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Finder of Leaked iPhone 4 Prototype Speaks Out

first off, I am having a hard time not laughing out loud at work as I read all these holier than thou pronouncements. Considering that all of you not only visit a site named "Macrumors" but have taken the time to register a username for teh message boards and frequent said message boards.
Every single one of you would have kyped it and probably denied any wrongdoing in teh aftermath.
Second, this shmuck must have a had a public defender. There is ample precedent in the case of "Finders Keepers V Losers Weepers".
 
calaverasgrande said:
first off, I am having a hard time not laughing out loud at work as I read all these holier than thou pronouncements. Considering that all of you not only visit a site named "Macrumors" but have taken the time to register a username for teh message boards and frequent said message boards.
Every single one of you would have kyped it and probably denied any wrongdoing in teh aftermath.
Second, this shmuck must have a had a public defender. There is ample precedent in the case of "Finders Keepers V Losers Weepers".
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kyped? Kinda hard to tell what your point is with that ramblings but one thing stick out. Taking the time to register a name and frequent post.... You have 502 posts in less than 3 years, what's frequent? Again that might not have been your point but it's kinda hard to tell with that sentence structure. Get back to flipping those burgers.
 
gnasher729 said:
Many people _are_ young and dumb at 18. Or at 21. Since it all happened in a bar, he might have had some alcohol, and the first thing alcohol does is turn off the bit in your brain that says "this is a stupid idea" when you think of doing something stupid. (Which is why driving drunk is a bad idea, because you are tempted to do things that are stupid and that you wouldn't do when sober).
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If you're too 'young and dumb' at 21 to recognize that taking something that doesn't belong to you, and 'shopping it around' to find a buyer isn't a good idea, you're probably mentally incompetent.

Unfortunately, for this guy, he's just *ethically* and *morally* incompetent.

Drunk driving is a bad idea because your mental and physical faculties are impaired. Meaning you don't react to stimuli as quickly or consistently, and your ability to *realize* that fact is also impaired. It has nothing to do with the "temptation to do things that ... you wouldn't do when sober."

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keithers24 said:
Did you read his IAMA? It states that the first company he called was apple but they didnt take him seriously, and they were unaware that a prototype had been lost
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Yes, we remember that. We also remember, however, that he knew who the phone belonged to because he got that information before it was wiped, and then damaged beyond repair by Gizmodo after the sale.

When you know who the phone belongs to, contacting his employer's customer service hotline isn't a credible attempt to return the property.

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ThunderSkunk said:
Best to you, maybe. But aesthetics are subjective. It's still every bit as beautiful and sexy and clunky and ugly and hideous and cheap looking as it was then. It'll be very nice to move beyond this old design with the 6. ...& about time too.
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I'll admit the photos we saw back then didn't do the phone justice, I had to actually see it in real life to 'get' the design. I'll also admit that I still prefer the rounded-edge profile of the prior models. Not so much that I didn't upgrade when the 4s was released, though.
 
I really have no sympathy for him, he knew this was wrong. but did it anyway. I remember someone calling the police after seeing this phone." Hold it another way"
 
Megakazbek said:
Funny to read old comments about it being ugly and hideous and looking like cheap chinese iPod clone, and then it turned out to be one of the best phone designs ever :)
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I agree. I was one of the people calling it ugly and unfinished looking, based on the leaked pictures. But once I saw the official Apple pics at the keynote it looked much better, and in person it was pretty awesome. I eventually bought it, and later a 4S. I now own a 5, and I can tell you that I still think the 4S was the most beautiful iPhone I ever owned. I also thought it handled drops, etc. much better than my 5 does. I would take it back in two seconds if it had the same tech inside of it that my 5 has.

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henryonapple said:
damn i don't know how to feel about the guy. he shouldn't have done what he did, but who wouldn't??
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Me.
 
quagmire said:
Before Apple remotely bricked it, Hogan was able to access the engineers facebook account...... He had an idea whose phone it was.....

And reading the direct convo.... To me it sounds he got the $5,000, but not the $3,000 bonus. Just he ended up with basically nothing due to the legal costs.....
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He also said he got paid for the story he didn't say he sold the phone. So in theory he could have given them the phone so they could return it to Apple (and look at it before they did so, no law against that) and got paid for the story.
 
A lot of people would have done what he did. That's certainly not justification of course. He messed up and is paying the price.



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notjustjay said:
That's what I would have done.

Taken all kinds of pictures of it, then given it back.

You could then have your 15 minutes of fame as "the guy who found the unreleased iPhone", and then sell or give away your photos to the tech blogs.

Sure, you might have lost out on $3000... but then you wouldn't have your name dragged through all this mud (plus the legal fees, etc.)
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Want to be even *more* sure you'll be 'clean' from a legal perspective? Take a bunch of pictures of the phone *where you found it*, and never leave the bar with it. Heck, at that stage, the pictures don't even have to be very good to be worth some money.

Once you're done, make a point of telling a bar employee (or the owner if possible) about the delinquent phone, and providing the contact information you found on said phone.

If anybody gets touchy about the fact that you handled the phone for the minute that process takes, you can honestly say you were just looking at it to determine who it belonged to.
 
TMar said:
He also said he got paid for the story he didn't say he sold the phone. So in theory he could have given them the phone so they could return it to Apple (and look at it before they did so, no law against that) and got paid for the story.
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Interesting spin.... Should have been his lawyer. haha Not sure if the judge or jury would buy it, but its a decent defense.
 
TMar said:
It's theft in California, lets get that straight. In most places you find something that's been lost, taking possession of it does not make you a thief. It's the state where carelessness indemnifies you from personal responsibility, which is why you call him the 'victim'.
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Your first sentence is correct. The remainder of your post is demonstrably incorrect by reviewing state laws. Most states have similar provisions before 'found' property can be legally claimed by the finder. Some are stricter, some are less strict, but in the majority of states if you find property over a certain dollar value, you are *not* legally allowed to just keep it, and doing so is theft.

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Peace said:
Wasn't everybody here defending this guy when it happened ? And bashing Apple ?

Now it turns out he was just a selfish thief.

Go figure.
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No, you had the same split of 'finders keepers' vs. 'don't take what's not yours' back then. He's been a selfish thief all along.

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OrangeSVTguy said:
Like gizmodo didn't know it was stolen either and gets a slap on the wrist for buying stolen property and then themselves not obeying that age old law.

All parties should have been prosecuted.
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Yeah. I never understood how Gizmodo *didn't* get prosecuted. In their initial story they *admitted* they were buying the property belonging to person X from person Y who claimed he had picked it up from a bar.

There's no rational way to spin that away from willfully and knowingly buying stolen property. Admitting to that in a widely published article, and then bragging about contacting the proper owner and demanding *concessions* in order to return said property should have been a slam dunk case.
 
TMar said:
Reading comprehension, the Apple employee isn't the victim, there isn't one in this case. Again, personal responsibility, something most people these days don't understand. You don't want someone to take you items, don't leave them unattended in a bar. Now he probably should have attempted to return it but "theft" it is not (again unless your'e in California where being careless aka an idiot is legally protected) .
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This is theft in most states, and there certainly *is* a victim when you take property that doesn't belong to you. (You can argue whether the victim in this case is Apple, or the employee who left the phone behind, but there demonstrably *is* a victim.)

Being unaware of a law doesn't mean the law doesn't exist. But regardless, there's a basic rule that *most* of us learned very early in our lives (long before we were legally considered adults).

DON'T TAKE SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T BELONG TO YOU WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM IT'S OWNER!

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TMar said:
Are the keys inside the car inside the bar? Not a very good attempt at you point there for you....

Once in high school I "lost" my wallet with a couple hundred dollars in it. I know where I had "lost" it and when I went to retrieve it it was gone. The person who "found" it is not a thief...
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No, the person who took it was a thief. That person took property that did not belong to him/her. That's a thief. You apparently just didn't care.

If, as you claim, the person who took your wallet *wasn't* a thief, did he/she now lave legal possession of your credit cards, and therefore be legally allowed to use them to purchase things?
 
applelover1016 said:
All three were wrong in their own way. The engineer shouldve been more careful, hogan should have rightfully return it(i dont mean apple care, apple hq), and gizmodo shouldnt have brought property they knew wasn't rightfully the sellers. Now can we please stop arguing over 3 year old news lol
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Gizmodo had the *perfect* opportunity to come out of this whole mess smelling like a rose.

1) Arrange delivery of the stolen phone.
2) Contact Apple.
3) Return the phone to Apple, and provide the contact information of the thief who sold it to them.

Had they followed *that* course of action, odds are they'd have been reimbursed by Apple, and given early access to test and review the phone before it was publicly announced.
 
TMar said:
Stop right there. You've misinterpreted something along the way. Please reread and re-comprehend all of it and try again.
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No. He interpreted it correctly. He said his father was a lawyer. You said his father's whole profession is based on denying personal responsibility.

Lawyers, as a profession, are about making sure that failures of personal responsibility are dealt with correctly. Either by arguing for the appropriate punishment, or by ensuring that the accused gets a fair hearing so that a raw accusation isn't all that is required for punishment.
 
TMar said:
He also said he got paid for the story he didn't say he sold the phone. So in theory he could have given them the phone so they could return it to Apple (and look at it before they did so, no law against that) and got paid for the story.
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Still a violation of the law. His obligation by law was to either attempt to return it to the original owner, or leave it where he found it. Giving it to a web blogging site is not an attempt to return it to the owner.
 
Unfortunate the guy couldn't see the real opportunity in front of him. Make the road trip to 1 Infinite Loop and ask for someone important. Blog about the trip and watch all the Tech sites come to you for info. Be in demand from all the tech sites. Be in demand from Apple's Lawyers. Drama but safe drama.

Too Bad
 
MacRumors said:
In the session, Hogan claims that he was taken advantage of by Gizmodo, which failed to pay an alleged $3,000 bonus to Hogan predicated on Apple confirming the device was genuine. Gizmodo had paid $5,000 up front for the device, but Hogan notes that he spent much more than that on legal fees related to his defense.
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Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
 
I like how people are like: "He should've left it at home."

How are you supposed to field test a device if you only use it at home?
 
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