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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.
It does not parse right in any of the 6 natural and about 12 computer languages I know well. Can someone translate?
A lawyer, a priest, a rabbi, and a Nexus 4 prototype walked into a San Francisco bar ....
--
BMO
With a character named Sudsy and a police station 'under siege', this would make a better script for a story where Dick Tracy misplaces his wrist radio.
under the watch of police in full riot gear with automatic weapons
This had nothing to do with the lost phone. Some punk got shot and people went nuts.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Would you prefer they'd sent a blade runner instead?
They should go straight to Taffy's bar.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
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...
Brand new /. account posts pretestuos anti-Google comment the same minute the story is published.
Shill anyone?
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.
I don't really get this either. The guy gets shot while he is in the act of brandishing a weapon against a police officer. Weapon turns out to be loaded and ready to fire. The guy doesn't even suffer any shots that would be otherwise lethal. Yet a riot forms and they spray paint killers on the walls of the police station?
Weird city. I wonder if they'd prefer having no cops at all. I remember there was some group around Berkley demanding that the city get rid of its police officers, maybe these are them?
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
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
An Apple spokesperson immediately commented on the incident.
"I have to inform Google that we will sue for a billion dollars. We have already patented the marketing trick of "losing" phones. We got prior art, dammit!"
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The real question is how long it will take Apple to sue Samsung for having one of their prototypes stolen in the same manner as one of Apple's.
The article makes it sound like a plain clothed officer was chasing the guy. I don't know about you, but if some random guy started harassing me on the street and following me when I'm trying to get away from him I'd be concerned. You don't know if a plain clothed officer really is a police officer or just a crazy nut out to mess with people.
Yeah, as a gang member on parole I'd certainly pull a gun. What else am I expected to do, ask for ID?
-- Using the preview button since 2005
A TEC-9? Seriously, the guy pulls out a loaded TEC-9 and points it, (at anyone?)? I think that is *two* lucky people who both still alive; especially the police officer who had to square off against that thing! Wikipedia it like I did; I'm not going to cite the link for it. Cheers for the cop who seems to have handled the situation well!
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
You must have somehow missed these lines:
Kind of paints a different picture to yours, oui / non?
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.
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.
Not quite how I read it. The guy that came to pick up the phone sent a flood of calls to bartender's teck-savvy friend (who'd contacted Google on his behalf). Bartender felt "harassed" so didn't stick around work for what he seemed to think would be a confrontational meeting.
Indeed, Google rep was described as pushy and seemed to threaten the other employee and maybe even the bar with some kind of charges, although the bartender was not resisting the return of the phone. Colleague that dealt with the rep didn't like being threatened and sent rep on "wild goose chase" to police station.
Seemed to me that Google's security team could've done a bit better job on the recovery had they used a bit less bluster and a bit more appreciation (aka people skills).
Now, I'm not sure how it worked out that the bartender, although offered a free phone to keep quiet, still seems to have provided photos to accompany the story. Should've taken the free phone and shut up about it. I believe the story contained a disclaimer about paying for the photos.
So when you take the drama out of the ridiculous article, here's what you get:
Dude finds phone. Some drama round giving the phone back,
Dude finds a phone. Talks to a friend. Friend contacts google. Google wants to get the phone right now, bartender wants to do it next day. Google security dude goes out ot the bar to pick it up. Bartender is out playing a gig somewhere else. Bartender's coworker for some reason tells security dude that bartender is at the police station.
Security dude goes to police station in the middle of a riot. Calls a random lawyer who gets involved for some reason - or at least makes a statement to Wired.
Then they meet up and after the security dude proves his ID, bartender returns the phone to him.
WTF?
Why was this made to sound like the bar was stormed by Google Secret Service or some such crap?
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
Here's the thing...
The bartender did not own the phone. 'Finders-keepers' is NOT the law. The opposite in fact.
Yeah, it's not a federal manhunt type case but the guy knowingly in possession of property not belonging to him (the lost vs. stolen line gets blurred quickly) could definitely have criminal charges filed against him. How far they'd get, who knows.
Of course they insisted on meeting right away. They want to protect their secrecy - and getting the phone back is far easier on everyone than the guy possibly getting arrested. You can't expect a company to just let this type of thing go.
What I really want to know is why these people are bringing top secret phones to bars in the first place? I understand "testing" and all but is it secret or is it something you're bringing out in public?
Hell, get one of those bluetooth leashes. Problem solved.
You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.