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Gizmodo gets its hands on the new iPhone prototype

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Freestyler said:
I realise this, but you can't deny that Giz would be tempted to shit over the new iPhone if Apple deny them review units etc..

And as PhoncipleBone mentioned, Gizmodo are not exactly the most level headed/serious bunch of dudes. We're not talking about the New York Times fudging a review.
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Have you been reading up on this whole issue? No one is really siding with Gizmodo. Gizmodo has a lot more to lose from being excluded from all Apple events and review hardware, not the other way around. Gizmodo has damaged their reputation, or at least any reputation they had left after the CES incident. Everyone knows they're a bunch of douche bags.
 
Freestyler said:
I don't see this happening. They're a major blog and Apple would be stupid to piss them off - imagine if Gizmodo was your only source of news/reviews etc. and they completely blasted the new iPhone for being useless/flawed etc. - it would affect the buying patterns of plenty of uninformed readers.
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First, I doubt that any portion of Gizmodo readership really are "uninformed" readers. Secondly, Gizmodo doesn't particularly gain anything from pumping out rubbish reviews; they're competing with Engadget as it is, and it won't help their cause if their (hypothetically) belated coverage of Apple products is worsened by completely inaccurate and thus entirely useless reviews once they do actually get their hands on the goods.
 
If this wasn't an intentional leak then I've got to say giz really have shot themselves in the foot.
As if their image/reputation wasn't bad enough.
 
Whatever... My respect for Giz has only gone up after this. I mean, what, they bought the iPhone prototype and inspected every inch of it and reported it all. Then made Apple officially confirm that it, indeed, was a prototype for the next iPhone before they would give it back. What did they do wrong here?
 
DeadFalling said:
Whatever... My respect for Giz has only gone up after this. I mean, what, they bought the iPhone prototype and inspected every inch of it and reported it all. Then made Apple officially confirm that it, indeed, was a prototype for the next iPhone before they would give it back. What did they do wrong here?
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1. they named the apple engineer who lost the phone for no reason. Petty move.

2. the phone they bought may be considered stolen (as it seems that the finder did not make a proper effort it give it back to Apple or the guy who lost it) so they MIGHT be in legal trouble. However, I don’t think there’s a lot of anger on Gaf about them buying the phone. It may end up biting them in the ass, though.

which would be funny to me, given point 1.
 
SnakeXs said:
Would you keep 100 bucks if you blatantly and clearly saw it fall out of someone's purse/wallet/pocket? Before your very eyes. There it goes, on the ground, the person slowly walking away from it.

If you answered yes, then you're with Majix and that's pathetic.

If you answered no and would return the money, then you see the difference. With a phone you can see who it belongs to. It doesn't take much 4th grade sleuthing to figure it out.

Beyond that phones have greater ramifications for most people than does a few bucks. Losing money sucks, but lots of people have private information on their phones, and I'd wager most people don't have a lot of their shit backed up in any way (although the iPhone kind changes that).
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Theres a huge difference between seeing it lost in front of you and finding it after the owner has left and clearly not realized they lost something. If I saw the person lose it in front of me i would ofcourse say something, thats not even a question to ponder. Quite frankly, I think most people wouldnt return it anyways and that im in the majority. For most people I think there is a threshold at which point they think its morally wrong. Like if you found car keys you wouldnt go about trying to find the car and drive off, or if i found a purse i wouldnt go through it to find money but would get it back to its rightful owner.


I have to agree though that naming the guy who lost it was pretty shitty. They could have done that entire piece and left him anonymous.
 
Engineer fired for showing 3G prototype to Steve Wozniak:

But I can tell you that the test engineer who showed me an iPad after midnight, for 2 minutes, during the iPad launch was indeed fired. I opted to spend 2 minutes with Numbers on this iPad, trying some stunts I'd seen on Apple's website demo video. I was not told that it was a 3G model and I had no way to know that. I was told that this engineer had to wait until midnight to show it outside of Apple's secure area. And I'm an Apple employee who he was showing it to. My guess is that he was allowed to take the iPad outside of the secure area but still not supposed to show it.
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http://9to5mac.com/engineer-aj-fired-
 
DUN DUN DUNNN

Kotaku.com said:
Possibility of Criminal Charges over New iPhone

On April 19, sister site Gizmodo.com broke the exclusive news that Apple has been working on a new iPhone. Now, authorities are considering whether to file criminal charges over its sale, reports The New York Times.

According to NY Times blog Bits Blog, the district attorney in San Mateo County in California has the option of filing charges against possibly both buyer and seller, and people involved with the investigation tell the site that the D.A. could file charges early next week.

Under California law, it is illegal to sell stolen goods. Moreover, a person who uses the property of others without permission could be legally be guilty of theft.
Gizmodo.com came into possession of the phone after it was apparently lost in a bar — which is why legal action is being considered and not currently in place — and after unsuccessful attempts at returning the phone to Apple. It was later revealed by Gawker Media, parent company of both Gizmodo and Kotaku, that $5,000 was paid for the iPhone. If property is not worth over US$950, the case will be classified as a misdemeanor. But since $5,000 was paid for the phone, it would be considered a felony.

The phone has since been returned to Apple. Late Friday, Gawker Media informed The New York Times that it has not been contacted by any authorities regarding this issue.

"If there is any case that arises out of our office at this point the police have not submitted for prosecution," said Stephen Wagstaffe, San Mateo County's chief deputy district attorney. Moreover, Wagstaffe said that in some cases of missing property, "we call it misappropriation of lost property; it's a crime but it's not theft."
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http://kotaku.com/5524298/possibility-of-criminal-charges-over-new-iphone
 
Bound to happen. Gizmodo got too cocky and revealed everything i.e. from losing phone in the bar to paying $5000 for it. They should've just revealed it without mentioning how they got it or whom they got it from.
 
At first I thought Giz was the bad guy. Then came to my senses and remembered that Apple are the douchest most pretentious Company around and Jobs is prick.

I'm with Giz. Apple should have been more careful. Wozniak should be in charge of Apple.
 
Dagless M.D. said:
It's a thorny legal issue, all right.
I'll need to refer to the case of Finders v. Keepers.
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Why do people keep bringing this stupid joke up? It doesn't even make sense--"Finders" and "Keepers" would be the same party.
 
Brera said:
At first I thought Giz was the bad guy. Then I remembered that my opinions on right and wrong should be influenced by how much I dislike someone, not who is actually right or wrong.
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Pretty poor, dude... :lol
 
numble said:
Why do people keep bringing this stupid joke up? It doesn't even make sense--"Finders" and "Keepers" would be the same party.
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It should really be Keepers vs Weepers if you want to shorten it.

edit badly beaten :P
 
Brera said:
At first I thought Giz was the bad guy. Then came to my senses and remembered that Apple are the douchest most pretentious Company around and Jobs is prick.

I'm with Giz. Apple should have been more careful. Wozniak should be in charge of Apple.
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That has nothing to do with it. The device was stolen from Apple, Gizmodo bought supposedly stolen property. Since Gizmodo knew the device was stolen (unless it was given to them by Apple, which all cases point to it not being the case) they broke the law.
Not liking Apple doesn't mean you can break the law.

Also, after the way Gizmodo handled everything I hope they lose this case. As much as I dislike Apple sometimes, Gizmodo outpricked them by a mile and broke the law in the process.
 
numble said:
This is stupid--what next, send us all your prototypes or we'll shit on the actual shipped unit?
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They've done this before with RIM/Blackberry...

As I mentioned waaaay back in the beginning of the thread: vote with your pageviews and don't give Gizmodo clicks.
 
CharlieDigital said:
They've done this before with RIM/Blackberry...

As I mentioned waaaay back in the beginning of the thread: vote with your pageviews and don't give Gizmodo clicks.
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You have a link to stories about the RIM thing? I am curious to hear more about Gizmodo dickiness.
 
CharlieDigital said:
I'm going to have to dig it up but that's when I definitively stopped reading them.

There was also the issue with their CES shenanigans as well.
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What the hell kind of legitimate company does this? :lol

It sounds like something a couple kids would come up with and give each other high fives for as they giggled uncontrollably...not a professional reporting organization.
 
Found some traces of their RIM/Blackberry whining: http://forums.crackberry.com/f145/gizmodo-crying-because-they-couldnt-review-storm-2-lol-339417/

Still digging up more...

http://www.mobimadness.com/gizmodo-loco-demo-storm-2/

They have a tendency for unprofessional behavior that has turned me off to them over time. Again, I'm not advocating for any other site in particular, but I feel that Gizmodo's unprofessional behavior, time and again, have lost my respect for them and lost my page views.

This latest snafu with Apple seems to be yet another misstep on their part as the details unfold.
 
Hari Seldon said:
I don't think Apple has a case, especially if the guy's lawyers can prove that he tried to return it via phone/email records to apple.
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1) it would be a felony charge
2) he sold property that did not belong to him, even if the alleged phone call to CUSTOMER SERVICE took place

The case may not go anywhere, but it's quite clear the act was illegal
 
Brera said:
At first I thought Giz was the bad guy. Then came to my senses and remembered that Apple are the douchest most pretentious Company around and Jobs is prick.

I'm with Giz. Apple should have been more careful. Wozniak should be in charge of Apple.
Click to expand...
:lol I thought you were serious for a sec
 
syllogism said:
1) it would be a felony charge
2) he sold property that did not belong to him, even if the alleged phone call to CUSTOMER SERVICE took place

The case may not go anywhere, but it's quite clear the act was illegal
Click to expand...

The guy who "stole" the phone claimed that he found it at the bar and asked around to see who it belonged to. If there are witnesses there that can corroborate this, then it clearly was not stolen. Then he claimed he emailed apple about it. Doesn't seem to be the actions of a thief now does it? I doubt that this case will hold up.
 
Hari Seldon said:
The guy who "stole" the phone claimed that he found it at the bar and asked around to see who it belonged to. If there are witnesses there that can corroborate this, then it clearly was not stolen. Then he claimed he emailed apple about it. Doesn't seem to be the actions of a thief now does it? I doubt that this case will hold up.
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I'm sorry but he never contacted the police or even the person working in the bar. He made no serious try to find the owner. Hell, he even had the guys facebook according to the story.
 
Hari Seldon said:
The guy who "stole" the phone claimed that he found it at the bar and asked around to see who it belonged to. If there are witnesses there that can corroborate this, then it clearly was not stolen. Then he claimed he emailed apple about it. Doesn't seem to be the actions of a thief now does it? I doubt that this case will hold up.
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He didn't ask around at the bar, the owner of the bar corroborated this:

What he never did, however, was notify anyone who worked at the bar, according to its owner, Volcker Staudt. That would have been the simplest way to get the phone back to the Apple employee who lost it, who "called constantly trying to retrieve it" in the days afterward, recalls Volcker. "The guy was pretty hectic about it."

Nor did the finder report it to the Redwood City Police Department, says Sgt. Dan Mulholland.
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http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/why-apple-could-sue-gawker-over-lost-iphone-story/19447570/
 
Hari Seldon said:
The guy who "stole" the phone claimed that he found it at the bar and asked around to see who it belonged to. If there are witnesses there that can corroborate this, then it clearly was not stolen. Then he claimed he emailed apple about it. Doesn't seem to be the actions of a thief now does it? I doubt that this case will hold up.
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Even disregarding what was stated above, he still sold something that did not belong to him; it's not a difficult concept. Moreover, he certainly knew it was just not a regular phone.
 
Hari Seldon said:
The guy who "stole" the phone claimed that he found it at the bar and asked around to see who it belonged to. If there are witnesses there that can corroborate this, then it clearly was not stolen. Then he claimed he emailed apple about it. Doesn't seem to be the actions of a thief now does it? I doubt that this case will hold up.
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The story Gizmodo told is CLEARLY theft on the part of the "finder" as defined by California law.

And yeah, a DA / Police Department is going to take very seriously a high profile theft involving their city's/county's largest constituent.
 
I'm behind on all this news so let me get this straight.

Guy found iPhone in a bar
Turned out to be prototype iPhone yet to be announced
Tried to contact and return to apple but they didn't believe him
Sold it to a website and they wrote about the new phone

Where does theft even fit into any of this?
 
SuperPac said:
http://gizmodo.com/5524843/

Jason Chen's computers seized. Ooh this is getting interesting. And of course the story is on Gizmodo so they're still milking this for all the clicks they can get.
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small_violin.jpg


Interesting:

mzhmd
 
SuperPac said:
http://gizmodo.com/5524843/

Jason Chen's computers seized. Ooh this is getting interesting. And of course the story is on Gizmodo so they're still milking this for all the clicks they can get.
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Oh no! He's a victim! This will never pan out the way they were expecting!

Serves them right. Scum.


Edit: Gawker legal responded that the police weren't allowed to search his house because he's a "journalist". :lol

Too bad the clause doesn't include whiny bloggers.
 
Wow, this happened last Friday. They actually got a warrant and responded pretty fast--everything unfolded on Monday, remember.
 
TheWiicast said:
Oh no! He's a victim! This will never pan out the way they were expecting!

Serves them right. Scum.


Edit: Gawker legal responded that the police weren't allowed to search his house because he's a "journalist". :lol

Too bad the clause doesn't include whiny bloggers.
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Getting your hands on a huge story like the next "iPhone" is a big deal. I'm sure there are hundreds of journalists who would have conducted in the same business to get their hands on the product. The problem is that Chen and Gizmodo didn't do a good job of keeping how they acquired it under wraps.

I wouldn't really call the guy scum for what he did. He took a risk and now he has to deal with the consequences.
 
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