a pedestal to which they do not belong.

Neither is my intention. I think you misunderstand.

I am simply suggesting that, as a $220B market cap company (and the the third most valuable company in the US), Apple is not necessarily viewed anymore by the public at large that 'scrappy little outsider' that many of us grew up with over the past 25 years. Rather, someone like a Gawker or Gizmodo is.

Seriously: Does it really pay for Apple to take on something like this, and get into a public pi**ing contest? In my view, no. After all, it's the fourth generation of the product, and as many have pointed out, it's not as though they are implementing something here that others in the market haven't put out there (even if less successfully).

I like the rounded backs of the GS. The firt-gen phone was a slippery sucker. Perhaps the square edges will help but we'll see.

Allround I feel bad about this saga.

I feel bad for Apple's security.

I feel bad for the young man involved in losing this phone.

I feel bad about the way Gizmodo are gloating.

But most of all I feel bad for the staff and all those involved at Gizmodo, who's live will no doubt be turned upside down with not just legal threat but actions. Everyone of them will be dragged into an expensive an no doubt intimidating legal world where for even just being associated with the story and having not been directly involved in paying for stolen goods could conceivably cost you a years wages.

It is already BAD, but it is also going to get UGLY and EXPENSIVE.

Why would they? This is brilliant marketing. All these new Droid phones announced or released and Apple only has the 3GS to compete. Every Android covert now probably locks them in to the platform which must be Apples biggest fear. They might sell fewer 3GSs now but given that most consumers will never see this it is more likely to keep the geeks at bay until June, c@ckblock a few hundred thousand Droid Incredibles and Evo4s while having little impact on 3GS sales. It is sneaky and devious but surely not beneath Apple.

Geez. I still own an iPhone 2G, and I don't ever leave that lying around.

I know I'm capable of doing some stupid things, but I'm not that stupid.

GTSC

Does all that beer go straight to the girls boobs?

I think Andy Ihnatko has a plausible call on this:

Knowing the kind of pressure that product introduction normally causes, let alone the rumored boiler room Apple stuff, I can see a young, overworked but beerjubilant engineer making this mistake. Even with all the draconian measures, if they need to test baseband ops live remotely, then it's plausible. But....

The casing is total BS mock-up - Apple may have even gone so far as to mimic or even use a known knock-off for the innards to ride in for remote testing of the core hardware. That style of case (as was noted elsewhere in another thread) lends itself to practicality, not Apple design points. I seem to recall seeing it's twin by some Chinese knock-off company some time last year - hmmm may have to do some research. But...

Gizmo, if this is a vapidly concocted publicity stunt (in spite of Gruber's sources to the contrary) - way to gen some massive site hits. But forget ever being treated as a credible source ever again. If it is true and this guy fracked up, you dicked him. Nice protection for the guy you threw the bucks at, but you dicked the guy who made a stupid but unintentional mistake.

Add this to the reasons why I simply don't read Giz anymore. No class, no integrity, no principles about how you treat people. The only wins here are your page hits, and the guy with $5K in his pocket.

Gandalf the Semi-Coherent, that is because you are not Gray the Semi-Comatose.

They were great. It's when they went bust that I basically wandered into AI as the substitute...... (although, the fact that they had started to get a bit lame and risk-averse towards the end made the switch easier).

I can only laugh at the people swearing at Gizmodo (why for? Do get a life).
I can only pity these -gutter/tabloid- "journalists" who tried to make the guy who lost the phone looks like an idiot drunkard by cherry-picking among his personal photos.

Lamentable.

In the end, that may very well be what Steve Jobs N company does....shrug and move on.
But you can bet your life Jobs is fuming is top off all now! Heads will roll over this on the Apple campus. You guys are underestimating how much of a control freak Steve Jobs is.
Jobs is more than simply annoyed.