“A first generation iPad prototype with two dock connector ports that showed up on eBay over the Memorial Day weekend sold for US$10,200, and the anonymous seller says the device was probably stolen before it ended up in his hands,” Jeff Gamet reports for The Mac Observer.
“The mystery seller said he expected Apple to contact him about the prototype, but hoped the company’s employees would be taking the holiday weekend off, giving him more time to sell the tablet — which seems to have worked out as planned,” Gamet reports. “The iPad is on its way to the buyer, who also chose to remain anonymous.”
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Roberto Baldwin reports for Wired, “Apple has a storied history of reigning in people who deal in, or posses, its prototypes. An eBay auction for a MacBook Pro with a 3G antenna was stopped by Apple, and the seller later returned the hardware to Apple. And of course, the iPhone 4 prototype that Gizmodo purchased in April 2010 led to criminal charges (later dropped) against Gizmodo editor Jason Chen. Most recently, in the summer of 2011, an iPhone prototype was lost in a San Francisco bar by an Apple employee. The resulting investigation entailed Apple security searching a citizen’s home under the escort of the SFPD.”
“But the story of the dual-dock prototype, like its seller, is still shrouded in mystery,” Baldwin reports. “We reached out to him via eBay’s messaging platform, and he contacted us directly by phone from a blocked number. We still don’t know his real name, but we were able to glean some details about his sale… The seller says he hasn’t been contacted by Apple, and doesn’t think the company will be happy to talk to him. ‘I’m pretty sure any contact I have with them won’t be very positive,’ he said.”
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