According to CNET, Apple has once again lost an iPhone prototype in a bar, this time Cava2 in San Francisco's Mission district.
Apple electronically traced the phone to a two-floor, single-family home in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood, according to the source.
When San Francisco police and Apple's investigators visited the house, they spoke with a man in his twenties who acknowledged being at Cava 22 on the night the device went missing. But he denied knowing anything about the phone. The man gave police permission to search the house, and they found nothing, the source said. Before leaving the house, the Apple employees offered the man money for the phone no questions asked, the source said, adding that the man continued to deny he had knowledge of the phone.
The prototype may have been sold on Craigslist for $200 but the details sound sketchy, as does the nature of the prototype itself (iPhone 5?) and what version of iOS it was running.
Last year Apple famously lost or had stolen an iPhone 4 prototype which ended up sold to a gadget blog, touching off an industry wide controversy and almost a year long criminal investigation.
Any bets what happens this time?
[CNET]
Reader comments
Apple has once again lost an iPhone prototype in a bar?!
Any chance Anonymous could get ahold of it and leak the crap out of it?
why would they?
you'd think not losing the prototype was in their training....
The old losing-a-prototype-in-a-bar trick.
Someone @ apple headquarters has a drinking problem lmao
We'll know in a couple of weeks anyways
Lol sometimes i think they do it on purpose...
And we hear about this story less than 24 hours after Samsung announces the American release of the Galaxy S II. Well done Apple PR. Well done.
For obvious reasons a new design needs extensive real world testing; so there must be several prototypes out there in use (possibly disguised in some kind of case). But still . . . . a BAR! Again?
Is this a piece of misdirection, a device intended to be found and dissected for information. Even I find that too crazy.
Wow! Crazy stuff. I'm starting to think they like legal action. :-)
You gotta love apples tactics, they must do it on purpose. Leave a prototype somewhere, spark a massive publicity stunt, and get everyone interested. Interesting how they traced it to that place but couldn't track where it was after that.
SMOKE SCREEN
I wonder if it really as a mistake, or another PR scheme from Apple to generate some media attention... I love Apple and I own an iPhone and I will probably get iPhone 5 once it comes out (though I won't be one of the extreme enthusiast that waits outside of the store for hours... I just don't have the will power...), but we all know Samsung Galaxy S2 is probably going to be better than iPhone 5...
anyone think this is part of a campaign to generate more buzz for an upcoming release? it's always done a month or few weeks before release so nothing is really harmed by the "loss" of the phone, but it certainly generates so much buzz that if it's not deliberate, it should be. good "underground" marketing strategy.
This is getting really old. Just release pictures already.
A picture says a 1,000 words. And I am yet to see a picture. Wheres the proof?!
This is awesome if it's a scheme by apple. LOL
pics or it didn't happen
Is it really an apple publicity stunt or a paid-up advert by SF's Cava 22?? ;-)
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,
"I guess I have to make my drinks a little less strong" (said the owner)
Hmm...!?
In a bar are you freaking kidding me who brings a million dollor prototype to a bar to get drunk and give it away(aparentinly apple does). Why doesnt this happen to other companys
HMM! SUSPICIUS
At least tell us is an iphone5 coming out
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