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Comment by jsz0 | Hacker News Reader

They very possibly did the guy a favor exposing his identity not only to insulate him from hasher retribution but also as pretty clear evidence it was an innocent mistake. No one would leave their identity on the device if they had personally conspired to sell it on the black market. I don't think it's that big of a deal. If the device was being field tested Apple was accepting the risk of theft/loss. If it had been an iPad 2 months before it's announcement maybe but it's just an expected refresh of an established product. Not the end of the world. Apple's software folks leaked the existence of the front facing camera in the SDK months ago. Apple's competitors won't gain anything with a 2 month advance knowledge of the 4th generation design.

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Apple puts in a lot of effort to maintain an air of secrecy. It's part of their pubic image.

AFAIK this is the first time there has been a leak this big. It is a big deal to Apple.

The iPhone 3G design leaked more than 2 months before it's launch also although there was no concrete proof it was real. I know Apple stokes the hype to its maximum value but hopefully they're also realistic and don't punish this guy too harshly. It's the 4th generation of a product. No real surprises here.

It is a big deal to Apple.

Inside the RDF, you are probably correct.

Back here in reality, I would just like to take the opportunity to shout out, _BIG FUCKING DEAL_. They're working on a new version of the arguably most successful consumer electronic in history. WHO KNEW? It uses all the latest technology. WOW! It looks... SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT! Stop the presses and notify the President!!

I am tired of Apple acting treating it's product pipeline like it's the fucking Iranian nuclear program, of the blogs and MSM gobbling it up by the fistful, of these fools who buy into this idiocy and waste minutes, hours, days sitting in line for the newest iProduct. Really? You're going to post a 5 minute video of you unboxing an iPad? Certainly there are more pressing issues confronting mankind.

This. Thank you.

Ramen.

How much money in PR do you have to spend to make up for the "disappointing" events because everyone already saw the phone. This is not some little matter of secrecy, this is big money. It also affects the media that covers Apple events. They lose money because they don't get the page views.

In this particular case? $0.

No one is going to care in 3 months when this is released. Apply fanbois will still be wetting their pants to be the first on line when it comes out. In the meantime, the media that are going to "lose money" are actually getting an advance.

Ayway, since when is it everyone else's responsibility to keep Apple's secrets secret so the media can get more page views?

I think it's probably a big deal to their competitors, too - although the coverage was thing on technical details, there are some internal pictures with part numbers on a few components too. If we were competing to sell almost identical products, you would probably prefer me not to get my hands on the debug version.

If Apple would fire him over this, they probably would (or did?) fire him a week or so ago when it first went missing and got remote-wiped. The fact that it was later found and he was publicly humiliated shouldn't change anything in this case - they already knew it was lost and they knew this situation was a real possibility. If they hadn't fired him yet, I don't see how it makes sense to fire him now that someone found and published it. It's not like he could control who happened to find it.

If they fire him now, it's CYA. "A prototype has gone missing" might get Steve Jobs or Jon Ive or whoever fretting, but "the fourth generation iPhone is sitting in Gizmodo's office" has to be resulting in legendary anger from the top floor, and I can totally see the manager saying "we canned the guy and we tightened our testing restrictions" to placate upper-level anger.

Photograph of Steve Jobs’s office taken earlier today http://www.flickr.com/photos/skarpi/4527797541/sizes/o/ (via gruber)

No, they would not fire him then, without knowing what happened to the phone, because of the possibility he'd be needed to get the phone back.

I don't see how this does either of those things. On insulating him, it's not like Apple ever cared what public opinion was. They just spent the last week basically pushing back against their own developers. So if they want to fire him they'll do it public opinion be damned.

As for proving it was an innocent mistake. I don't think it does that either. If I were an Apple engineer and I just sold the newest iPhone prototype I'd ask the news site that broke the story to claim it was someone else too. Plus, it's gawker media so most believe they would be dishonest enough to lie about their source.

I'm not saying that's what he did but if I was already suspicious of him that story wouldn't make any difference.

Gray is a good friend of mine. There is no chance in hell that he stole that phone and sold it.

An apple engineer would risk and/or go through this for $10K? You have got to be kidding.

pretty clear evidence it was an innocent mistake.

This is an important point.

They could have done without the gigantic photo of the guy...

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