"I Underestimated How Good German Beer Is"

[Paul Daniel Ash]

Gizmodo has identified the Apple engineer it says is responsible for losing the fourth-generation iPhone prototype in a Redwood City drinking establishment. Before the phone was remotely bricked by Apple, the person who found the phone reportedly saw the engineer was still logged into Facebook. Despite efforts to return the device, the finder was never contacted by Apple. Interestingly, the account does not mention the acknowledgement from the founder of Gizmodo's parent company that he paid $5,000 for the phone.

Gizmodo Senior Contributing Editor Jesus Diaz tells the story like this: the phone-finder - who, unlike the Apple engineer, is not named by Diaz - was sitting next to the Apple engineer at a bar on March 18. After the engineer left, a random drunk stranger noticed the phone, which was wrapped in what looked like a normal iPhone 3GS case, and gave it to the anonymous phone-finder. The anonymous phone-finder claims that he hung around in order to wait for the owner to return, passing the time by playing around with the iPhone. Though the phone reportedly crashed three times, the finder continued messing with it and found the engineer's Facebook profile (his final status update: "I underestimated how good German beer is"). Finally, after some time had passed, the phone-finder left, taking the iPhone with him, though purportedly with the plan of returning the phone to its owner.

The next day, the finder wakes up and can't stop tinkering with the device. He discovers the secret, separating the iPhone from its camouflage, though by now the phone's a fourth-generation brick. He reportedly calls Apple, but nobody buys his story that he's discovered a priceless piece of Apple intellectual property, the result of the kind of a security breach that Apple cracks down on harshly... such as the one that may have led a Chinese worker to kill himself. All he gets for his trouble is a ticket number.

The story kind of peters out here. All Diaz says is "Weeks later, Gizmodo got it." We don't know what happened in those weeks, but Nick Denton of Gawker Media (the parent of Gizmodo) was willing to tell the Associated Press that he paid $5,000 for the device. Denton said on his Twitter feed that the folks at Gawker were "proud practitioners of checkbook journalism. Anything for the story!" A later tweet derided "a few clueless geeks" who Denton said "believe 'real journalists' wait for Steve Jobs or his publicists to make an announcement. Screw that." Gizmodo's pageviews definitely benefited from the scoop, and most of us found the reveal pretty interesting. However, things may not end here: the Gawker blog Valleywag had offered $100,000 for anyone who would let them spend an hour with the iPad, and got hit with a cease and desist letter from Apple's attorneys. As John Gruber noted earlier today, Apple considers the iPhone stolen, not lost. It's worth remembering that Apple has been historically ruthless in the defense of its trade secrets.

And the luckless engineer? As of today at least, he was still at Apple: Jesus Diaz called him at his desk in Cupertino to talk about returning the device. It'd be nice if he gets to keep his job. After all, as Diaz says, "it's just a f***cking phone."

[battlecrushr]

Wow Haha. At least he didn't die for it

[vantheman169]

I want one! hopefully they get rid of the seams but thats not a huge deal to me. I will put a case on it anyways!

Here is a link to Gizmodo's site with longer videos and lots of pictures. It looks real to me, but what do i know!?!

This Is Apple's Next iPhone - Iphone 4 - Gizmodo

[whereswaldo]

raptors already posted this exact story, even with the same photo on member written news

[glassJAw]

**** happens when you party naked

[whereswaldo]

Wow Haha. At least he didn't die for it

he hasnt died for it...
yet

[Ichwohneinloche]

Damn...

[battlecrushr]

Haha tommorow we see he's at the bottom of the ocean dead.

[Raptors]

raptors already posted this exact story, even with the same photo on member written news

hmm yeaa, interesting, How apple Lost next iPhone 4G

ohh welll thenn, thats fine i guess,

[RonHC]

They didnt really need to show his name.
I think he still has his job [for now] considering on how the phone conversation went with Gizmodo and Gray

[iphone?3gs]

he hasnt died for it...
yet

Who said hes gonna die for it himself.... just wait till Stevy finds out.... then hes gonna be dead..... we all know Jobs temper... And he has his lawyers to support him after the deed is done.... The next time you hear from this dude there will be keyboard keys embedded in his skin

[RKirk7741]

Ok, make sure this guy doesn't commit suicide. If more and more people kill themselves because of apple, it'll be considered a cult. Ka-lee-mah.... KA-LEE-MA!!!!

[ro0oney]

he lost the phone? a phone? not just a phone! the newest iphone generation that wasnt even introduced by steve!
i feel sorry for this guy

[awesomeSlayer]

He should be glad that he didn't get sued.

[billchase2]

Something just seems fishy with this whole thing.

[Raptors]

^^ agreed. I'm not buying a bit if this, gizmodo has us all believing when we don't know anything

[iphone8130hak]

Fail

[iphone?3gs]

What i dont understand is how stupid this guy is to leave something like this anywhere.... if i worked for apple and i had stevy's lifes work in my hands then i wouldnt take an eye off of it.... Just having that type of authority over me i would know to guard it... and i sure would not go back to apple if i lost it.... you dont know what goes on in cupertino.....

Not that i would drink... (no offense to some) and leave that at some bar with what could have been wacho people that hit it with beer bottles....

Dont want to start anything or offend anyone but just saying im against drinking....
Just dont get the point of it... all it leads to is stupid incidents and people LEAVING IPHONE 4G'S BEHIND AT A BARTHE PHONE THAT NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN....

[zozodouce]

this dude is dead lol.

[Fodd1337]

Wow Haha. At least he didn't die for it

When a company has as much power as Apple, you never know...