Apple Loses Another 4th-Gen iPhone 466
An anonymous reader noted that Apple appears to have lost another of its 4th generation iPhones. This doesn't seem like the most efficient distribution mechanism, Steve. Wonder if the SWAT team will get called in.
Wow. (Score:3, Interesting)
After all the fuss with the last one.. you'd really have to be a complete and utter moron to do this. Did Gray ever get fired for loss of the first phone?
They need to stop arresting the FINDERS (Score:1, Interesting)
What ever happened to finders keepers??
If Apple is gonna keep losing their 4G iPhones, I seriously think law enforcement needs to stop helping them. Apple is careless and that's the price they pay.
Re:Just a thought (Score:5, Interesting)
I think at this point, it would have to be...years of successfully controlling leaks, and then a prototype for the same product line gets leaked TWICE within weeks of each other? Yeah...I could believe the first one to be an honest mistake, but there is no way this one wasn't planned. /tinfoil hat
Re:Lost? You keep using that word. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's hard to do considering these phone are pseudo camouflaged, from my understanding at first glance it looks like an ordinary iPhone.
It would be like "Finding" a wallet in someone's pocket with something specific inside (like a 2-dollar bill or a Discover credit card). Sure if you check enough wallets I'm sure you'll find them but it would be noticed fairly quickly.
I imagine the big options are:
- Intentional leaks by Apple. The most likely in me eyes since it's now twice.
- *Very* careless employees, perhaps bragging that they have the new 4g (perhaps while intoxicated). Then leaving them behind, or not noticing that the phone disappeared 2 minutes after they bragged about it.
- An inside job, or some otherwise corporate espionage thing. I don't see what they would gain here other than seeing what Apple's internals look like a few weeks early, which wouldn't help them rush a product to market ahead of Apple.
- Some other sort of coordinated effort with geeks trying to find out which Apple employee might have the phone. Find out where the phones are developed, determine which employees work in fields with access to the iPhones, chat up those 1-2 dozen employees until you find one with the phone.
Fake screen? (Score:3, Interesting)
Why does this phone appear to have a fake, non-functional screen? Looks like one of those cardboard computers you see in furniture stores.
Time for a conspiracy theory! (Score:5, Interesting)
The last one happened right in time for the release of the HTC Incredible -- I wonder if this "leak" has anything to do with yesterday's story about Android sales overtaking the iPhone [gizmodo.com]...
Deception (Score:3, Interesting)
Now that I've thought about this more, if Apple were really, REALLY, clever, they would plant fakes - perhaps prototypes, or even specially created units - just to lead everyone off track. The planting of a second unit exactly matching the first would only reinforce the illusion.
So these are either the real units, or they are a strategic deception by Apple.
Re:Lost? You keep using that word. (Score:3, Interesting)
You are assuming that both events arise from the same source.
What it appears to me is:
1) First leak - careless, drunk employee. The timing on that incident is all wrong for a marketing campaign. Too far from the release date, too close to other releases and kills their current iPhone sales for way too long.
2) Second leak - employee who thought he or she could make a quick $4k, but will now be in deep trouble because the guy who bought it didn't keep his mouth shut.
Could it be intentional? Probably not. The way they're doing it is way to ham-fisted for an intentional leak.
Screen resolution this time I hope. (Score:3, Interesting)
The last time, despite having it in their hands, Gizmodo was not able to get the specific resolution of the iPhone 4G prototype display. As an iPhone developer, it would be nice to have a heads up about the new resolution, so we can modify our current and future apps to support it.
My wish would be to have it match the iPad's XGA (1024x768) resolution, so that it can run iPad apps, but I doubt it in the iPhone's form factor. The 960x640 resolution suggested would also be unlikely, since there aren't really any off-the-shelf LCD's with that native resolution. My bet would be something like 800x480, like the HTC HD2 phone, since there are already existing LCD's that support it.
Re:Just a thought (Score:5, Interesting)
"Doesn't have multitasking" - I won't listen to Pandora while I read email.
Sorry but most smartphones did not do this either. A very VERY small number of people want this. and many that did have it on a WM5 phone hated it as the phone would crawl because of having apps in the background running consuming processing power. My older Nokia smartphones also suffered from multitasking apps. nothing like getting the battery sucked dry and the phone taking 12 seconds to answer a call because of some damn app in the background using up the system resources.
"No replaceable battery" - I won't use it on the plane to watch that movie, that way I can make sure to call a cab when I land.
I have never met a person that carries around spare phone batteries. Plus anyone that even had a Palm Treo had the same problem. not easy to replace battery on smartphones has been a theme. Ever try to replace the battery in a Blackjack? the battery door self-welded shut every time you put it back on.
"It can be tethered now" - I have AT&T and they don't allow tethering, but the AT&T 3G network is so crappy I won't even bother.
It always was able to tether if you got away from a sociopath carrier. Unlock it to go to t-mobile and you can add a tethering app or more recently use the built in function.
I have been a smartphone user for over a decade. I have used them all. and I currently have an iPhone because the apps that work with my workflow are on it, I don't have to reboot it weekly, and being a phone is first priority to it. I have never had a call I could not answer because the damned phone was busy... Unlike Windows Mobile phones. or have a phone freak on certain callers... like my Nokia E62 did.
there are some "neat-o" things I would like to do. Like have the phone report my GPS location every 15 seconds to my server at home. It would be cool to have the house see that I am on my way home and turn the heater on the hot-tub on when I am within a 15 minute distance, or make other decisions when it senses I am on a return path. but I can live without that, or simply grab the phone, fire up the crestron app and press the button myself.
I also still have not found a single Apple-hater that does not change their mind when I actually show them what I do with my phone that they CANT do with theirs. (lack of "app for that"(tm)(r) on their platform mostly)
Recently the biggest was sitting at a bar, talking to a client, filling out and sending them an invoice and then processing a credit card payment over the phone right there after they got the invoice. A colleague freaked and instead of doing his typical, frothing at the mouth apple-hate, started asking serious questions about it more.
Re:Deception (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, probably a good point. Apple's Elk Grove facility appears to have become mostly a warehousing/distribution operation.
Apropos to nothing, I made a delivery there once back when I was driving an 18-wheeler. One of the best-run receiving operations I ever encountered--a bit more paperwork than usual but I was in and out in less than 45 minutes. To a truck driver who's paid by the mile and makes nothing while he's waiting to be unloaded, that's like money in the bank.
Re:Screen resolution this time I hope. (Score:1, Interesting)
I would bet 10:1 odds that it will be 960x640. The vast majority of apps on the app store do not scale to screen size; this resolution would allow them to simply pixel double all existing apps, the same way the iPad does, except they would then run full-screen.