“On March 18, a young Apple engineer had a few too many drinks at a beer garden in Redwood City, Calif., and left his cellphone behind on a bar stool,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt recounts for Fortune.
“A customer picked it up… Realizing he’s got something of value, our unnamed beer garden patron takes a few photographs and starts shopping them around,” Elmer-DeWitt explains. “He shows the pictures to Engadget and offers to let them play with it for an unnamed price. On April 17, nearly a month after the phone was lost, Engadget runs the photos… Meanwhile, Engadget’s rival Gizmodo has bought the thing outright.”
Gizmodo “takes more photos. It makes some videos. It publishes the specs. It cracks the thing open and photographs its innards. It visits the beer garden. It calls the original owner, records the interview and publishes his name and Facebook photo,” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “Gizmodo’s servers slow to a crawl under the weight of all the Web traffic. According to paidContent, just one of its posts generated more than 3.7 million page views.”
Elmer-Dewitt reports, “And then someone from Apple calls Gizmodo — according to one rumor, it was Steve Jobs himself. Apple wants its phone back. From the company’s point of view, as Daring Fireball’s John Gruber keeps reminding readers, lost property not promptly returned to its owner could be considered stolen. And paying for stolen property, in California and elsewhere, is a crime.”
Full article, with Appel’s written request to Gizmodo and Gizmodo’s response, here.
MacDailyNews Take: As P.E.D. writes, “The only important question that remains is how closely this prototype resembles the final product.”
“No iPads for you!”
That is it. These are the future features of the iPhone. It is nice to see that at least Apple is working on the features that EVERYONE knows can be done and has wanted for some time now.
Maybe this summer? I will get at least one!
Things that make you go Hmmmm!
That was exactly my last podt yesterday something found and not returned to ownwer is consider stolen.
you know that young engineer is working for Palm now
The iChat was done on the first iPhone about a month and a half after it was released in a hacking challenge. 3 years later is a long development time Apple. Or was there something else holding the evolution of the iPhone back.
What other Apple products are being held back by outside forces? Steve, you are going easy on those forces. (Example: AT&T;’s tethering promised again last year!)
So, who is putting up the speed bumps on Apple development road map?
The photos apparently are real, but since the phone was lost and sold over month ago, Its possible that the final incarnation will be somewhat different.
The photos don’t show any A4…
Doc, I think that the engineer is working for McDonalds now unless that was what Apple wanted done. They don’t talk about future products, but with those feature in the next iPhone, Palm has a takeover value of $0.00 and that is what Apple wants everyone to know. What is RIMM’s value with an iChat iPhone?
Next time put a web cam on the iPad and karma won’t be such a bitch
Gizmodo is so in the wrong on this it’s not funny. They’re acting smug and arrogant. They KNOW they purchased stolen property and knew it at the time.
Whether you like Apple or not, they have a right to protect their property and technology. It was stolen from them. Even if it was “lost” the person who found it then sold property that wasn’t his, hence, stolen.
And yes, the A4 will be in the iPhone and iPod touch and the next “Just one more thing” that Steve and Apple are developing to take over the next market. With a BILLION DOLLAR SERVER FARM ready to stream or do the cloud computing for something, it could be the world’s biggest DVR service streaming to Apple’s internet connected devices and HDTVs. Why not! It is 4 times bigger that the one they are using now!
Jersey_Trader:
You sayin this was deliberately lost?
Gizmodo is so never going to be invited to another Apple Event!
@Jersey_Trader
Correction…..working for McDonalds in Krasnoyarsk.
Hey guys, am I a genius or what?
Throw away all the marketing text books ever written. Every thing you need to know can be found in the case study of every Apple product – starting with deliberately controlled pre launch rumors and stunts like this one, the launch, and the follow up hype by all the media describing your product in mythic ways even you didn’t imagine.
Then, respond to customer questions with put downs – like an ordinary jerk would do. Only, they will worship you more if you get it just right. Do it in writing – on some magical device – they will print it (if they can figure out how) and hang it on their wall with a label that says something like – ‘the lord himself wanted to know if I was nuts!”.
Gizmodo is out only the $5,000 if they return it to Apple now that Apple has asked for it.
“This letter constitutes a formal request that you return the device to Apple. Please let us know where to pick up the unit.”
Gizmodo may have done exactly what Apple wanted done with it. However, they did not need to take it apart to get Apple’s response but they never saw it prior to the wipe.
About, “The only important question that remains is how closely this prototype resembles the final product.”
All of these features will end up on the iPhone (and some should already be on it). The question is WHEN?
@bob
You are absolutly correct. They screwed themselves over by publishing their little novel on receiving lost property. Purchasing it and giving it the lack of care results in it being stolen. The great thing would be apple introducing something that looks totally different
Gizmodo seriously needs to be taken down a few pegs. I don’t know of a better way to do this that have Cupertino counsel put them in their crosshairs.
I hope they’re enjoying the short-term traffic boost this little windfall provided them. Any advance access they had to Apple just got flushed. At least M$ will still be willing to tour them through their R&D;facilities (aka Vaporland).
Did Apple fired this young engineer?
It seems like people could follow the Gizmodo staff until they park their cars somewhere. Then after they walk away, arrange to have the “misplaced” cars towed away. Give it to an auto shop. Have the auto shop take apart the cars completely. Then have a third party put those parts back in the parking lot after “realizing” that the Gizmodo people “misplaced” their cars. After all, if the cars weren’t reported stolen within the first few hours, it is all okay, right?
The “lost” iPhone was all over NBC’s Today Show this morning.
I support an Apple Stockholder suit against Gizmodo for diminishing potential iPhone sales prior to the eventual release of the iPhone 4G.
Will this freeze iPhone sales until the release of the 4th generation iPhone? iPad sales should more than make up for it.
Gizmodo can come out looking good in this if they return the iPhone and request that the young Apple engineer not be destroyed if it was a really bad mistake and not an Apple planned event. It would give Apple cover for the engineer if it were their plan.