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Gizmodo Blows Whistle On 4G iPhone Loser
Stoobalou writes "Not content with its iPhone scoop, Gizmodo has probably ruined the career of a young engineer. The tech blog last night exposed the name of the hapless Apple employee who had one German beer too many and left a prototype iPhone G4 in a California bar some 20 miles from Apple's Infinite Loop campus. Was that really necessary?"
It also came out that they paid $5K for the leaked prototype and that Apple wants it back.
I'm still not convinced that this isn't a marketing ploy. I mean really, you get entrusted with the Next Most Awesome Device Ever, go out for drinks, show it off to your friends.... you wake up the next morning and you don't have it.
My wife has called bars, stores, restaurants, and cabbies to track down her crappy LG. You're telling me this guy never thought to call the bar the next day? Or that the bar sold it off before the guy could claim it?
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
Double Bad Here -
The engineer breaking company confidentiality was out of line. Getting fired will probably be the outcome.
The "journalist" (such as it is here) revealed a confidential source. That said, they will never get anyone else to talk to them off the record.
Both did the wrong thing.
People on the outside of Apple don't like the "hush hush" way they do product development, but that's part of how Apple functions. If I was getting my paycheck there (and I am not, but friends of mine do!) I would keep that stuff internal as the company wants.
"Loose lips sink ships" - Good thing its not a defense contract, and just a next generation piece of consumer electronic gadgetry.
www.effectiveelectrons.com "chips that work" Analog, RF, Mixed Signal
You are so right. He should work at a Starbucks or Pizza Hut and do his engineering work as a hobby so that he can give it away to the world.
Correct. Furthermore his career was already done for. Does anyone really think that just because his name wasn’t made public he’d be able to get fired by Apple and go on to work at another tech company without them learning of his involvement in this little fiasco?
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
I don't think the point was that publicly naming him would get him fired. The point was it would make it harder for him to land his next job.
And that really is the crux of the matter. Blogs and websites like to claim that they are as legitimate as broadcast and, dare I say it, print journalism. However, there are real journalists who have done jail time for refusing to reveal names of sources to the government. You have to keep names off the record unless you are given consent by the party concerned. This guy was stupid for letting that device out of his hand, even for a second, but this may have unintended consequences for Gizmodo and its affiliates.
Right. (As in I agree.)
And there's no doubt in my mind that Apple knows exactly which employees have which items with which serial numbers.
Once they get it back, they'd know who lost it anyway.
In your Analogy you equated Apple with the KGB and Russia (who Americans apparently have sympathy for) with the engineer. So for your post to make sense the engineer needs to now become CEO of Apple so all that sympathy and good will can be directed towards Apple. The analogy doesn't really fit.
actually they did that yesterday oddly enough. except it was 5pm not 2pm, and obviously not one conference room. but they did drag everyone in even if they werent working on campus that day.
Anywhere else, perhaps. I'm not so sure with Apple. Between the RDF and the teflon nature of Apple, they might just decide they can get away with anything short of holding a public execution. They might even be right.
Except for the fact that it was designed to look like an iPhone 3GS... hence the fake case and that would explain the *LOGO* on it.
You guys like to make this out to be some big marketing conspiracy, but I don't think so. 1), I don't think Steve Jobs would approve of this. He's an egomaniac and I'm pretty sure he would think this sort of thing is juvenile. 2) Apple has field units. They have to do this in order to get *REAL* world results with their phones. It's not that uncommon and other companies do the same. 3) People make mistakes. I'm sure this went down exactly like it was described. Some poor sap had one two many and forgot his phone.
I've "misplaced" about 3 phones in my lifetime, one when I was drinking, the other two do to the fact of incompetence on my part (I lost my first gen iPhone leaving it on the hood of my car when bringing in groceries.)
Sometimes, things are what they are. Could you have planned this? You go to a bar, act like your drinking, act like your drunk, accidentally leave your phone next to a guy that you think will sell the secret phone to some tech site? I'm mean shit, what if that guy just returned it? Would they have to orchestrate this whole thing again??? Duh, indeed.
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains
Come on now, it wasn't that bad. He didn't kill anybody.
That reminds me an anecdote from a Apple engineer working on the first Mac (from a PBS special way back when; probably on YouTube somewhere.) Steve Jobs was pressuring him to knock a few more seconds on the time required for the Mac to boot up. They're already trying to meet the deadline for rollout and the guy is completely stressed out and asks Why, it's only a few seconds, what's the big deal? Steve replies that the Macs collectively will be started up hundreds of millions of times over their lifespans. So if we manage to reduce the boot time by ten seconds, that'll add up to decades of time saved amongst all the Mac users. That's the equivalent of saving the lives of one or more Mac users! The engineer says that Steve putting such issues in perspective like that is one of the ways he motivates the folks at Apple to go that extra mile to deliver (for the most part) stellar products.
So who knows? From Steve Jobs' point of view, maybe this guy did kill somebody.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
First, they didn't out their source: This guy isn't their source, he's the guy that lost the phone. Their source found the device...
Am I the only one who thinks that the "found" is likely what didn't happen?
Exactly how hard would it be to take the thing in a dimly lit bar from a guy who is playing with it(who wouldn't?) while drinking a few too many beers?
That just shows the horrible state the market is in....
A guy at work knocked over a table sending about 70k USD worth of very sensitive equipment crashing to the floor.
Know what he got? A generous amount of "bwhahahha, that has to hurt" comments from coworkers and it generated a little inquiry from management asking:
Why the -hell- was that much sensitive equipment stacked on a table with wonky legs... Brains people, brains!
The guy was not fired. Firing him would be stupid as he has now learned his lesson and he is the least likely person to do such a fuckup again ;)
Yeah, I'm unconvinced of the whole story. How about emailing Steve Jobs directly? Jesus, if you know enough to contact Gizmodo and Engadget and try to get a bidding war going, you certainly are smart enough to write an email saying:
"TO: sjobs@apple.com
Subject: Lost iPhone prototype (?) found in Redwood City, CA
Mr. Jobs,
I recently came across a device which I believe may have been lost by your company. It appears to be a new iPhone unit, and was found at $LOCATION. I know contacting you this way is unorthodox, but I'm very serious, and I'd like to return the device to Apple if it is your property. Could somebody at Apple look into whether or not you're missing an iPhone prototype unit, and if so, contact me? I've attached a photo of the unit for you to look at, and I'm interested in returning this unit to you if it is in fact yours.
Sincerely,
A guy who's not an asshole looking for a cheap payday"
FFS, the man responds to user questions about "Will my iphone have a unified inbox someday?" Do you think he wouldn't at least forward that email to somebody on the iPhone team and say, "Is this guy for real? FOLLOW UP IMMEDIATELY AND FIND OUT IF HE IS!" Does anybody here really believe that Steve Jobs wouldn't have known that a prototype / test unit of one of Apple's biggest next-generation products got lost somewhere the day after it happened?
This guy is not only a grade A bastard he should be trusted even less than the person who coughed up the I-phone. The kid who leaked the I-phone did it on accident. He was careless. Gizmodo intentionally burned their source even going so far as to post screen caps of his facebook page and his picture on one of the most widely read tech blogs on the internet. Not even the lowest of tabloids will reveal a source like Gizmodo did. Gizmodo in general should be shunned and that bastard Jesus Diaz in specific should be fired and no media outlet should ever hire him again.