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Apple Demands Prototype iPhone Back

Awfully kind "words" for a multi-million dollar device

This letter had me going until the last line :confused:

"Please let us know where to pick up the unit."

It should say the Apple Legal Department will currently put a lean on your house, your business and your dog. With a quiet comment to not walk down any alleys in the near future. If that was a real letter.

Dean
 
Carniphage said:
It sounds like it spent more than a week with the finder. Before Gizmodo got it.

The question is why did Gizmodo not go public earlier?
My answer (which is just a guess) is that Apple asked them not to.

C.
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So you think Apple knew Giz had it for 3 weeks? Possible I suppose. Then Engadet posts the pics the day before Giz. Wonder where the connection is there (I cannot remember if they are sister companies.)

So even if  knew, you have give or take 3 weeks; and based on what they published- that could have been done in 3 hours of work- or less.

I'm telling ya, there is way more to this story.

BTW, I do NOT think it was a plant either; goes against every single fibre of their code of silence. As much as it's intriguing to think of this as a stunt by the big man himself (as he would be the only one I presume to bless such an act), I still find it impossible to fathom Apple purposely leaking this out in the wild as some speculate.

Good book, it would be-
 
deanooh said:
This letter had me going until the last line :confused:

"Please let us know where to pick up the unit."

It should say the Apple Legal Department will currently put a lean on your house, your business and your dog. With a quiet comment to not walk down any alleys in the near future. If that was a real letter.

Dean
Click to expand...
Letters like these are only aggressively worded when the sender has legal leverage. In this case they don't, hence the 'begging dog' tone of it all.
 
ctdonath said:
At some point that person will upgrade, and since you've been pestering 'em for a year to get a video phone maybe they finally will.

Someone has to be first adopter. We won't get anywhere if stalled by never-ending "no, YOU go first".
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Not to mention that some Companies standardize on a phone.

If a company (or family for that matter) switches to iPhones as their "Standard", then they get that feature "Out of the box" which might be something Apple and their partners could tout to further differentiate them from other smartphone options.
 
jav6454 said:
No it ain't. Apple always has back-ups. They also start their production until mid/early May (we are in mid/late Apr)... which is why they have entire May to June to make thousands and sell em by June/July deadline.

So, it's not that hard. Also, who said the 22nd was release date?
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You're so so wrong.It's way too late.
 
Flat footed?

shiseiryu1 said:
The most exciting thing about this find is what it means for telephone users everywhere. If there is a front-facing camera on the iPhone 4 I think it means that AT&T is going to enable video calls on their network. This is going to kill the competition because with all of the "fancy hardware/software" of the Microsoft and Android phones, they're still just iPhone wannabees with no real killer or distinctive features. If Apple and AT&T team up to do video calling on a phone as popular as the iPhone it will make the iPhone distinctive once again and also give AT&T something to show that their service is distinctive. Overnight you'll see all the competition rush to enable video calls on their phones...yet again playing the "catch up" game. Just like how Apple ushered in the era of "touch phones" they will force everyone into the era of "video chat" phones.

Does anyone disagree with me? Seems to me that if the front-facing camera was just to take snapshots that Apple would have put it in a long time ago. In fact, they would have put it in the iPad. The reason to wait until now for the front-facing camera is definitely for video calls. Also, it makes sense why AT&T has been so stingy with the bandwidth on their network...because they don't want people getting used to Skype for video calls (on their phone)...they want people to be able to dial anyones iPhone number to initiate a video call. Also after AT&T has had years to invest a couple more billions into their infrastructure they're more ready to handle video chats compared to when the iPhone was first launched.

If I'm wrong then I'll be surprised and AT&T will have lost a great opportunity to be distinctive and take advantage of a golden market opportunity. Also Apple will be missing a great opportunity to take the lead and leave the competition flat-footed yet again.

Cheers.
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Not disagreeing -because Apple will do video chat better than anyone in a walk. I have zero doubts about that whatsoever. But they will not be the first to break the hardware barrier:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/23/htc-evo-4g-is-sprints-android-powered-knight-in-superphone-armo/

"the camera is an 8 megapixel monstrosity with flash, that's capable of 720p video, and is augmented by a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for good measure."

Frankly, I would gladly forego a front-facing camera and vid chat if Jobs gave me 720p video recording from the back and stuk an HDMI port on the dock :D
 
DaoFerret said:
Not to mention the Civil Suit from the person they named (lost wages? damaged reputation?)

Their failure to properly return his lost merchandise, as per the law, and their further publication of both the item in question, and his NAME might open them up to liability if he is Fired over this incident and is unable to find work.

Pity there are no Lawyers in California who might want to pursue a case like this. :rolleyes:
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i'm just positive he hasn't been contacted by some fairly prestigious firms offering their assistance on a contingency basis........:rolleyes:
 
If i found it, i would have brought it to Apple directly. Obviously it's something they would want back. I would bring it back sorta hoping for a reward. :D
Bottom line, it's the person who lost it fault. It was careless.
 
tigres said:
What in the world happened in the interim?
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Well that is interesting indeed. According to Gizmodo "Weeks later, Gizmodo got it. It was the real thing. Once we saw it inside and out, there was no doubt about it.". So it must have been with the founder for weeks. Maybe the founder lost interest in it a bit. I bet many, many people won't realize what kind of scoop they have when they find an important prototype device. Hell, I think lots of consumers owning a 3G iPhone won't recognize this as a new iPhone from some distance. I showed my girlfriend the pictures last night of the 4G. Her reaction? Humph, looks exactly the same, what's the fuss about. :p
 
brewcitywi said:
I remember a while ago that someone leaked U2's tapes from Achtung Baby before the album was released.

They completely re-recorded a few songs, and released a different song as the first single.

So, I guess an iPhone re-design would NOT be out of the question!
Click to expand...

No offense, and maybe you're just joking but...do you really not see the difference between recording a song and designing/building a completely new phone from the ground up?
 
pdjudd said:
And Trent Reznor does not own and operate a multi-billion dollar tech company. There is absolutely no precedence for this to happen and they don't need any - they have people to leak things with when they want to.

The situations are in no way comparable - Trent lives by promoting his stuff in any way he can. Apple does not plant unreleased hardware that haven't been announced and aren't slated to release for several months. Doing so runs the risk of benefiting your competition.
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Neither of us know for sure... but I don't exactly agree with you. It's a different form of getting word out.
 
OasisNYK said:
I totally agree - this was a controlled leak designed to get the next gen iPhone into the news.

My guess is the final product will not resemble the mock up.
Click to expand...
A product that hasn't been announced yet? Apple doesn't do that, not even with Gozmodo of all places.
 
deanooh said:
This letter had me going until the last line :confused:

"Please let us know where to pick up the unit."

It should say the Apple Legal Department will currently put a lean on your house, your business and your dog. With a quiet comment to not walk down any alleys in the near future. If that was a real letter.

Dean
Click to expand...

Apple will not a make a move regarding this whole fiasco until the release of the iPhone. Then they will lay the hammer down.
 
Some of you need to be more open-minded.

"A controlled leak - Apple doesn't do that". People said the same thing when certain musicians started leaking music on purpose. You have to understand - things aren't always done the SAME way. Things CHANGE.

Now I'm not saying it was definitely leaked on purpose... but many things point toward that. To completely dismiss that, does not make sense, IMO.

Fact is, no one knows for sure.
 
Anuba said:
...They'll add some of their Apple magic and make video chatting popular, I'm sure." Right, except... iChat and webcams have already been a staple of the Mac world forever, and how's that panning out so far?

I don't know what it is, but there seems to be something inherently repulsive about people having to look presentable when they're on the phone, let alone always having to look presentable 24/7 should someone give them a ring. Being on the phone is something people like to do with the make-up off, their hair on end and breadcrumbs on their shirts. No injection of Apple magic will solve that one.
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Touche :cool: But useful or not, that hasn't stopped Apple from embedding cams in their notebook screens. People don't buy what they need, they buy what they like.
 
Makes a lot to sense to me ....

This isn't some case (at least, as far as we know right now) of an employee purposely leaking out proprietary Apple information. It's a case of an Apple employee making a mistake/screwing up and leaving a phone at a bar, where it made its way to a fairly well-respected technical web site for an analysis and review.

As I said before, most of the "value" of this phone to Apple was in keeping it a secret. That cat's out of the bag and can't be put back in, now ... At this point, reclaiming the phone itself is more of a formality than anything else.

I suspect Apple's initial reaction was to say and do nothing about the lost phone, in fact (other than remote wipe it). That way, most people wouldn't know if it was real or a fake, or know if they could even trust the original story of how it was discovered. But it looks like the people involved in doing the write-ups on it were too smart and detail-oriented.... They located photos of an identical prototype next to a known-valid photo of an iPad prototype, and compared it to photos of a second leaked iPhone set of photos. They took it apart and saw it had Apple-branded internal parts (so not a fake). So now, Apple may as well cut their losses here and ask for the thing back in a civil manner (so as not to come off like the "bad guy"). At least now they get the advantage of some free marketing research -- since they can read comments to see how popular the design change is with current iPhone owners.


kiljoy616 said:
This story gets stranger more and more. If true apple is been very civil about the whole things, strange to see apple just basically asking for it back. No demands or punitive damages, just, "hey can we have it back"
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pdjudd said:
When you are in completely different industries dealing with different products, you leak things differently. End of story.
Click to expand...

Listen.. I'm saying it may or may not have been. You are saying "definitely not". If you were saying it doesn't seem likely, I'd respect your opinion. But to tell me you are some genius on this subject what you're saying is 100% truth, is a JOKE.
 
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