Slashdot Mirror
Google Nexus 4 Prototype Lost In a Bar
theodp writes "A little over a year ago, an iPhone 4s prototype walked into a San Francisco bar, prompting a controversial manhunt by a now-deceased Apple investigator and the SFPD. Now, Wired reports that a Nexus 4 prototype walked into a San Francisco bar last month, prompting Google to sic its security team on 'Sudsy,' a San Francisco bartender who notified Google that he'd found their phone, which was slated to make its debut at a since-cancelled Android event on Oct. 29. When the 'Google Police' showed up at the bar, Sudsy's co-worker sent the 'desperate' Google investigator on a wild goose chase which landed him in an under-siege SFPD Station, from which he and Sudsy's lawyer had to be escorted out of under the watch of police in full riot gear with automatic weapons so the pair could arrange a 1 a.m. pickup of the phone."
This is difficult to take seriously.
why wouldn't you just return the fucking property?
why play hide and seek? why play games at all? just give them their property, FFS.
I highly suggest you read the article since the summary is highly edited to make Google look bad. Example: Google didn't send a private investigator. It sent a single Google employee who was jerked around by the bartender and his friend because they wanted to cling to their powertrip. The only lawyer was just guy the bartender knew. Google even offered to give the bartender guy a free phone if he promised to be quiet about the leak until the phone was announced at the Android event.
Bad Luck Google: Sends a guy to pick up a lost phone. Gets screwed around by the people who found it. Still offers a free phone to the guy. Gets called evil by the Internet.
What evil? Someone lost his phone, the company that owns it sends a guy over to collect it. Given the fact that it was an important prototype, it's understandable that the guy was a bit anxious to get it back.
Then again, Google might have staged the whole thing. I think they are a little jealous of Apple, with their millions of fans going ohh and ahh over fuzzy pictures of a frickin' new docking connector of all things...
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
TFS failed to mention that the CEO of the company that lost the iPhone is dead too. Coincidence?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Google’s Andy Rubin: ’I’d Be Happy’ If Someone Left Prototype Android Phone In A Bar ‘And Someone Wrote About It’
http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-andy-rubin-id-be-happy-if-someone-left-prototype-android-phone-in-a-bar-and-someone-wrote-about-it-2010-4#ixzz2ASEIo0n1
Watch those corners
It's in two layers! Layer one is a factual summary about a barman finding a lost Google prototype. Layer two is a veiled rant about companies overreacting when their trade secrets may be compromised.
Bartender felt "harassed" so didn't stick around work for what he seemed to think would be a confrontational meeting.
Seriously? If it were your normal phone with photos of your family, and the person who found it took off -- with your phone, that you owned, would that be considered reasonable?
Forget everything about it being "unreleased". That is moot as hell. There's no provision of ethics that an object being "really really cool" gives you a different standard when it comes to returning lost property.
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien