Wired interviewed the guy who sold the phone to Gizmodo.. He apparently regrets not doing more to return the phone to its rightful owner...

I bet his bigger regret is not getting more than $5000 for the phone! He probably could have gotten 10X that much if he tried.

I hope the guy that "found" the iphone lives with guilt for the rest of his life.. for all we know.. that guy that "found" the phone at the bar coulda stolen it from his bag etc. i mean.. if the phone was a prototype to begin with, he's probably not allow to have it out in the public? like taking it out and leaving it on a table.. so i'm guessing the phone was in his bag or briefcase or whatever.. and the guy took it with the intention of selling it... and come on.. pretty sure giz knows that it's a real iphone prototype.. otherwise he won't be paying $5000 for it.. who da fuk pays $5000 for an item that they don't even know if it's real or not?

I don't understand why people can't accept that prototype DOES leave the office. I mean if it a prototype of a microwave i can understand it being int he same lab throughout the whole developmental process. But its freakin cellphone, how do you make sure it is working to its full potential if its not out any about in the same environment its going to be use in?????

I remember back in gr 8 my school tutor's husband work for nokia and he used to show me prototype phones all the time.

imo, both gizmondo and apple is milking all the publicity it can from this leak. Whether its accidental doesn't really matter. Really it doesn't hurt Apple all that much that 4g is leaked. If anything I'm more excited to get my hands on one now. I'm getting use to the look already, in fact i think i like it.

Yeah right. The mindless Apple drones are just waiting for that pre-order page to pop up on the Apple store for the new iPhone.

The iPhone was disgused with a case that made it looks like iPhone 3GS. If you read the story, u will know.

The guy didn't even found the phone. He sat at next table to the engineer.
When he was leaving, a bartender or the waiter told him, "hey your friend forgot his iPhone". He replied "Oh, that's not my friend.". He took it home because it was late at night, and said he will try to call the guy (he's got the name from the face book app on iPhone) tomorrow morning since he has his name from the phone.

He turn on the iPhone the next morning, found out it's dead. He then found out it's a "smaller" phone in a case that makes it looks like iPhone.
He remembered the name of the engineer from the facebook on the phone, he called Apple trying to reach him, but was refused.

He then called Apple support ('cause they won't connect him to the engineer), the support think he is joking.

I believe Gizmodo Editor (Jason) mentioned they went to the bar with him, chatted with the bartender or waiter in the bar who point to him "about his friend forgot to take his phone" to make sure it's not STOLEN before they pay $5000 for it. The guy has witness confirmed it was left on the table.

Apple is definitely losing money due to this leak, make no mistake. Current iPhone 3GS sales are going to dramatically fall now that everyone is aware a new iPhone is coming out this summer.

Remember that last year, the 3GS was announced on June 9 and released on June 19. That's only 10 days of advance notice to consumers. Up until the June 9 announcement iPhone 3G sales were still steady, at which point they dropped off in anticipation of the 3GS.

Now Apple will have to live with 1-2 months of poor iPhone 3GS sales while they don't have the next iPhone ready for market. It will likely cost them millions of dollars.

IMO, the reason why they search Jason's place was because Gizmodo did not stop posting pictures of the 4G. After return the phone to Apple, they starting to roll out internal pictures that they took on the 4G before they return to Apple.

It's obvious they confiscated all his compurters (2 servers, 4 computers) to make sure no more picture is going out.

Again, Apple is behind one of the 7 companies that provides help to do the search.

I can't believe how many ppl are on Apple's side. Gizmodo was actually a Apple-friendly blog. All of their editors wrote all the reviews in favor of Apple which is why I don't read Gizmodo as much as I used to be.

ecsw you need to get your "I hate everything Apple" head out of your ass - you're making a complete fool of yourself reposting comments that have already been proven false.

The guy who found the phone did not do enough to return the phone. What he did was the equivalent of me finding a stolen car and calling GM in Detroit to ask them if they know who the car belongs to. When the receptionsist doesn't know what I'm talking about I take that as a sign that I'm allowed to keep the vehicle, since she didn't know whose car it was.

Basically, the guy had every intention of keeping the phone and making money off it, and made a couple hasty calls to the wrong people so he'd have some sort of "alibi" for later on.


And BTW, the police raided the house, not Apple. Are you guys so fucking stupid that you actually think the courts and police do whatever Steve Jobs asks them to? Do you actually think he controls the government too?

LOL at the idiots making comments as if Apple did the raid on the house, Apple employees arrested and interviewed the people involved and Steve Jobs will be the judge who decides on the sentencing.

So how much $$ does 2 million hits roughly translate to??
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Well, I dont hate Apple. I had iPhone and iPod. I think iPhone is more advance than many phone on the market. But that doesnt give them the right to do things that's not proved in the court.

Read the article. The team that help police search Jason's place is R.E.A.C.T.
It shows on the paper. It's constructed with 7 technology companies which Apple is in the list.

http://publicintelligence.net/rapid-...ct-task-force/

Are you the judget? no, I don't think so, then you have no right to say it's proven false. Federal prosecutor is putting the seized property on hold as if Jason is consider as journalist, the warrent is invalid.

http://gizmodo.com/5524843/police-se...hens-computers

WTF are you calling stupid? I am stating what I read, never call or atatck anyone in this thread anything offensive. This is a discussion board, if my reading is proven wrong, then just point it out. No need to be offensive. I made the post because many people think without reading that Apple must be right which I don't agree.

You think the the police will just be reading the Gizmodo and consider Jason's phone as stolen when they have free time browsing the web? WAKE UP, there must be someone file a complain toward this issue and ask police to search his house.

Actually apples people were at the guys house. Watch yesterdays daily show and you will find the story
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bad example. if you found a prototype of something, not released to the public, you dont call the local dealer. you would actually call the head office.

Personally I would call the owner, whose name is all over the phone And if you do contact the company, you don't call tech support :lol

that's what i've been saying. the guy tried to call head office with the engineer's name or something, but they refused to connect him through. he then decided to call support after they refused to let him talk to the engineer. there were 2+ phone calls made to apple, not just the support.

most people missed this part, that's why i keep telling. maybe he shouldn't have take the money from gizmodo, but it's also part of the engineer's fault to get drunk and left it at the bar.
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READ THE ORIGINAL STORY. The guy waited with his friend for a while.
He made many calls, not just to Apple Support.

When I first saw Gizmodo posting the picture, I thought it's bad if they really purchase a stolen phone. But Jason's story made sense to me after I read it.

http://gizmodo.com/5520438/how-apple...he-next-iphone

================================================== ===
The person who eventually ended up with the lost iPhone was sitting next to Powell. He was drinking with a friend too. He noticed Powell on the stool next to him but didn't think twice about him at the time. Not until Powell had already left the bar, and a random really drunk guy—who'd been sitting on the other side of Powell—returned from the bathroom to his own stool.

The Random Really Drunk Guy pointed at the iPhone sitting on the stool, the precious prototype left by the young Apple engineer.

"Hey man, is that your iPhone?" asked Random Really Drunk Guy.

"Hmmm, what?" replied the person who ended up with the iPhone. "No, no, it isn't mine."

"Ooooh, I guess it's your friend's then," referring to a friend who at the time was in the bathroom. "Here, take it," said the Random Really Drunk Guy, handing it to him. "You don't want to lose it." After that, the Random Really Drunk Guy also left the bar.

The person who ended up with the iPhone asked around, but nobody claimed it. He thought about that young guy sitting next to him, so he and his friend stayed there for some time, waiting. Powell never came back.

During that time, he played with it. It seemed like a normal iPhone. "I thought it was just an iPhone 3GS," he told me in a telephone interview. "It just looked like one. I tried the camera, but it crashed three times." The iPhone didn't seem to have any special features, just two bar codes stuck on its back: 8800601pex1 and N90_DVT_GE4X_0493. Next to the volume keys there was another sticker: iPhone SWE-L200221. Apart from that, just six pages of applications. One of them was Facebook. And there, on the Facebook screen, was the Apple engineer, Gray Powell.

Thinking about returning the phone the next day, he left. When he woke up after the hazy night, the phone was dead. Bricked remotely, through MobileMe, the service Apple provides to track and wipe out lost iPhones. It was only then that he realized that there was something strange that iPhone. The exterior didn't feel right and there was a camera on the front. After tinkering with it, he managed to open the fake 3GS.

There it was, a shiny thing, completely different from everything that came before.

He reached for a phone and called a lot of Apple numbers and tried to find someone who was at least willing to transfer his call to the right person, but no luck. No one took him seriously and all he got for his troubles was a ticket number.

He thought that eventually the ticket would move up high enough and that he would receive a call back, but his phone never rang. What should he be expected to do then? Walk into an Apple store and give the shiny, new device to a 20-year-old who might just end up selling it on eBay?

===============================================
Here is what happed when Jason saw it and bought it for $5000.
===============================================

Weeks later, Gizmodo got it for $5,000 in cash. At the time, we didn't know if it was the real thing or not. It didn't even get past the Apple logo screen. Once we saw it inside and out, however, there was no doubt about it. It was the real thing, so we started to work on documenting it before returning it to Apple. We had the phone, but we didn't know the owner. Later, we learnt about this story, but we didn't know for sure it was Powell's phone until today, when we contacted him via his phone.

Gray Powell: Hello?

John Herrman: Is this Gray?

G: Yeah.

J: Hi, this is John Herrman from Gizmodo.com.

G: Hey!

J: You work at Apple, right?

G: Um, I mean I can't really talk too much right now.

J: I understand. We have a device, and we think that maybe you misplaced it at a bar, and we would like to give it back.

G: Yeah, I forwarded your email [asking him if it was his iPhone], someone should be contacting you.

J: OK.

G: Can I send this phone number along?

J: [Contact information]

He sounded tired and broken. But at least he's alive, and apparently may still be working at Apple—as he should be. After all, it's just a stupid iPhone and mistakes can happen to everyone—Gray Powell, Phil Schiller, you, me, and Steve Jobs.

=====================================

Gray Powell admit on the phone that he mis-placed it at the bar. He NEVER mentioned it was stolen. I don't understand why ppl keep thinking it's stolen?

phone was dead, remote killed by the engineer. Please read the story and tell me I was wrong.

Sure Jason Chen may have made up the whole story. But I rather believe he didn't.

And it's usually pretty safe. Engineers aren't stupid. Lose your $75000 job or leak a proto for $5000?

This whole Apple fanboy thing is so outdated. They've reached the mainstream smart phone market whether you like it or not.

It's not just lost sales, it's marketing too.

Marketing costs money. The impact they get with a product launch is worth as much as a multi-million dollar marketing campaign.

They still gain awareness with the leak but not in the way they want, and it won't be as effective as it could have been.

Please stop telling everyone to read the original story. We did!

We think its BULLSHIT because it is.

More likely.

Dude overhears some conversation about the amazeballs 4G phone in his pocket. Dude takes the phone. Dude makes some phone calls and sells that shit fast.

Gizmodo decides that for $5000, its good to go.

Anyone think its a coincidence that they called Apple to try to return it? Would you call Nokia if you found one sitting on the bar stool? All they wanted was proof that they tried.

And THAT is what San Mateo police are looking for proof of.

The shame here, is its bringing to light some interesting issues on what defines a journalist.

As well, this is a big deal because its fucking Apple. If it were anyone else, no one would care, but how DARE someone do this to Apple.

Because California law says that an item is considered "stolen" if the item was truly lost or misplaced, but the finder did not make a reasonable attempt to locate and return it to the owner.

It's up to the court to decide what a reasonable attempt is in this case.

Wouldn't leaving it with the bartender be a better idea than walking around aimlessly looking for the owner?

I mean interview with gray powell mention he went back to the bar to look for it.

If I lose a phone, other than waiting for the person that found it to call me, I would revisit all the places I've been to and ask the people WORKING there. It is the logical thing to do.

Having work in service sector before many phones were lost and found this way. Maybe the guy didn't steal the phone, but he obviously intend to keep the phone ever before he found out its not just a 3gs. All the argument of "if you find a prototype phone you should call the company hq" shouldn't even be there because if he really intended to return the phone he would have have done the right thing in the bar before he went home and tinker with the case and finds out its a protoype.

why would the guy take it at all in the first place/ shouldve been left with the bartender.

maybe his intentions was to steal it but found out that he could be in a lot of shit for keeping it
so he tried to return but failed so he decided to sell it.

short answer,

no.

^ interesting, knowing that you work in the environment may i request the long answer.

Fine, then I have nothing to say if everyone think the story is all made up.

I'd rather believe there's some decency with people.

I asked myself if I found a phone at the bar, I would definitly try to return the phone to the rightful owner. $5000 was a mistake. But it's also very tempting for many people if Gizmodo is the one who offer up the money (which I dont know).

I forgot to mention. I know a friend who works in restaurant. He told me the lost and found is for simple things only. If there's nice phones and all, some one will take it home. u all think lost and found is better than the guy taking it home? I won't.