Did Apple Find the iPhone Finder?

[santaf]

There are more rumours about this than about Kate Goselin and Lindsey Lohan combined

rofl!!!

[wolverinemarky]

more lawsuits in the near future

[Dorkenstein909]

god give the kid a break. felony charges? how come all the kids that stole cell phones in high school didnt get rung up on felony charges?

[mytran80]

This calls for a revolution!

[mooritexxx]

god give the kid a break. felony charges? how come all the kids that stole cell phones in high school didnt get rung up on felony charges?

They didnt steal from APPLE MUHAHAHAHAHHA

[ceris7356]

If I find someone's wallet and ID in the street and try to sell it on ebay, they'd have every right to take action against me. How is this different?

I agree. It is their property. I would be pretty upset with whoever "lost" the prototype too.

[angiepangie]

god give the kid a break. felony charges? how come all the kids that stole cell phones in high school didnt get rung up on felony charges?

1) Those kids don't usually get caught unfortunately. If they do get caught, they do face some pretty heavy fines... The fact that he reported it to all the major tech news sites doesn't help his case.
2) None (I'm pretty sure) of those cell phones stolen were worth $5000...

[tonyregan1]

A mobile me subscription could have avoided all this trouble.

[camperchuck]

OS4 breaks mobileme, they had trouble using it. they had to use an alternative method to wax the phone.

A mobile me subscription could have avoided all this trouble.

gizmodo:

Find My iPhone (Or Not)

So why couldn't Apple track this thing down? Apple's choices at this point were a lot like any other iPhone owner's would have been:

• Call or text: Our sourced used the phone software for a very short time. He didn't check the messages or call history, but said there was no notification box indicating a text or missed call. The phone was found dead in the morning, meaning that someone could have text or called during the night.

• Find My iPhone: But what about the phone's GPS? Apple has a consumer product that lets you find lost phones, and shut them down remotely. It's called MobileMe. It works pretty well! Except, it's broken in the latest version of iPhone OS.
Why Apple Couldn't Get the Lost iPhone Back
It's basically a given that the phone was running a test version of Apple's iPhone software, called OS 4. We've tested the software, which will presumably launch with the next version of the iPhone hardware, on current iPhone hardware. One thing we didn't notice, though, is that MobileMe's Find My iPhone feature, which lets you find your lost phone on an online map in a matter of seconds, doesn't work in OS 4—yet. In other words, Apple likely couldn't track this phone because of a beta software bug.

• Shut it down: Another MobileMe feature that doesn't yet work with OS 4 is remote wipe, but the iPhone's Exchange Server integration includes its own support for remote wipe, which means that Apple would have been more than able to nuke the iPhone from afar, anyway. Evidently, that's exactly what they did.

And of course, Apple could have an entirely different tracking service, or even a different build of the OS in which Find My iPhone works fine. But assuming the phone was running something resembling the iPhone OS 4 beta many people have been using for the last few weeks, the pieces fit. And since it was running the new, unreleased operating system, these decisions make even more sense.

[rhekt]

this does open up more light on the story.

According the California law, if someone finds something and does not return it to its owner or turn it in to a police station, it is considered stolen regardless of whether it was "lost and found" or actually "stolen" (as in reaching into his pocket and taking it without permission or something).

Silly college kids :

and what is the length in time with which the law states you have had it in your possesion too long and considered stolen? if a length of time is not noted....then they are still not guilty of any wrong doing.