Apple loses another unreleased iPhone

[Tylor]

In a bizarre repeat of a high-profile incident last year, an Apple employee once again appears to have lost an unreleased iPhone in a bar, CNET has learned.

The errant iPhone, which went missing in San Francisco's Mission district in late July, sparked a scramble by Apple security to recover the device over the next few days, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

Last year, an iPhone 4 prototype was bought by a gadget blog that paid $5,000 in cash. This year's lost phone seems to have taken a more mundane path: it was taken from a Mexican restaurant and bar and may have been sold on Craigslist for $200. Still unclear are details about the device, what version of the iOS operating system it was running, and what it looks like.

While Apple has not publicly announced any plans for future phones, unconfirmed reports in the last few weeks suggest the launch date for the iPhone 5 is likely to be in early October. Other reports from Taiwan have set the date at September or October. (See CNET's iPhone 5 rumor roundup.)

Apple declined to comment after being contacted this morning. A spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department said the company did not file a police report based on the loss at the bar. Craigslist did not respond to requests for comment.

A day or two after the phone was lost at San Francisco's Cava 22, which describes itself as a "tequila lounge" that also serves lime-marinated shrimp ceviche, Apple representatives contacted San Francisco police, saying the device was priceless and the company was desperate to secure its safe return, the source said.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20...#ixzz1WfN3u71D


Could this actually be intended?

[coinich]

Well, you saw how it worked out last time...

[Dreadnaught]

I'm just surprised they would hand out so many test units.

[Ominous Gamer]

Its not uncommon, when you plan to sell millions you need as many in beta as possible. Even with as many as they let out they still miss obvious problems, like the last model losing a signal if you hold it like all the advertisements showed.
If I remember correctly Microsoft handed out prelease Zunes to many of their employees, each coated a different shade of the rainbow. Easy to track down when someone decided to lose or leak it.

The crazy part is how the device was recovered. Police originally said they had no involvement. Which meant it was Apple's own security that tracked it to an address and recovered it, and that caused all kinds of internet grumbling. I think the police reneged
on that statement and said they were there during the search and seizure a little while later.

[GGT]

Yes, I think it's intentional. A company like Apple doesn't let employees leave the building with a "priceless" prototype.

[RandBlade]

Yes, I think it's intentional. A company like Apple doesn't let employees leave the building with a "priceless" prototype.

Except as has been said repeatedly in thread and in links they do - and they have to.

[GGT]

Gee, my post was #5. Not sure what you mean by something said "repeatedly in thread and links".

[coinich]

Gee, my post was #5. Not sure what you mean by something said "repeatedly in thread and links".

I'm assuming he's alluding to the other iPhone loss as well, which does clearly demonstrate a trend of them leaving the building with clearly less than priceless prototypes. Not that prototypes is even the right word here.

[RandBlade]

Gee, my post was #5. Not sure what you mean by something said "repeatedly in thread and links".

Sorry Geegee, thought this thread was a lot longer than that

[Dreadnaught]

Its not uncommon, when you plan to sell millions you need as many in beta as possible. Even with as many as they let out they still miss obvious problems, like the last model losing a signal if you hold it like all the advertisements showed.
If I remember correctly Microsoft handed out prelease Zunes to many of their employees, each coated a different shade of the rainbow. Easy to track down when someone decided to lose or leak it.

The crazy part is how the device was recovered. Police originally said they had no involvement. Which meant it was Apple's own security that tracked it to an address and recovered it, and that caused all kinds of internet grumbling. I think the police reneged
on that statement and said they were there during the search and seizure a little while later.

Yeah, I'm not really happy at that kind of activity. What's the legal grounds? Theft?

It's amazing how Apple gets a free pass in the mainstream press on this stuff.

[CitizenCain]

Not that prototypes is even the right word here.

It's really more of a closed beta, yeah. That's why they have so many employees using these phones outside the office (testing in "real life situations"), which inevitably results in a few of them being lost or left behind... particularly when "real life situations" involve booze and higher priorities than staring at your phone.

Yeah, I'm not really happy at that kind of activity. What's the legal grounds? Theft?

It's amazing how Apple gets a free pass in the mainstream press on this stuff.

Well, the legal grounds would probably be that it's Apple's property, and equipped with a GPS locator. Tracking it down probably involved all of 30 seconds pulling up GPS co-ordinates from a server and translating that to an address, which can be done with Google Maps, FFS. It's not like it would require a massive investigation or breaching anyone's privacy.

Incidentally, bags lined with aluminum foil FTW. You can even buy them online if you're not comfortable doing it yourself.