Author Topic: Apple Loses iPhone 5 Prototype - Yes, in a Bar  (Read 1797 times)

Offline javajolt

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Apple Loses iPhone 5 Prototype - Yes, in a Bar
« on: September 01, 2011, 01:34:44 AM »
I think Apple employees need to stay out of bars



This is Pure Poetic Justice

SAN FRANCISCO — Technology news website CNET on Wednesday reported that a new version of Apple's coveted iPhone went astray in a bar in a replay of an embarrassing loss that took place last year.

An Apple employee lost a yet-to-be released iPhone model in a tequila bar in the San Francisco Mission District in July, according to CNET.

Apple electronically tracked the device to a San Francisco home but the resident denied knowing anything about the missing iPhone, which may have been sold for a couple of hundred dollars at online auction house eBay, CNET said.

The report prompted speculation whether the missing iPhone was a next-generation expected to be unveiled by Apple in September or October.

Word of another unreleased iPhone model disappearing in a bar came just weeks after prosecutors decided not to pursue criminal charges against Gizmodo technology bloggers who got hold of a lost iPhone 4 prototype last year.

Criminal charges were filed against a man who purportedly found the iPhone 4 prototype in a bar and another who brokered a deal to sell it to Gizmodo, according to the district attorney's office in San Mateo County, California.

Early last year, Gizmodo published pictures and details of the iPhone prototype after buying it for $5,000 from a man who claimed to have found it in a beer garden where it was lost by an Apple software engineer.
« Last Edit: September 01, 2011, 05:28:47 AM by javajolt »


Offline javajolt

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Cava 22 is where Apple lost another iPhone prototype - Another Bar
« Reply #1 on: September 01, 2011, 04:14:23 AM »

   Sultry enough, dark enough to lose an iPhone 5
Because nothing provides free advertising of a bar’s strong drinks quite like the loss of an Apple iPhone, today comes news that Mission bar/restaurant Cava 22 is the site of the latest rumored iPhone misplacement.
 
According to CNET, an Apple employee “appears to have lost” an unreleased iPhone in the bar last month:

Quote
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.

This, of course, follows up on the last year’s huge security breach and iPhone loss that happened at Redwood City’s Gourmet Haus Staudt & Beer Garden Staudt. Cava 22: Where you get drunk enough to lose your priceless iPhone AND enjoy lime-marinated shrimp ceviche.




« Last Edit: September 01, 2011, 04:38:19 AM by javajolt »


Offline DMHolt57

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Apple Loses iPhone 5 Prototype - Yes, in a Bar
« Reply #2 on: September 01, 2011, 05:52:17 AM »
I can't believe it has happened again, perhaps Apple should incorporate a 'tether' for the iPhone.  ;D

Offline javajolt

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Apple Loses iPhone 5 Prototype - Yes, in a Bar - AyeTequila
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2011, 08:17:20 PM »
The story gets even better



This morning on the news - The San Francisco Police say, they are having a difficult time proving this loss took place and that Apple is being less than cooperative in giving them the necessary information relating to this incident.  Some disgruntled apple fanibois are accusing Apple of hyping this pending release which has not been confirmed as of yet.

Time for the annual Jesus-mobe-left-in-pub story already?

Apple has to wonder if it's really hiring the cream of the crop when another of its employees manages to leave a another prototype iPhone in a bar.

Yes, in a story we've all heard before, some hipster from Apple went out on the town with the prototype, presumably under the guise of some sort of testing, and then accidentally left it behind, CNET reported.

 Apparently, the hapless worker was working on the prototype at Mexican bar and restaurant Cava22 in July when the phone went missing, and it may have subsequently been sold on Craigslist for $200.
 
The story is an almost exact reprise of the one last year, when a prototype iPhone 4 that had been found in a bar was sold to gadget blog Gizmodo for $5,000. The then-editor Jason Chen and Gizmodo itself got away without facing charges in that incident, though the two men who found and sold the smartphone were charged with misdemeanours.

Apple reportedly went straight to the police this time, but hasn't been able to find the phone.

Cava22 owner Jose Valle has said that neither the police nor Apple have ever contacted him, although he does remember getting calls about a lost iPhone about a month ago.

"I guess I have to make my drinks a little less strong," he said.

He may well be right, as according to one of the many reviews of Cava22 on yelp.com: "Lots of tequila. Lots" is on the menu along with some good seafood.


AyeTequila by apple

Meanwhile, the obsession with the iPhone 4G/4GS/5/5S that hasn't even been officially announced yet continues, with another report suggesting that the little icon used to denote an iPhone on Apple's Photo Stream beta looks different to that depicting existing iPhones and therefore could be a leaked hint of what the new iPhone will look like. One wonders why Apple ever has to spend any money on marketing.



Offline javajolt

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iPhone 5 lost in bar -- or just a stunt?
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2011, 09:23:52 PM »

The drinking habit is getting serious

Apple is said to have lost another iPhone field-test unit in a bar. And so the Web goes into "iPhone 5 release date" overdrive. This time, the portable prototype was left in a San Francisco watering-hole by an errant employee, who is presumably seeking a new position as we speak. However, there do seem to be some holes in the story. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers smell a rat.
 
Greg Sandoval and Declan McCullagh breathlessly claim this exclusive

Quote
[It] went missing in San Francisco's Mission district in late July [and] sparked a scramble by Apple security to recover the device. ... This year's lost phone...may have been sold on Craigslist for $200.
 ...
Apple declined to comment. ... [T]he San Francisco Police Department said the company did not file a police report. ... Apple electronically traced the phone to a...home in San Francisco's Bernal Heights. ... When San Francisco police and Apple's investigators visited the house...police...search[ed] the house, and they found nothing.

Déjà vu much? Paul Hales helps out:

Quote
Last time this happened the phone ended up being bought by a...journalist leading to...a ludicrous police raid on the hack's home.
 ...
According to...this latest tale of woe - or...incompetence - the phone was left in a...tequila-themed [bar]. ... [And] it appears the phone remains out there somewhere.

Hillel Fuld is laughing, apparently:

Quote
OK, am I the only one laughing here? I mean, once, I get it, it happens. But losing two mobile devices that are under the highest level of security and for which the absolutely craziest measures of precaution have been taken, in a bar, twice?

And John Paczkowski pokes fun:

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Apple should really begin requiring signed sobriety pledges from anyone given a prototype.

But Doug Aamoth implies an implication about Apple PR:

Quote
Unfortunately, we have no idea what sort of shrimp ceviche the bar serv—oh, whoops. I glossed right over that part. Lime-marinated shrimp ceviche. It's right there. ... I can't believe I missed that.

And Nick Farrell comes right out and says it:

Quote
Cnet has cleared Apple of carrying out a cheap publicity stunt. ... And AP claims It has dusted off an an advertising expert who says it is unlikely [to be] a publicity stunt...claim[ing] that stunts like that are not in Apple's DNA and...weren't necessary. Apple just has to fart...and fanboy drones will start queuing.
 ...
 Apple also goes to great lengths to keep its pre-release products secret. ... Tame Journalists were allowed to see the iPad in advance, but...were fitted with neck collars which would sever their heads if they tried to leave the room. .... Well something like that.


Offline javajolt

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Apple Stonewalls San Francisco Police on Alleged Lost iPhone 5 Prototype
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2011, 01:46:28 AM »




The story that circulated yesterday that Apple had lost another iPhone in another bar a little over a year after the iPhone 4 fiasco is now looking less credible. PCMag has been in contact with the San Francisco Police Department, whose spokespeople now say Apple has been giving them the "round around" in conversations earlier today.

Yesterday, after the story broke that an Apple employee may have lost an iPhone 5 prototype in a San Francisco Mexican restaurant, a strange replay of one of the biggest tech stories of 2010, it circulated widely online, and was met with some skepticism. Since the initial report on CNET had no photos or details on the device (in stark contrast to last year's incident), many took the news like a fine margarita—with several grains of salt.

On top of the nonexistent details on the phone, there were aspects to the report that stretched credulity. The story said Apple security people had accompanied uniformed police to a residence where Apple had tracked the phone. The person apparently living there denied any knowledge of the device, even though he admitted to being in the restaurant on the night in question, in late July. The Apple reps are said to have offered him money if he produced the phone, no questions asked, but he stuck to his story.

Now the whole thing looks like a story. PCMag spoke with two spokesmen for the San Francisco Police Department, Michael Andraychak and Troy Dangerfield, and neither had any knowledge of the incident, even after they had made several internal queries. Dangerfield also said the SFPD had been on the phone with Apple Global Security for 30 minutes this morning trying to figure out if there was an incident and that Apple was "not giving us anything" and that they were "getting the round around [sic]." Dangerfield said that all the police would need is a name of a victim (presumably the employee who lost it) to perform an adequate search in police records for the incident.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told PCMag the company didn't have anything to say about the original report or the company's dealings with SFPD.
 
In the meantime, two of the men involved in the original lost iPhone prototype case from last year officially pleaded not guilty at an arraignment this morning. Last month prosecutors charged Brian Hogan and Robert Wallower with misdemeanor theft and possession of stolen property.



Offline javajolt

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Apple's newest product is iPhone-on-a-rope
« Reply #6 on: September 02, 2011, 04:52:30 AM »

             iPhone-on-a-rope
Despite Apple's maniacal culture of secrecy, I've uncovered the most prominent feature being added to the Cupertino company's next-generation iPhone: a big metal chain, one end of which is permanently attached to the gizmo and the other end stapled to the forehead of any Apple engineer who walks into a bar with one.

Yeah, some unlucky Apple worker (or former Apple worker) has apparently lost another top-secret iPhone prototype. But this time it was different. Instead of partying in a Redwood City German beer garden and leaving the phone behind for a mercenary patron to find, this year's scatterbrain reportedly partied in a San Francisco tequila lounge and left the phone for a mercenary patron to find. And this year's lost phone apparently ended up on Craigslist, not Gizmodo.

Hey, people lose things in bars all the time -- their wallets, their keys, their inhibitions and, if they're Apple employees, their jobs.

CNet got on this year's lost iPhone first. According to the website, someone in July left a prototype iPhone (perhaps the iPhone 5 due out in a month or so) at Cava 22, a cozy looking place that features tequila and Mexican food. CNet's story relies on an unnamed source who says the thing might have been sold on Craigslist for 200 bucks. (Hey, secret iPhone buyer:

There's an Apple employee out there who'd be willing to pay twice that for it, easy.)

CNet's deep throat says Apple security troops went nuts when they found out the company's secret was out. They tracked the phone down (Hey, it's got the Find My iPhone App!) to a house in San Francisco and dispatched San Francisco and Apple's own police to the scene. No phone was found.

Which is odd, since Apple stirred a storm of controversy when it was discovered that its phones tracked and stored users' movements.Anybody else find it funny that Apple can build a phone that can find people wherever they go, but that Apple can't find wherever it is?

Apple isn't talking about the missing phone -- even to confirm its existence or lack of existence. And a San Francisco police spokesman says the department "has yet to locate any official report in regards to this matter." So maybe this is one of those Web-fueled tech stories that's too good to be true. Or too bad to be true.

I mean, what is it with iPhones and barrooms? I'm not saying that Apple needs to ban employees from visiting bars. Maybe some sort of designated-driver-for-the-iPhone program would do. Sample HR poster: "If you're going to drink and carry an iPhone prototype, bring a friend (and preferably one who doesn't work for Gizmodo). One more thing: For god sake don't leave it in a freakin' bar! And if you do, don't bother coming in on Monday."

It wouldn't be a huge deal, except this is Apple, a company that is so obsessed with secrecy that it wouldn't give out its address if it didn't have to. Not to mention that losing a top-secret iPhone is becoming an annual event. Last year, an employee left an iPhone 4 prototype at Gourmet Haus Staudt on the Peninsula. Photos of that one ended up on Gizmodo and resulted in criminal prosecutions.

Yep, twice in just over a year. Kind of brings a whole new meaning to Infinite Loop.

The whole affair would be hilarious if it weren't for the human toll: Somewhere there's an Apple employee who's very upset. And somewhere there's a really cool iPhone ringing forlornly for him.