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Criminal Investigation of Lost Next-Generation iPhone Spurred by Apple Requests

Cartaphilus said:
I really need to learn how to do umlauts.
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Or just get a Scandinavian keyboard with ÅÄÖ.

Phonetically those dotted things aren't much of a mystery.

If it's a regular A, it's pronounced like the a in "bar".
If it's an Ä, it's pronounced like the ai in "chair".
The dots are in fact just a tiny "i" or possibly "e" that someone felt like putting above the A to save precious moose-blood ink.

If it's an Å, it's pronounced like the o in "sore".
Incidentally the Swedish word for wound is "sår".
Again, Mr. ink-saver just took the O out of OA and shrunk it.

If it's a regular O, it's pronounced like the oo in "moon".
If it's an Ö, there's no perfect match but close to the U in "fur".
Once again it's a tiny "i" above an O, as observed in the Swedish word for "choir" ("kör").

So I think my Swedish is getting pretty good. I'm pretty sure that one means, "you can lead a horse's ass to water, but you can't make him think", right?
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Nära, men ingen cigarr.

Cartaphilus said:
You left out that Sweden apparently has unbelievable foreign language schools.
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Yeah, we have one great foreign language school, it's called Subtitles. When you're exposed to foreign language dialogue and a translation thereof at the same time, you pick up stuff whether you like it or not. When they do local overdubbing of Hollywood movies like they do in France, Germany etc, people don't learn squat.

Speaking of which, I've always wondered... when they do the German localization of a Scharzenegger movie, do they do the voice with an extra super-German accent? Also, what if the guy who does Arnold's voice is really scrawny?

Also, that mock Swedish accent you guys put on... "Hellu MY name IS Bjorn AND i WUDD like TO buy SOME svedISH abSOlut"... that's decidedly Norwegian. That chippy, hapless zig-zag melody is what we use when we imitage people from Norway. Swedish is more of a monotonous drone. You've been watching a Norwegian chef on the Muppet Show for all these years.
 
dejo said:
So, unless they threatened them, there is no pressure? If the General Counsel of Apple sends me a letter with a formal request, I am going to consider it seriously, no matter how friendly it sounds.
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Of course you will, and so would I, but is there any repercussions listed if I do not comply with the request?

No.
 
Cartaphilus said:
Okay, I'm going out into the desert for 40 days.

Rush Limbaugh agrees with me. Jon Stewart disagrees with me. How did I ever go so wrong?

...
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Holy crap I was thinking of the same thing... I'm so depressed now. LOL

I even checked the channel guide after seeing it air on the web, to make sure FOX didn't pick up the Daily Show from Comedy Central. :(
 
PracticalMac said:
Of course you will, and so would I, but is there any repercussions listed if I do not comply with the request?

No.
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One of the reasons people hire lawyers is to send notes on attorney letterhead. The repercussions are implied. I personally avoid telling anyone with whom I am doing day-to-day household business that I am an attorney, because they get nervous just because of that.
 
cmaier said:
One of the reasons people hire lawyers is to send notes on attorney letterhead. The repercussions are implied. I personally avoid telling anyone with whom I am doing day-to-day household business that I am an attorney, because they get nervous just because of that.
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Oh come on, you use that all day.
- Get off my lawn! I'm an attorney!
- Are these the best oranges you have? I'm an attorney by the way.
- "YOU ARE TAILGATING AN ATTORNEY" (scrolling LED sign in your rear window in case they didn't take the hint from your license plate, "ATRNY")
- I need this hard drive replaced by Monday. Here's. My. Business... (pause)... Card (index finger strategically placed below title, middle finger tauntingly extended)
 
Anuba said:
Oh come on, you use that all day.
- Get off my lawn! I'm an attorney!
- Are these the best oranges you have? I'm an attorney by the way.
- "YOU ARE TAILGATING AN ATTORNEY" (scrolling LED sign in your rear window in case they didn't take the hint from your license plate, "ATRNY")
- I need this hard drive replaced by Monday. Here's. My. Business... (pause)... Card (index finger strategically placed below title)
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Completely wrong. As a long-time CPU designer, I'm perfectly capable of replacing my own hard drive. ;)
 
gnasher729 said:
Stealing or buying stolen goods is unethical, bragging about it on the internet where everyone can read it, that is stupid.
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Sure, it's stupid, but it's not like the goods in question was a Rolex batch or 600 boxes of Marlboro's and the webpage was thugvillefencingandhitjobsandcrack.org.

There's been a lot of talk about dos and don'ts, but let's face it, this finder is the only person in history who has found him- or herself in this particular situation. Plenty of people have found a cellphone and returned it (or not), but nobody (except this guy) outside Apple has ever found himself holding a top secret, unreleased, unannounced, iPhone prototype that millions of people, not just laymen but journalists, tech bloggers and others are itching to get their hands on. He was sitting on solid gold.

(Note to internet lawyers – stop typing frantically, this is NOT about mitigating circumstances, don't copy and paste more California state law, don't write an essay about how none of this will matter in court – I'm talking about human behavior, not the criminal case. Just stop. My eyes/ears are bleeding pre-emptively.)

You can't tell me you would handle it exactly like any other item, that there aren't one or two people you'd be dying do show it to before you try to return it, that your mind wouldn't be reeling when absorbing the magnitude of it all, that you wouldn't take a single picture of it, that you wouldn't think even once about the value of it and if there's something in it for you, at least in terms of a potential finder's fee.

Now, you might be saying "No! Because it was such a unique and valuable item, I would try even harder than I'm obliged to, I'd make more phone calls and send more emails and if all else fails I'd call the police and sit on guard with a loaded shotgun on my lap until they arrive to pick up the phone!" OK, I get that. Good for you, but it only goes to illustrate the point I was making – you wouldn't treat it like any other found item, because it simply isn't like any other. "Random really drunk guy", Jason Chen and Gawker were sailing uncharted waters here. A secret Apple product on the loose brings a new meaning to the term "industry first". You can disapprove of the conduct of everyone involved, and maybe they disapprove too, in retrospect, but you can't deny the fact that nobody else has been in their shoes.
 
Anuba said:
There's been a lot of talk about dos and don'ts, but let's face it, this finder is the only person in history who has found him- or herself in this particular situation. Plenty of people have found a cellphone and returned it (or not), but nobody (except this guy) outside Apple has ever found himself holding a top secret, unreleased, unannounced, iPhone prototype that millions of people, not just laymen but journalists, tech bloggers and others are itching to get their hands on.
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Ah, but that's just it. How do you know? Maybe Joe Smith in Mountain View found one last year. And Jane Jones in Gilroy found one a few months ago. And maybe each of them made the right choice, and returned them to the party who lost the phone or to Apple. If the finder had done the right thing, we'd probably never have heard of this situation either. Apple would have gratefully accepted the return of the phone, offered up some cash or swag in return for an NDA, and that would be the end of it.
 
cmaier said:
Ah, but that's just it. How do you know? Maybe Joe Smith in Mountain View found one last year. And Jane Jones in Gilroy found one a few months ago.
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Maybe, but since Jane and Joe did so quietly, "Random Really Drunk Guy" would still be thinking he was in an unprecedented situation, and that's precisely what my, uh, musings were about... what you, I, he, she, it would be thinking. Heck, Jane might have returned it, but done so very, very reluctantly, and not before secretly etching "Gilroy was here" on the inside of the phone.
 
cmaier said:
Ah, but that's just it. How do you know? Maybe Joe Smith in Mountain View found one last year. And Jane Jones in Gilroy found one a few months ago. And maybe each of them made the right choice, and returned them to the party who lost the phone or to Apple. If the finder had done the right thing, we'd probably never have heard of this situation either. Apple would have gratefully accepted the return of the phone, offered up some cash or swag in return for an NDA, and that would be the end of it.
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An excellent point.

Anuba said:
Maybe, but since Jane and Joe did so quietly, "Random Really Drunk Guy" would still be thinking he was in an unprecedented situation, and that's precisely what my, uh, musings were about... what you, I, he, she, it would be thinking.
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I think the only "thinking" that was done looked like:

$$$
 
So there was an intervention. My dearest friends got a New Agey therapist and confronted me. I think my listening to Limbaugh was the last straw for them, and even though I told them it was only a five-minute clip, and that I could quit anytime, they insisted I was losing touch with reality, and it was only the Böåûïñvinn talking.

I'm feeling better now after intense treatment, and spending a lot of time watching Ingrid Bergman in Ingemar Bergman films with Swedish subtitles. They've given me this mantra to chant now whenever somebody is wrong on the Internet..."lah dee dah". Seems to help...a little.
 
Anuba said:
Maybe, but since Jane and Joe did so quietly, "Random Really Drunk Guy" would still be thinking he was in an unprecedented situation, and that's precisely what my, uh, musings were about... what you, I, he, she, it would be thinking. Heck, Jane might have returned it, but done so very, very reluctantly, and not before secretly etching "Gilroy was here" on the inside of the phone.
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Perhaps you can restate your point then - it seemed to be "he was facing heretofore unknown levels of temptation, and as the only person ever to face such temptation, how do we know that not everyone would behave that way."

To the extent he thought he was in an unprecedented situation, so what? He could have just left the phone where it was and let the next guy (hopefully with better morals) deal with it. Instead he picked a particular course of action that reeks of premeditation. 1) asport the phone (take it out of the bar instead of turning it in). 2) set up an alibi (don't call guy who you know lost it - instead call tech support for the phone's manufacturer). 3) conspire with gizmodo to set up a story (i was paying you for the exclusive - the call to tech support may even have been part of the conspiracy - after all, gizmodo could just tell the guy the right number to call at apple, since they have direct contacts) 4) shop the phone around to the highest bidder. Not in that order.

Nothing in the facts indicates any attempt to try to do the right thing.

Update:

And we have a name!

http://www.loopinsight.com/2010/04/29/identity-of-man-who-sold-iphone-4g-to-gizmodo-uncovered/
 
Cartaphilus said:
I'm feeling better now after intense treatment, and spending a lot of time watching Ingrid Bergman in Ingemar Bergman films with Swedish subtitles. They've given me this mantra to chant now whenever somebody is wrong on the Internet..."lah dee dah". Seems to help...a little.
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You know how them olden movies always ended with a giant "THE END" on the screen?

Well, it just so happens that the Swedish word for "end" is "slut", and I have a hunch that the very first Bergman movies picked up by American distributors – given the language barrier at the time – had a big ol'

S L U T

title at the end, much to the involuntary bowel movement-inducing shock of the American female audience members circa 1944.

There are other unintentionally funny words like that... the Swedish word for "speed", for example, is "fart". Any time you see a speed bump on a Swedish road, it's accompanied by a warning sign that reads "FART HINDER". I don't know about you, but going really fast over a speed bump isn't likely to hinder any farts, or...?

There's also the issue of the word mouse ("mus" in Swedish). We use that word for computer mice too, it's just that where you guys decided to use a synonym for "cat" as slang for female genitalia, we instead decided to use mouse (mus) for said body part, which adds a whole other dimension of innuendo when there's any mention of clicking the mouse button, playing with the mouse etc... not to mention the mildly awkward yet titilating associations arising from the size and placement of the scroll ball on the Mighty Mouse.

Finally, a bit of unfortunate interlingual homophony: The Swedish morpheme "fack" is pronounced almost exactly like the English F-word. On its own, fack means box, compartment, slot. When used as a prefix, it denotes something pertaining to a trade or profession, e.g. "facklitteratur" (literature associated with a profession), and also "fackförening" (trade union), often abbreviated to "fack", or in determined form (the union), "facket", pronounced "f*** it".

Anyway... meh, facket.

Cartaphilus said:
Hogan, eh? Sounds like a Swedish name....hmm.
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Other than the first name "Håkan" there aren't any good matches, but come to think of it, the people living in the southernmost part of Sweden, Skåne (Scania) have a slow southern drawl that the northeners find amusing (seems to happen with southerners everywhere), and they pronounce Håkan something like "Hoe-gun", so by all means, feel free to implicate those bastards down in Sweden's Alabama.

Sorry about all the commas, I'm commatose.
 
Mark Booth said:
Here's wired's article on the guy that took the iPhone:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/04/iphone-finder/

He regrets he didn't do more to return the phone.

It wasn't Hogan that called AppleCare?!?! If he didn't call, who the hell did? Jason Chen?

He's cooperating with authorities!

I hope Jason Chen picked a good attorney!

Mark
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"A friend of Hogan’s then offered to call Apple Care on Hogan’s behalf, according to Hogan’s lawyer. That apparently was the extent of Hogan’s efforts to return the phone.

After the friend’s purported efforts to return the phone failed, several journalists were offered a look at the device. Wired.com received an e-mail March 28 — not from Hogan — offering access to the iPhone, but did not follow up on the exchange after the tipster made a thinly veiled request for money. Gizmodo then paid $5,000 in cash for it."
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DId he call apple care, or just offer to?
 
Anuba said:
No, it's not. It's just that many of us are either discussing the event itself rather than the crimes allegedly committed, and others are discussing it from a moral rather than a legal perspective (those don't always overlap).

Unfortunately some people are so obsessed with the wrong having been committed against Apple that they feel threatened by anyone who discusses the matter from other perspectives than "nail the bastards" and doesn't start every post with a disclaimer that reads "yes the finder is a thief yes Gizmodo are hardened criminals yes yes yes can I please talk freely now without intervention by the thought police?". You're apparently one of the obsessed and therefore you see this supposed "excuse-making" everywhere. Just sit back, relax and stop defending the finder's "thief status" like it was your lollipop.


Personally I think they did the right thing, or at least the 'correct' thing. I'm a closet fascist and I enjoy seeing criminals nailed. They don't even have to be criminals, actually, I enjoy seeing wrong-doers nailed period.

As for "right", time will tell if they did the right thing from other perspectives, for instance PR. As The Register noted, "A not insignificant section of the intertubes is holding Apple entirely responsible for a brutal, paramilitary-style dawn raid by heavily-armed cops on the lovely home of peaceful citizen and Gizmodo editor Jason Chen". From what I've seen so far outside the Mac community, the court of public opinion, especially on my side of the pond, has decided that Apple has now been officially downgraded from "cool" to either "not cool" or "gestapo" (the jury's still out on that one).
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and why is it , this reminds me all that Monica issue?? whereas he had told "yes we did it, so what ? " and everybody would have shut up, as they should !! in fact, some are lucky by living in somewhere else where people really doesn't care about those privacy invasions; just look when Mitterrand scandal about his hidden daughter came to public knowledge, and who cared about all that?? fortunately nobody, as we should !

And yes, the kid should have sent the iPhone back to previous owner, period. He did it wrong ! now, make that like a crime of state, ooh, come on!! that's fanaticism of the guardians of the false morality and good habits!



May I guess that all these fellows who are now on Apple's side were deeply on ken Starr's side??
 
quagmire said:
Buying stolen property...... How many times does this need repeating?
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The post you quoted is precisely the thing. There seems to be some confusion even among people even in the US, i guess ignorance is bliss. :confused:

In any event taking the iPhone from the bar without reporting it was found to the bar, and turning it over to the proper people; Be it police, an Apple Store, or AT&T is stealing! Buying stolen goods is illegal, it makes you an accessory to the crime. (at least in the U.S) the raid is justified. If Gizmodo is involved in the criminal trafficking of stolen goods then they need to be held accountable. Moreover, nothing diminishes my respect for a company than an inability to take responsibility for their mistakes, and suffer the consequences (Gizmodo).

It would be one thing if a Gizmodo employe found it, snapped a picture, and turned it in. But that isn't what happened. Journalism doesn't bar people being responsible/accountable for breaking the law.:mad:
 
korsakova said:
and why is it , this reminds me all that Monica issue?? whereas he had told "yes we did it, so what ? " and everybody would have shut up, as they should !! in fact, some are lucky by living in somewhere else where people really doesn't care about those privacy invasions; just look when Mitterrand scandal about his hidden daughter came to public knowledge, and who cared about all that?? fortunately nobody, as we should !

And yes, the kid should have sent the iPhone back to previous owner, period. He did it wrong ! now, make that like a crime of state, ooh, come on!! that's fanaticism of the guardians of the false morality and good habits!

May I guess that all these fellows who are now on Apple's side were deeply on ken Starr's side??
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So your point is then that if we just ignore it when people steal technology and then sell it for a mere $5,000 or less to other criminals, then we might just have a chance to reach the nirvana of emulating...France!? Yeah, merci, mais non.

And that opinion assuredly doesn't contradict the fact that Ken Starr's view of the world has always been obscured by that horse's tail he is obliged to see it through.

Oh, and thanks for the thoughtful edit. Glad to see all those grammar errors cleaned up.
 
Cartaphilus said:
So your point is then that if we just ignore it when people steal technology and then sell it for a mere $5,000 or less to other criminals, then we might just have a chance to reach the nirvana of emulating...France!? Yeah, merci, mais non.

And that opinion assuredly doesn't contradict the fact that Ken Starr's view of the world has always been obscured by that horse's tail he is obliged to see it through.

Oh, and thanks for the thoughtful edit. Glad to see all those grammar errors cleaned up.
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Being a native English speaker, as I assume you are , you should have interpreted my post better. I did not say to ignore. Please read it once again thoroughly and even with this weak,miserable grammar you will get it.

Yeah, I try to clean up errors, slowly but I will get there, sometime. Now, I will wait until you speak my language, like I speak yours, then we can talk again, eh !

Ah, I'm so glad I was right about my guess !
 
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