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Apple Demands Prototype iPhone Back

Scottsdale said:
If you were the finder what would you do?

If you were Apple/Steve Jobs what would you do?

If you were Gizmodo what would you do?
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If I found it, I would make every attempt to return it to the rightful owner and I wouldn't stop attempting until I was successful. The LAST thing I would do is give it to someone else that wasn't the rightful owner or, worse, sell it for profit.

If I was Jobs, I'd slap a lawsuit on Gizmodo and "John Does" as soon as possible.

If I was Gizmodo, I'd contact my mother and have her explain again to me about morals and personal honor.

Mark
 
Gizmodo via their Director (Brian Lam) is now just being absolutely pathetic adding insult to injury by publishing this:

http://gizmodo.com/5520496/keep-your-head-up-gray-powell

They could have published the whole thing and not mention names but now adding this post is just f***ed up.

I'm not saying they guy wouldnt have been found anyway by Apple but now the whole world has his name and picture. Brian Lam better never f***ck up ever in his life or I'm sure someone will make it public and the masses are gonna eat him alive.
 
Small White Car said:
Give it back or get sued would be my guess. That's what this kind of letter means. It's a warning.
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Nope. It means "We are leaking..., do not get tempted by those new Androids..., we are coming up with a front-facing camera and higher resolution, finally. Oh, and we copied the noise-canceling mike from the Nexus One...."

It's a plant. Or this letter would have been sent a lot earlier, and not by email. Media grabbing at its simplest -- and the media is falling for it.
 
Plas00 said:
Gizmodo via their Director (Brian Lam) is now just being absolutely pathetic adding insult to injury by publishing this:

http://gizmodo.com/5520496/keep-your-head-up-gray-powell

They could have published the whole thing and not mention names but now adding this post is just f***ed up.

I'm not saying they guy wouldnt have been found anyway by Apple but now the whole world has his name and picture. Brian Lam better never f***ck up ever in his life or I'm sure someone will make it public and the masses are gonna eat him alive.
Click to expand...

Nah, the name is the best part -- apple's marketing department chose a name/guy in reference to Gary Powers, who 'lost' a U2 spy plain to Russia in 1960, making it known to the international press...

(Powers received high honours in 2000 when details were disclosed.)
 
Scottsdale said:
If you were the finder what would you do?
Click to expand...
Return it to the establishment's lost & found.

If you were Apple/Steve Jobs what would you do?
Ask for it back and let the story fall out of the headlines.
Not fire the kid. Institute new policies about where test devices can be used in public or add some security features/gps that alerts when the user and phone are a significant distance away from each other.

If you were Gizmodo what would you do?
Be happy that I "broke" a story that was significant for a bit, and continue my other work. Which, it seems, they have.
 
Apple, can't sue the guy who found it, or Gizmodo.

The reason why Apple is being kind in this letter... they know they can't press any legal charges against anyone. So why be nasty and demanding, when Gizmodo can simply say... "no"?

That is of course, if this all isn't a stunt...
 
all i have to say is this better not delay the release of the next gen iPhone!!
 
Alchematron said:
Steve Jobs wrote:

Give it back

Sent from my iPhone 4G
Click to expand...

lmao..

So like. Lemme get this right, some apple employee left an unreleased prototype iphone at a bar, especially considering the large number of speculation surrounding the release of such item (when anyone can pay any large sum just to grab hold of such device)... well that's rather careless. I know we can all make mistakes and can forget stuff around, but not such a thing - fibbers I say! Fibbers
 
jonpwnz said:
first off apple wont do anything like that to GIZMODO they will do anything to keep the "good guy" image. if anything happens to this guy who lost it or gizmodo everyone will be like "HEEYYY YOU GUYS ARE BIG JERK FACES!!!!" apple doesnt want to be a jerk face...so gizmodo and that guy are going to be just fine
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Gizomdo's article on the guy who left it at the bar makes them look like big jerk faces. :p
 
niuniu said:
Publicity stunt
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This would be very interesting. Perhaps Apple gave this product to Gizmodo, who in turn claimed it was the new iPhone, with Apple only to release a far superior version officially which is nothing like this one claims to be. Just something to think about.
 
I really hope that letter's design isn't final! The font is terrible. Latest letters from HTC, also, definitely have better spacing.

Back to the grave :apple:
 
This is a set up by apple.

Look at the attention it's getting eg
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/apple-employee-outed-as-iphone-loser-20100420-sr06.html

They now have a personal element to the story. Young hip guy doing what all 20-30 year olds do having a drink in a bar, posting on face book.

Now there is real human interest. Oh please Steve don't sack this guy..

That guy will become a hero- imagine him in an advert for the iphone. He is a star already.

Good on apple but I think they are manipulating the media again!!

IF it is a genuine loss then apple have landed on their feet again. This sort of publicity is priceless and it certainly looks one hell of aiphone..
 
Sai Zelion said:
GIMMIE BACK MY SON!!!!
886669952_f6b95d8936.jpg
Click to expand...

GIMMIE ME BACK MY PHONE!!!!
myphone.jpg
 
AbSoluTc said:
Don't know why Gizmodo wouldn't return it to it's rightful owner in the first place. Instead they wanted to be all "look what we have". Apple should sue the **** out of them for it too. This is a good example of it. Gizmodo should be held liable as well. That will teach them to this kind of **** again.
Click to expand...

You would be right if Gizmodo had stolen the phone, or if they had paid an Apple employee to "lose" his phone. If the phone was genuinely lost, then any trade secret protection for Apple is gone (because trade secrets protection requires that you keep things secret, like not losing the stuff that you want to keep secret), and Gizmodo obviously has to return the phone to Apple, undamaged. If they take it apart Apple might be able to sue them for the value of a new prototype at most, and a prototype might be a bit more expensive because it is made by hand and not on some factory line, but probably not more than $1000 or $2000.

douglasgb said:
If you buy a stolen car the police don't refund your purchase price when they recover it.
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Of course the police doesn't refund the money unless you bought a stolen car from the police. You can always take the thief to court; he or she has to refund the money. Good luck.
 
I could be mistaken (and very likely since I'm not well versed in these regards), but isn't it considered photographic evidence (or some other term) until they physically return it? (at which point it becomes physical evidence) and the request for the "claim" letter was a legal maneuver designed to confirm its authenticity after the fact? (that is after publication). Gizmodo claims that "it could be a knock-off" as far as they are concerned, until Apple officially acknowledges that it is not.

It feels tacky to me, not what Gizmodo did- but how they went about it, but given that Gizmodo reports tech news, a "potentially" next-gen iPhone prototype found on a bar stool 20 miles from Apple, well...is news. They did speak very positively about the device. I think they did what any other news site might have done. (well, maybe they doubled, or tripled their efforts on it.) I suppose they were excited with the prospect of mass publicity, given the caliber of news they had at hand, and sprinted to the digital press.

As for the article about the young Apple engineer, the article sounded to me, like they were trying to save face for him. The damage was already done, Apple knew who had lost it. I believe they knew the moment they remotely deactivated it. I'm surprised it didn't remote detonate. ;)

What else can Apple do 8 weeks away from launch? I'd assume the factories are prepped for production to some degree at this point. I guess either continue as-planned, or use it somehow in their KeyNote. Looks like a lot of good press was generated for it already.
 
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