Apple wants its MacBook Pro 3G prototype back

“Apple wants a North Carolina man to return a prototype notebook computer he purchased on Craigslist earlier this year, CNET has learned,” Josh Lowensohn reports for CNET.

“Three weeks ago, photos of the device emerged in an eBay listing by Carl Frega, a North Carolina resident who had purchased the machine from someone on Craigslist for parts to fuel his repair business,” Lowensohn reports. “Upon opening it up, he discovered that the machine was unlike any Apple had ever released to the public. Beneath the notebook’s metal frame was a slot for a SIM card and on the lid was an external antenna, suggesting Apple was testing built-in cellular networking in its notebook computers right around the time the first iPhones were hitting store shelves.”

Advertisement: Limited Time: Students, Parents and Faculty save up to $200 on a new Mac.

“The device, which is still in Frega’s hands, was of big interest to CNET readers after cropping up on eBay for a little less than a day before being pulled down at the request of Apple, though not before bidding hit $70,000 from interested buyers. Apple pulled the plug on the sale (which had actually been listed by a friend of Frega’s), citing infringement on copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights,” Lowensohn reports. “Frega said he was contacted by Apple this afternoon to have someone from the company pick it up.”

Lowensohn reports, “Perhaps just as interesting as the machine itself is what happened to it before it ended up on eBay, a story that includes a trip to small claims court, a potential TV appearance, and a trip to an Apple Genius Bar where it was denied service after being identified as a Frankenstein-like machine containing third-party parts.”

Much more in the full article here.