Report: Apple Loses iPhone 5 Prototype. Yes, in a Bar.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2392244,00.asp

by nlh • 15 years ago

44 54 15 years ago

dotcoma2• 15 years ago

Either it's a smart marketing strategy, or they have a drinking problem.

nomdeplume• 15 years ago

It's a bit off-putting that they try and push this kind of thing a second time and expect people to believe it. On the other hand, maybe I give too much credit to human kind.

dotcoma2• 15 years ago

Can't say negative things about Apple. Sorry, I forgot.

qq66• 15 years ago

Apple is not this sloppy. Controlled leak.

jondot• 15 years ago

Sounds like a certain bar needs to be bought by Apple.

choixer• 15 years ago

It's definately looks like a marketing of upcomming iPhone.

oemera• 15 years ago

If this is true I pretty sure that the iPhone 5 is really a improvement to the iPhone 4. If it would look like a new iPhone model no-one would sell it for 200 bucks. Seems that Apple is doing a great job hiding the lost phone.

zach2• 15 years ago

Any night that ends with losing a confidential Apple prototype device was probably a heck of a night.

Apple needs some kind of proximity sensor linked to these field testers' keychain or something. Maybe they just need to upgrade Find My iPhone to include a self-destruct feature.

coob2• 15 years ago

You can remote wipe with Find My iPhone, but you were probably thinking of something much more spectacular.

Safety/legal questions aside, do any hardware people know if the battery could be rigged to 'explode'?

ent• 15 years ago

My guess would be that rigging it to explode would be illegal (and very hazardous).

sasha-dv3• 15 years ago

Or they need a new marketing ploy.

P.S. Why are all the comments suggesting that this is not an accidental loss down-voted?

teej• 15 years ago

Because honestly, any company with a warchest like Apple's can afford real marketing. Who is this supposed to be targeted at anyway? The readers of Gizmodo and pcmag? Last time I checked, those arent even close to Apple's core market.

InclinedPlane• 15 years ago

Because in the previous incident they went after gizmodo using lawyers with their claws out, you don't do that if your intention is to gain publicity with a faux-leak. It also is completely out of Apple's character to advertise in such a way. The kicker though is that Apple has absolutely zero motive to do such a thing, they get plenty of hype from their own official announcements. Hell, if Apple announced that the next iPhone was 3G only, had only a single core cpu, and a monochrome screen with 240x180 resolution it would be heralded as a bold new direction in smart phones.

joelthelion5• 15 years ago

>P.S. Why are all the comments suggesting that this is not an accidental loss down-voted?

Probably because it's easier to press a button than to write a convincing counter-argument.

PakG12• 15 years ago

I've wanted something like this for years. I lose stuff all the time. I seriously think that if anyone made this, and also made it small, convenient, and easy to use, it'd be a goldmine. Of course, kind of self-defeating if you end up losing the keychain or whatever. But still, I'd probably still buy and use it.

saurik3• 15 years ago

http://www.phonehalo.com/products-2/

tintin• 15 years ago

Not in a bar, in a restaurant. Very sensational headline.

Original report: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20099899-37/apple-loses-an...

vacri6• 15 years ago

Your link shows a photo of the location, which has a man sitting at a bar and a bartender. When you go to their website http://www.cava22sf.com/ there is a big ad for "Happy Hour"

This is hardly "very sensational".

joelthelion5• 15 years ago

Why do you think these "leaks" happen every time? They do it on purpose, because it gets everybody excited about their product.

jpr2• 15 years ago

Ugh, anyone know of something along the lines Apple-haters -mailing list or something? I need a place where I can be reasonably sure that people who I am talking with aren't macfags.

jpr2• 15 years ago

Btw, downvoting just reaffirms my judgement about your appletardness.

corin_• 15 years ago

Actually it just confirms that people on HN don't want you spouting moronic shit, regardless of our feelings towards Apple (personally I hate their products, and I felt very good downvoting you twice).

HaloZero• 15 years ago

People keep seeming to talk about how "Apple is not this sloppy".

It wasn't Apple, it was some employee who like all of us, probably had a bit too much to drink and left his phone. Or maybe it got pick pocketed? Honestly, this only a recent occurrence because Apple iPhones are small enough to forget, unlike laptops, and people actually care about them, unlike the latest ipod nano/mini/shuffle/touch.

And it's only happened twice in a period of what? 4 years of iPhones?

vacri6• 15 years ago

My company creates a device the size of an iphone, and we've never left one in a bar, whether a stock production unit, or a super-secret, heavily-NDA'd, jackbooted-police-summoning prototype.

nknight2• 15 years ago

How many dozens of your employees walk around with the device every day in the course of their routine non-work-related lives?

Are the devices a ubiquitous, integrated part of daily life that reach the point of barely being thought about?

Are they even something one pulls out and uses in a bar?

mahmud• 15 years ago

Maybe your company doesn't have competent and determined adversaries who are hell bent on stealing your product designs by targeting your elite staff.

I wont be surprised if the person who lost the prototype was wined & dined by a "new friend".

linker3000• 15 years ago

HTC user: Damn, Can you get a signal - I can barely get one bar here

iPhone user: Yep, I get to one bar and always lose it too.

nextparadigms• 15 years ago

This joke is getting a little old. What is the chance for an employee to own an iPhone 5 and actually lose it? again. Apple is probably the most skilled company at giving out "leaks", because many times people don't even realize the leak was seeded by Apple.

sixcorners2• 15 years ago

Seeded by Apple? Didn't Apple have police break in and sieze six computers and a bunch of other electronic stuff from that Gizmodo person's house?

joelthelion5• 15 years ago

What does that prove?

napierzaza• 15 years ago

I can't really come up with an existing iPhone model that sells for 200$, so I don't see how one from the future would sell so cheaply. This sounds like a garbage report.

Report: Apple Loses iPhone 5 Prototype. Yes, in a Bar.

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