“Gray Powell [is a] 27- year-old Apple software engineer who reportedly left his top-secret, next-generation iPhone prototype at the Gourmet Haus Staudt, a bar in Redwood City, Calif., last month [March 18],” Eloise Harper reports for ABC News.
“Powell was celebrating his birthday at this German beer garden and left his phone at the bar,” Harper reports. “MaryAnne Staudt, who co-owns the bar, said that Powell was upset when he returned and attempted to recover the phone and doesn’t believe that it was a publicity stunt done by Apple. Staudt said she felt badly about the situation and for Powell.”
Harper reports, “His last Facebook update before he lost his phone read ‘I underestimated how good German beer is,’ which he typed from his secret iPhone, according to Gizmodo, who obtained it for $5,000 from a patron who found the device… Gizmodo managed to speak briefly to Powell by phone, saying he sounded ‘tired and broken.’ There’s still no word on his future as a software engineer at Apple.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
“…and doesn’t believe that it was a publicity stunt done by Apple.”
Honest!
Gizmodo couldn’t care less for the future of this idiot smack.
Scum, scum, scum.
If I lost my key to my Ferrari and the guy who paid $5000 for the key and has my Ferrari would call me, I know what I would want do to this POS.
I feel really bad for this guy…I mean, yes, he screwed up more than anyone at apple ever. but to be fair If I had an iphone 4g/hd I would take it with me too.
Ya, no way this was a public stunt. I mean hey….
You would think this guy would of had a mobile me account and used its tracking capability (I use mine all the time for when I foolishly leave my phone behind). Maybe sent a text to his phone offering up a reward. Nah, of course not.
If the guy who found it was so keen on returning it, why didn’t he leave it with the beer garden, or at the very least leave his contact info with them? Would have been the sensible thing to do, no?
Resposibility and accountability are prt and parcel of professionalism regardless of sympathies.
Maybe i’m the only one who hasn’t read Gizmodo’s coverage on this, but as of this morning i’ve removed them from my bookmark. Have no plan on reading a site if this is what they call journalism.
Apparently the guy who found the phone in the bar didn’t simply give it to the bar staff so the owner could retrieve it.
That’s what any ordinary citizen would try to do, and such a lost item would be easily returned to it’s rightful owner.
Instead the finder sells it to Gizmodo for $5k
== Theft
This is Apple’s cover up story!
a) The guy should not be getting drunk at a bar with a prototype phone.
b) Be more responsible with the device
c) Apple should have put a return label on the back of the phone in case it was lost or stolen with a contact info
d) Apple should have made OS 4 work with MobileMe so they could track the device.
So many things Apple could have done and didn’t. Lost it? Lesson learned. Apple follow these 4 steps in the future.
Thanks.
Powell awaits outside Steve’s Office.
Everytime the Elevator Bell rings he gets the shivers…
Steve: “So Powell. You’ve had a bad day. Why don’t we have a little talk… comeon follow me into the Elevator!”
Oops ‘scuse the fast typing errors…
Responsibility and accountability are part and parcel of professionalism regardless of sympathies.
I got lucky with my iPhone a few weeks back. Went to a bar and whilst there bumped into a old co-worker who was having dinner with his family. I went over to talk to them for a few minutes and when I had come back my phone that I had left on the table had gone.
Did the tracking thing and the phone was still in the bar. Thought that someone had pocketed it. However we called the server over and then the manager to ask what they could do. Apparently one of the bussers had thought we had left and saw the phone lying there. So it was put into the safe so it wouldn’t get nicked.
Got my phone back and was mighty relieved. Gave the busser a big tip because he did do the right thing.
I have to say that the Apple employee should not have taken his phone to the bar. Unless Apple specifically told him to take it everywhere common sense dictates that you leave those at home when going to the bar. It’s easy to get distracted when you’ve had a few beers;).
Apple wiped the device- so obviously there was a way to track it and a mobile me account …
This feature is Not exclusive to 4.0…
Looks like the sensitive date was a bigger priority than the phone, therefore the wipe over the location…
Why in the world would Apple let anybody take this top secret device out in the wild? Something that critical should have never been allowed to leave the company premises. I blame Apple more that the fall guy. What happened to the concept of security?
Looking at that 4G iPhone it really looks like a prototype, and could be a geek/biz version of the iPhone with a A4 chip inside. Then the GS model would still be what most people would want, prices $99 -$199.
What the patron who found the device and Gizmodo did was no different than someone finding a wallet with credit cards in it and selling it to an identity thief. Criminal proceedings should follow.
Apple should have SEIU airport screeners on all the exits – with night-sticks.
Next step as envisioned by Steve Jobs to keep this going: Somebody file a law suit for some reason, get the now famous Gray Powell into a deposition, under oath, facing jail time for lying and ask him to describe this clever publicity stunt.
In the meantime, just stand in amazement as the master of manipulation raking in untold zillions in free exposure. There’s simply nothing else like it in the history of marketing.
And, all of you who are complaining about Gizmodo’s role in this ruse – get over yourself. They are simply part of the plan orchestrated by your hero.
Why the big surprise that the guy had the phone in a bar. You can’t do real world testing inside 1 Infinite Loop. Of course there are Apple employees carrying the next iPhone out and about. I don’t think Apple will fire this guy, but he won’t be allowed to have any goodies to take outside and play with for a very long time.
The person who took it and made money on it, twice, should be prosecuted for selling stolen property. So should the people who bought it.
They ALL knew what it was and who it belonged to.
I’ve read reports that ‘Find My iPhone’ feature does not work with OS4 yet, hence the wipe. As to why it was out in public, they have to test these somehow and in the lab does not equate to real world. He is a baseband engineer so he needs to test the phone functions out in public. Remember, this was housed in a case to make it look like a 3GS so no one would be suspicious.
This whole thing really has a bad smell and probably will not end well for Giz.
I agree The Other Steve, this is a case of a thief selling to a fence.
Gizmodo could have offered back the new iPhone and asked for some grace of mercy for the young Apple software engineer that lost it. If Gizmodo handled it better, they could have had an open door to a grateful Steve Jobs in stead of a few days of fame.
Sometimes the high road is the better road with the best view!
At this point, it really doesn’t matter much whether this was an orchestrated PR or an honest mistake by a young engineer (although I would suggest buying some tinfoil hats to those who believe it’s a PR stunt).
A legal issue remains: somebody found a phone sitting on a bar stool. They took this phone and sold it to somebody else, for a hefty sum of money. Under no circumstances could this somebody have been lead to believe that the phone on a bar stool wasn’t anyone’s property and was thus abandoned. Obviously, that somebody was fully aware that what he/she did was theft.
As far as Gizmodo is concerned, the only plausible excuse there would be (and I haven’t read transcript of the exchange between the finder and Gizmodo) if they were under the impression that the phone they were buying was sold to them by its rightful owner. If it was clear to Gizmodo that the person selling them the device happened to just find it somewhere, then Gizmodo is also complicit in the criminal offense.
I would not be surprised to hear local District Attorney bringing up criminal charges against both (again, regardless of Apple’s involvement in the initial loss of the device by the engineer). There is just no way a defense could be built on the ‘entrapment’ excuse (Apple ‘planting’ an iPhone for someone to take and give to Gizmodo/Engadget, or similar).
By legal definition the phone was not lost but misplaced. A wallet on the ground is lost. A wallet left on a bar is misplaced. As such it was in possession of the bar when the THIEF STOLE it. Would anyone here think that picking up a wallet or a purse off a bar would not be stealing. The fact that he never informed the bar shows clear intent to steal the device and a failure to take reasonable actions to find the owner.