I'll let the lawyers figure it out but it's possible, because it's a prototype, that it was stolen. Specifics elude me at this early hour.
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Apple Demands Prototype iPhone Back
- Thread starter CooKieMoNs7eR
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I'll let the lawyers figure it out but it's possible, because it's a prototype, that it was stolen. Specifics elude me at this early hour.
If I lived in CA, I know that I would spend a LOT more time at this German beer bar.... just in case it happens again. And if not, I'm sure the beer is good.
I disagree. This isn't the sort of thing Apple does. Have you never noticed a certain control-freakery in their releases?
This was a genuine leak. But I believe that Gizmodo have had the device in their hands for at least 2 weeks - perhaps more.
Five minutes after obtaining it, they would have taken photographs.
Five minutes later, they will have called Apple for comment.
Apple would not have been able to persuade Gizmodo to kill the story. How could they?
But they might have persuaded Gizmodo to sit on it for a while.
C.
ah it was a real proto type, so now we know what new features we will be getting then agin it is aproto type. 
What a press for Apple! Was it intentionally forgotten in the first place? From the remote wipe, it feels like a real accident.
Either case, I am glad that the same fate that consumed the life of an iphone factory worker in china didn't befall on Powell. Furthermore, he still seems to be with Apple! Quite a forgiving company, if you ask me.
Either case, I am glad that the same fate that consumed the life of an iphone factory worker in china didn't befall on Powell. Furthermore, he still seems to be with Apple! Quite a forgiving company, if you ask me.
It was allegedly lost over a month ago. I'm not inclined to believe that Gizmodo has actively sought to commit corporate espionage by having a prerelease unit stolen from Cupertino and that this is a huge facade of a story. I am also equally not inclined to believe a story that has a source named "random really drunk guy" as having a whole hell of a lot of veracity.
I believe the latter is more likely than the former, but until there is a better sourced story, I'm not entirely sold on the events or the timeline.
The fact is that Gizmodo had its hands on an unreleased iPhone and that Apple has asked for it to be returned.
You have every right to believe that Apple intended for this to happen, but it still runs counter to how Apple has leaked information in the past.
Just because it isn't the type of thing Apple has done in the past doesn't preclude they won't do it just to throw people off.
Steve Jobs once said Flash-RAM MP3 players were no good because they had a tiny screen and didn't hold much. Then he announced the screen-less 512MB iPod nano. How many uncharacteristic details are in the iPhone 4G prototype that has so many people thinking it was a fake.
How much you want to bet that there'll be video running when Apple comes to pick up their phone?
Gizmodo is milking this for all it's worth.
Gizmodo is milking this for all it's worth.
yeah but they probably suspected the letter was gonna be published, and wanted to seem cool about it. i do think they are very, very angry however (unless this was all planned from the start, but that is like WTF at this point. well actually the whole incident is very WTF at this point, no matter what really happened)
This is a little too fishy.
March 18th (a Thursday night) the iPhone was found by a guy in the bar. That night, the person that found it viewed Gray Powell's Facebook account on the phone.
He's too drunk/tried/whatever to know it's not a 3GS until the morning, at which time the phone has been remotely wiped. If Apple could remotely wipe it, why didn't they try to locate it first? Maybe they tried. Why not push a message to it with contact info and remotely lock it? Maybe it was safer to render the unit useless.
The finder tries to contact Apple to return the iPhone-- but only calls Apple Customer Service. He didn't recall the name associated with the Facebook account he was browsing?
Two weeks later Gizmodo buys the iPhone. They photograph, disassemble (but not enough to show what CPU it's using, or any real juicy tech info).
Then Gizmodo contacts Gray Powell. How did Gizmodo know it was his? Why didn't the original finder contact Gray Powell? Gray Powell is a mid-level engineer. He's expendable. Everyone know Steve's temper. If he's blown the 10 million units/$100 million launch for the earth shattering iPhone 4G because he's been drinking... why does he still have a job a month after he lost the phone?
Apple sent Cease and Desist letters to the iPad scavenger hunt warning them that any publishing of photos and specs of the unreleased iPad would be considered a violation of their trade secrets. No Cease and Desist this time? The pictures are still up?
While I 100% believe the iPhone is real- there's a lot more to this story that we're missing. The skeptical side of me of me is thinking this is one elaborate viral marketing maneuver. You have to admit the 4G iPhone is at maximum hype level right now. This is the kind of pre-release buzz that companies die for. It's not normal Apple procedure-- but it's tactic in other's PR playbooks.
March 18th (a Thursday night) the iPhone was found by a guy in the bar. That night, the person that found it viewed Gray Powell's Facebook account on the phone.
He's too drunk/tried/whatever to know it's not a 3GS until the morning, at which time the phone has been remotely wiped. If Apple could remotely wipe it, why didn't they try to locate it first? Maybe they tried. Why not push a message to it with contact info and remotely lock it? Maybe it was safer to render the unit useless.
The finder tries to contact Apple to return the iPhone-- but only calls Apple Customer Service. He didn't recall the name associated with the Facebook account he was browsing?
Two weeks later Gizmodo buys the iPhone. They photograph, disassemble (but not enough to show what CPU it's using, or any real juicy tech info).
Then Gizmodo contacts Gray Powell. How did Gizmodo know it was his? Why didn't the original finder contact Gray Powell? Gray Powell is a mid-level engineer. He's expendable. Everyone know Steve's temper. If he's blown the 10 million units/$100 million launch for the earth shattering iPhone 4G because he's been drinking... why does he still have a job a month after he lost the phone?
Apple sent Cease and Desist letters to the iPad scavenger hunt warning them that any publishing of photos and specs of the unreleased iPad would be considered a violation of their trade secrets. No Cease and Desist this time? The pictures are still up?
While I 100% believe the iPhone is real- there's a lot more to this story that we're missing. The skeptical side of me of me is thinking this is one elaborate viral marketing maneuver. You have to admit the 4G iPhone is at maximum hype level right now. This is the kind of pre-release buzz that companies die for. It's not normal Apple procedure-- but it's tactic in other's PR playbooks.
I can think of 2 good reasons based on the assumption that its real or fake
1. If it's a fake to throw off competition or just create hype, you might have people who think it's ugly and go to a Nexus One or something. Apple products never photograph as well as what they are in real life. 3rd generation iPod Nano? Aluminum iMac? Unibody Macbook pros? Many people thought they were not terribly attractive until they saw them in person.
2. If it's real, do we really think Steve Jobs is going to deprive himself of the moment during a keynote when he can pull the iPhone or iPod out of his pocket, hold it in front of a captive audience like a priest with a host during communion and say, "this is the thinnest, most beautiful i**** we have ever built, it's breathtaking" ?? And if he was willing to deprive himself of that moment, would he give it to Gizmodo of all places?
Yeah, it's called a poker face
Interesting the letter refers to it merely as "device". Not "prototype", not "unreleased product", just "device". Not admitting anything there either. Clever buggers.
I think that if it is real, Gizmodo is a selfish company and no one should listen to them ever again and they should be sued to kingdom come. For what? I don't know. but they should be disbanded for this selfish act of publicity. Who cares if they found the "next gen iPhone"????? If its not revealed by steve, it doesn't matter!
One thing is for sure, this phone is going to rock! Been waiting for that front facing camera for chat
im sure the outside is not final and assuming the design is going in the imac direction, I expect the back to have a subtle curve to it and the aluminum edges to get a tiny bit thinner. Maybe even have the same design treatment as the ipad...
I dont believe this will take anything away from the keynote seeing as i still want a demo and see it in action
bravo!
Oh, and never assume conspiracy when it can easily be attested to plain old stupidity.
im sure the outside is not final and assuming the design is going in the imac direction, I expect the back to have a subtle curve to it and the aluminum edges to get a tiny bit thinner. Maybe even have the same design treatment as the ipad...
I dont believe this will take anything away from the keynote seeing as i still want a demo and see it in action
bravo!
Oh, and never assume conspiracy when it can easily be attested to plain old stupidity.
See, there really are only two options.
a) This is all a controlled leak by Apple, with Gizmodo assisting the devilish plan to confuse the competitors.
b) Apple´s letter is real, but it´s an very old prototype unit. You know, car manufacturers are designing all kinds of weird prototypes all the times, yet the consumer units do look different. I believe the Final Product will not look anything like the unit we saw in those pictures.
Both ways lead to the same conclusion. The final iPhone 4G will have a different look.
a) This is all a controlled leak by Apple, with Gizmodo assisting the devilish plan to confuse the competitors.
b) Apple´s letter is real, but it´s an very old prototype unit. You know, car manufacturers are designing all kinds of weird prototypes all the times, yet the consumer units do look different. I believe the Final Product will not look anything like the unit we saw in those pictures.
Both ways lead to the same conclusion. The final iPhone 4G will have a different look.
This is all pretty despicable. So some guy saw a phone that was left behind at a bar, then waited around with it to salve his conscience before selling it for $5,000? That's theft and extortion! The phone should have been handed in to the bar's staff so that the owner could return and get it back that way.
Whoever stole that phone, and whoever purchased it should be greatly ashamed of themselves as such actions have not been simply criminal considering the widely known policies that Apple has about pre-release information, but also because it shows an extreme lack of any human decency. Is everything found in a bar now fair-game for theft and extortion?
Whoever stole that phone, and whoever purchased it should be greatly ashamed of themselves as such actions have not been simply criminal considering the widely known policies that Apple has about pre-release information, but also because it shows an extreme lack of any human decency. Is everything found in a bar now fair-game for theft and extortion?
What's wrong with option c...
c) This is a factory-built production-sample genuinely lost. Which wound-up in the hands of a tech-blog who wanted the scoop of the decade?
C.
They sure do. But as Sherlock Holmes (or rather Arthur Conan Doyle) said, "When you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth".
Is it impossible that the next iPhone made it to the wrong hands? No.
Eight weeks from launch, Apple has no choice but to have lots of iPhones out there being tested in the wild, for QC reasons, and they must have the same physical properties as the final product since they need to make sure that it holds together and works well in that particular shape and form.
Therefore the existence of a future iPhone in the wild is not questionable.
As for the guy from Apple losing the phone, well... not really impossible, is it? Over the ages, drunken people have lost their wallets, keys, pants, weapons, cars, pets, spouses and kids -- losing a cellphone no matter how secret is highly probable. Given the statistics on people who accidentally drop their cellphones in the toilet when they take a leak, it wouldn't even have been improbable if Gizmodo had found the iPhone half flushed down the crapper, nor would it have been improbable that they had reached down there and picked it up when they saw what it was.
Improbable would have been if the Apple employee parachuted with the iPhone in his pocket, but the dog had chewed on his pocket so the phone fell out of his pant leg and smashed right through the sunroof on some Gizmodo dude's car, but still not impossible, just bloody unlikely.
IMO the story is quite pedestrian and not very mysterious or improbable at all.