Claims of Apple Putting New Hires to Work on 'Fake' Projects Questioned, Found Unlikely

whooleytoo said:

Pretty questionable, I'd have thought. Can security effectively detain people without their consent, particularly when there is (as yet) no clear evidence of a crime?

I guess they could always threaten anyone who leaves with being fired for refusing to submit to a security check.

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Of course security can temporarily detain you. If they see you walking home with some pens, they can do that. Much more easily if they catch you taking out a prototype. It's called theft. I imagine during the temporary detainment -- no handcuffs or anything, but running out wouldn't help your employment record -- top level execs would be called to ask what to do. They can, very definitely, call the cops if something is criminal. Otherwise, it's everywhere from something on your record to dismissal. Or a talking-to by Steve. I think I'd take the cops.

ctdonath said:

Actually, rather notably runs multiple competing projects, in the end selecting the best of the bunch and dropping the rest.
......
This could be construed as "fake projects".Might be more the norm than the exception. is looking for the very best, so it's worth a policy of running many high-cost projects and killing most of them.

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I'd agree with this.

Yeah, the fake projects thing never made a lot of sense. Of course, not all projects reach market, and I'm sure many new employees end up on such projects early in their careers. You put your experienced people on the major projects, and let newer folks cut their teeth on weird experimental stuff that ends up going nowhere a lot of the time. Nothing odd about that. Apple is also known for competing teams, as others have pointed out.

2013 Mac Pro probably has a couple of interns on it.

"Hey what's this?

It's the slot for a Blu-ray drive.

Screw that. Let's stuff some flyers for low quality
video and audio movie streams from iTunes in there.

Call Kinkos, dude. You rock. Let's do a skinny Latte."

iphone495 said:

I didn't think so. That would be waste of Apple resources. And COOK wouldn't let that happen.

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Would any CEO really want to waste resources on such a thing? They might start with projects of lower priority. Projects might be cancelled. Once you fully examine it, is there really a point in setting up fake projects?

never heard of sceptical eyes before

My guess is someone's project was canceled, the engineers didn't agree with the assessment, and the conspiracy theories took off.

Big-TDI-Guy said:

Room on lockdown, I question if that is even legal? "Sorry hun, I can't leave work until security lets us out of the room." ?

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If you're really worried about missing dinner, I'm sure you could quit and they'd just walk you out. Or you could just leave and get fired. I don't think they are zip tied and held in broom closet...

Fake projects

I doubt people are placed on fake projects. However, I've heard over the years of people being interviewed for a different project than the "super secret" project they are actually going to be placed on.

multiple competing projects??

sure sometimes that likely happens - I've seen it in all the large companies that I worked for; however, I doubt that's what's happening with mainstream projects like say iOS 7 or maps or FCP-X or to take a favorite example of mine: the iPad Music.app.

Now if they had multiple competing projects working on that bit of functionality and what is currently deployed in iOS 5/6 is best-of-breed among competing teams then has some really serious problems getting effective staff and evaluating the work:

Problems with IOS 5 Music App

iOS 5 Music.app on iPad doesn't support audiobook chapters

iOS 5 features: Changes in Music app for iPad

I suggest that an article be written on what's happening in engineering and marketing that gives rise to bone-headed results like the FCP-X launch fiasco, maps and yes even the lowly iPad Music.app.

Is this a trend or some hiccups that will come under control with recent management changes?

Apple is the most watched, envied and emulated consumer technology company in the world. Disinformation seems to be a reasonable part of their corporate strategy. Absolutely. I believe there are a bevy of worthless job posting and hires as well as planned leaks and patent applications just to keep the industry guessing.

What the difference between being put on a "fake" project and being put on one that is unimportant and likely to be cancelled? New hires are seldom put on the most important and secret projects anyway. So the rumor is true in a relative sense.

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Bubba Satori said:

2013 Mac Pro probably has a couple of interns on it.

"Hey what's this?

It's the slot for a Blu-ray drive.

Screw that. Let's stuff some flyers for low quality
video and audio movie streams from iTunes in there.

Call Kinkos, dude. You rock. Let's do a skinny Latte."

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You, Sir, have hit the nail on the head. they most likely bought a Dell and called their boss: "Finished!"

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atomoboy said:

Apple is the most watched, envied and emulated consumer technology company in the world. Disinformation seems to be a reasonable part of their corporate strategy. Absolutely. I believe there are a bevy of worthless job posting and hires as well as planned leaks and patent applications just to keep the industry guessing.

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You have an overly high opinion of Apple. They might be your hero, but most people don't feel the same way, especially since their stock tanked.

Great Idea

Actually, it is a great idea and investment if apple hired people to do fake projects/products. Because, everytime now when apple is about to release something we get every intel about the product before release on stage. So, the magical "what are they going to release" is actually gone now. And that's sad if you think about that apple is a firm which were build and marketed on the curiosity "what are the next release?... I WANT TO KNOW"..

Maybe becasue Apple Inc. is so big a firm now, or because the intels are more easy to get - we don't know. But moving the entire workline of products back to the states is increasing the secretly of upcoming products. And if they hire someone to gather fake information and slowly put them out to us, we will think that it is a positive rumor and when Tim Cook is on stage and presenting something totally different from what all the rumors said we will be blown away and it will then increase the curiosity of upcoming products from Apple.

It would actually benefit Apple Inc. to hire people for such positions

This article makes you wonder what other "facts" are unlikely in Adam Lashinsky's Inside Apple book?

We asked and they said no so it must be false.

-journalism

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jaw04005 said:

This article makes you wonder what other "facts" are unlikely in Adam Lashinsky's Inside Apple book?

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This comment makes me no longer wonder why the masses are so severely affected by the world of fraudulent journalism. You'll just believe anything if its on a website you frequent.

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xristy said:

sure sometimes that likely happens - I've seen it in all the large companies that I worked for; however, I doubt that's what's happening with mainstream projects like say iOS 7 or maps or FCP-X or to take a favorite example of mine: the iPad Music.app.

Now if they had multiple competing projects working on that bit of functionality and what is currently deployed in iOS 5/6 is best-of-breed among competing teams then has some really serious problems getting effective staff and evaluating the work:

Problems with IOS 5 Music App

iOS 5 Music.app on iPad doesn't support audiobook chapters

iOS 5 features: Changes in Music app for iPad

I suggest that an article be written on what's happening in engineering and marketing that gives rise to bone-headed results like the FCP-X launch fiasco, maps and yes even the lowly iPad Music.app.

Is this a trend or some hiccups that will come under control with recent management changes?

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Most of what's wrong with iOS Music can be attributed to Scott Forstall. Expect it to be remedied and utterly overhauled with iOS 7.

I work for a delivery company. When a driver is suspected of not really doing the work: "I went there and no one was home", yeah, sure you did. Then sometimes they will create bogus deliveries to check out someone's work. I could see Apple (or any other company) doing some equivalent of this, although setting up a multi-million dollar fake project is probably not worth it. Just use a camera.

And also, not for new hires, there's no reason at that point.

BornAgainApple said:

I'd clean the restrooms for a chance to work behind the walls of 1 Cupertino Loop

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Why?

pmz said:

Most of what's wrong with iOS Music can be attributed to Scott Forstall. Expect it to be remedied and utterly overhauled with iOS 7.

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One can only hope so, or hope springs eternal.

How convenient, a rumor based website WOULD post something like this...

It's all a big cover-up!

kalsta said:

Cleaning the 1 Cupertino Loo huh? At least you'll know there's nothing fake about those jobs.

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iPoop.

(Squeal to "Everybody poops"...)