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The 4G iPhone's Finder Reportedly Located
CNET is reporting that investigators have interviewed the person who found the unreleased Apple iPhone and began all the trouble. Wired reports that last week people "identifying themselves as representing Apple last week visited and sought permission to search the Silicon Valley address of the college-age man who came into possession of a next-generation iPhone prototype." "'Someone came to [the finder's] house and knocked on his door,' the source told Wired.com, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is under investigation by the police. A roommate answered, but wouldn't let them in. ... News of Apple's lost iPhone prototype hit the Web like a bombshell, but it was apparently an open secret for weeks amongst the finder's roommates and neighbors, where the device was shown around mostly as a curiosity. ... 'There was no effort to keep it secret,' the source said. 'There were a bunch of people who knew.' ... Wired.com received an e-mail March 28 offering access to the device, but did not follow up on the exchange after the tipster made a thinly veiled request for money."
This guy shopped around stolen property to find the highest bidder after making a feeble attempt to "return" it. I don't have much sympathy for whatever happens to the guy.
Who is it?
Not a land shark
Who?
Oh, for Christ sake, it's Steve F'ing Jobs. Give me my phone back or I'll send the Steve Balmer Chair Delivery Service to wreck the place!
Don't Talk to the Police
-William Brendel
I thought for a minute that Apple had ported the Finder to the iPhone OS and someone had a screenshot or something.
Sounds like Apple is loving this hype and attention for the iPhone
You know, the attitude surrounding Gizmodo and the people involved in this is trying to make Apple look like the bad guy. But if anyone has read Gizmodo's comments this past week or so, it's easy to see that the damage has already been done. The site has lost a lot of reputation among people, and Gizmodo's handling of this has been pretty disgraceful. http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/04/26/2048228/Police-Seize-Computers-From-Gizmodo-Editor?from=rss The phrasing in this article by Gawker was just way too pretentious. They deserve repentance.
Far more interesting than the fact that they've tracked down the finder of the phone:
Police broke into and searched Gizmodo journalist Jason Chen's home, seizing basically every piece of technology in his home, under an apparently illegal warrant:
Check it out.
WHO NEEDS SHIFT WHEN YOU HAVE CAPSLOCK/ DAMN1
I wonder if they found him using the Gizmodo journalist's computer, which according to the EFF, was an illegal warrant. If it is found to be an illegal warrant, I wonder how it would affect this case? Not that I feel sorry for the guy, he sold stolen property, he's a criminal (pending the jury finding him guilty). The only thing I'm questioning is the legality of the authorities' methods of finding him. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/gizmodo-search-warrant-illegal
If Apple pursues this Gizmodo should do discovery on Apple's emails to confirm it wasn't a publicity stunt.
The most annoying thing about this whole thing is the free press Apple is getting out of it. Fuck them.
I don't know if I like Apple but I do surely know now that I don't like Gizmodo. Or people selling stuff found in a bar without asking the bartender about the owner.
Seen on the blog:
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/thatlost4gphone/
They knew where the phone was when they bricked it using the "Find my iPhone" feature. Makes you wonder why did not ring the doorbell earlier.
Finding doesn't work with 4.0 beta yet (but bricking works).
Apple isn't going after gizmodo.
The People of California are investigating a company who paid for stolen goods, disassembled said goods, and talked with everyone but the apple employee who lost the phone.
if this case goes to trial it won't be a civilian case, but a criminal one. Apple can't touch gizmodo for this. California however can try him for dealing with stolen goods.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
last story, there were people who were defending apple and maintained that no linkage of evil could be established about the prosecution regarding the iphone dismantlers. it turns out that 'representatives' of apple went out to a private citizen's quarters, and intending to search the premises.
Yeah and if I lost a valuable phone and the anti-theft feature told my boss where it was, he might send people to ask the owner of the house if they could come in and find it too. How is that evil? Mind you the home owner has every right to refuse and make them call the cops who will get a warrant to come in and look for it.
so, a private corporation sends 'representatives' to search people's homes ... will there be anyone that would come up and defend this, i wonder ...
If they have reason to believe their stolen property is in someone's home, they have every right to go ask if they can come in and look for it. If you lost your phone and location tracked it to a house would it be evil for you to ask the residents if you can come in and look for it?
Stealing the phone someone lost at the bar is unethical. Selling it to the highest bidder is unethical. Looking for your lost property... not unethical.
What did Apple do here? The prosecutor's office (or investigating detective) decided to look into this. A judge decided that the search was reasonable. The police executed it.
I don't see Apple anywhere in there. The only thing Apple has to do with any of this is that they were hurt (through revealing of the device, and loss of their property) and have probably filed a report to the police to that effect.
If this happened to Garmin, don't you think they'd talk to the police and say "hey that's ours"? Dell would do it. So would TIVo, Microsoft, iRobot, and any other company. If they don't file a police report, they don't get it back.
The fact that the circumstances the device was acquired under are fishy enough that the police/prosecutor are looking into it aren't Apple's fault. If everything looked above board, the prosecutor wouldn't have started looking into this, the judge wouldn't have signed a warrant.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
"Apple would still scream blue murder and harass him with search warrants, but he would not be a criminal."
Apple can't obtain or act on search warrants. Apple can't charge or prosecute anyone for a crime.
The lack of even the most basic knowledge of how our system of justice works is just appalling. Do they put you kids through a civics course in school anymore?
As an Apple shareholder my friend keeps reminding me that they're in fact doing good.
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
It's a free country. You are allowed to go to someone's door and ask them a question, and ask to come in. They can say no. If you keep it up, they can call the cops and have you arrested for trespassing/harassment. But asking "can I come in to talk to you" is perfectly legal.
According to Apple Insider:
The emphasis is mine, though that was a link in the original. A branch of the police executed a warrant. That's legal too. That's the way it's supposed to work.
If Apple did their own search, that would be bad. But they used the process. They did it by the book. This article says that the police aren't analyzing what they found until the question of the shield law is settled. Does that sound like someone following Apple's agenda, damn the consequences?
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
First off, people keep saying the finder should have "returned the phone to the bar/bartender". That's insanity! Most bars I've been to, I *hardly* trust the bartender or other staff not to just lie to me, promising they'll "try to get it back to the rightful owner" and then just turn around and sell it themselves! Especially in a part of the country where a large portion of the clientele are fairly "tech savvy"? How can you be remotely confident the people working there wouldn't have some personal interest in hanging onto a phone like that?
Second, I don't think it really matters what part of Apple the guy says he tried to contact. The point is, he made an initial effort. He didn't just sell the thing off immediately. That might be "feeble" to you, but it's probably going to hold up in court to prove he doesn't meet the required standards for his actions to be criminal.
Third, what about an Apple store?! Do you have any idea how "in the dark" their employees are kept on Apple's unreleased products and projects? Most of their "geniuses" I've dealt with knew less than I did about upcoming products, or even the details of exactly what's in a brand new product AFTER its released. I had to educate a couple of them on some of the new features Apple added to the Macbook Pro aluminum, when I was in there right after those were released and in stores to demo. Apple actually prefers hiring employees who DON'T have previous experience working in computer stores. They don't think the "hard-core techno geek" types give off the type of image they want for their retail stores of a "friendly place for ANYONE to shop for a computer".
Fourth, giving it to the police?! Another foolish idea. I know most police are way too busy to waste time with a lost cellphone. If I called my local police about something like that, I'm pretty sure they'd laugh and tell me just to keep it. A few, less honest cops I know would just take the thing themselves - figuring they eased your conscience and made you happy, and they got a free bonus at the same time.
About the only sensible thing you've said so far is that he could try to contact the engineer whose name was supposedly in the phone. Still, even that's a little questionable. I thought Apple killed the phone pretty quickly after they realized it was lost, so that would mean he couldn't get back in it to see any info at all. Would he necessarily remember how the guy spelled his whole name, after only looking at it once on the night he found it (and presumably after doing some drinking himself)?
Really, the whole thing looks to me like Apple might have just ignored the lost phone completely and decided to "cut their losses" by letting the world guess if what was found was real or a fake. But all the media attention and diagnosis forced their hand to do something, days later.
I'm not saying what he did, trying to SELL the phone, was completely ethical -- but this is far from being a clear-cut "criminal" case either. He didn't pick-pocket the phone from the engineer in the bar. He found it after it was LOST. And neither Apple corporate nor the engineer made a huge rush to get the phone back either.
I'm not even sure exactly what I would do, if I was the one who found this thing.... Knowing what I know about Apple and their paranoia about leaks of info, I'd be sort of afraid to drop by their HQ with it - for fear I'd get blamed for stealing it or something. I'd also realize the value it would have to the tech-geeks and Mac fans out there, and think I'd rather see them "win one" for a change, vs. helping Apple protect trade secrets they weren't able to sufficiently protect themselves this time around.
I think you're assuming Apple believed the phone had been deliberately taken from the bar. For all Apple knew someone accidentally took the phone home thinking it was their phone. They probably sent the people to the house hoping it was just a misunderstanding. Why get the police and lawyers involved when you can just go ask to look for it?
You have not read any of the articles. It was bricked in under 24 hours.
There are 34 companies that have representatives on that committee. The assistant DA who requested the warrant said he didn't even know Apple was one of them.
I want to shoot the messenger!