Report: Apple Loses iPhone 5 Prototype. Yes, in a Bar. | Hacker News Reader

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

pcmag.com

44 pointsnlh54 comments

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?

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.

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?

Also an important question: "Does your company have anywhere near as many employees as Apple?"

This implies that every employee of Apple carries around an iPhone 5 in public for testing.

As skeletonjelly points out, this question is basically a total furphy.

Nope, but the point of my comment was really the bits in italics - because they're in italics - and not the fact my company makes stuff.

stock production refers to the point that most Apple employees will not be using prototypes out of the office

the jackbooted bit refers to this happening before and Apple would have been thought to have been using a lot more care this time around

The italicised bit was not 'my company makes stuff'. I find it weird that I have to point this out.

I suppose I ignored the italicization because it seemed entirely irrelevant, akin to useless scare quotes. You didn't think there'd be a focus on the fact that you compared your company to Apple?

In any case, cell phones require real-world field testing. There's only so much care you can put into it without crippling the tests.

Most companies lose mobile consumer electronics prototypes constantly and don't think twice about it. The fact that it happens so rarely for Apple is ample evidence that they're being far more careful than most companies, and it only gets attention because they're incredibly secretive and react to leaks as you describe.

There's only so much care you can put into it without crippling the tests.

Looks like they need to put a where's my phone app in those test builds.

In any case, cell phones require real-world field testing. There's only so much care you can put into it without crippling the tests.

Create a paired bluetooth device (or whatever), one half is a tiny attachment that goes on the prototype, the other is attached to a buzzer on your keychain or somesuch. Out of range or only at half power? Off goes the buzzer: "Hey, I forgot something!". For a company as secretive, innovative, and wealthy as Apple, this kind of 'prototype protection' in the field is easily answered.

I'm curious as to why the downmodders think this is a bad idea. Why would it fail, what are the shortcomings? Or is it just revenge modding?

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".

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.

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'?

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

> Safety/legal questions aside

Or they need a new marketing ploy.

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

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.

I agree with the sentiment that Apple probably wouldn't do this on purpose, but the last lost prototype made it on to the cover of just about every commuter rag in the world... That's a lot of free eyeballs.

These "accidental" losses do not go unnoticed. Every online community, every tech blog, every kid and his dog is talking about the new iPhone. Why spend money when you can do it for free?

I dunno about you, but the last time this happened the only people that were talking about were gadget geeks like us.

The general population just kept living their lives. What got people actually talking was the actual launch and the TV spots.

Now why would you let the cat out of the bag early just to whet the appetite of a small group of hardcore geeks?

>Now why would you let the cat out of the bag early just to whet the appetite of a small group of hardcore geeks?

Because you have everything to gain and nothing to lose?

I think you underestimate the noise geeks make. I'm sure it will be reported by mainstream media. A fitting headline would be:

New iPhone scheduled to be released in October lost at a local restaurant!

How is this not "real marketing"? It's on the front page of many websites. I don't see what "real" expensive marketing would do better.

How do we even know this story is true? There's been no actual leak yet.

Faux Apple mocks and speculation about the new iPhone are on the front of most gadget websites anyway, so I fail to see how they'd gain anything extra from this.

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.

>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.

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.

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

Awesome, but doesn't work with lost iPhone prototypes.

Not that I actually believe that PakG1's interest in this technology seriously involved an iPhone prototype, but I actually have a test unit of this product clipped to my bag, paired to my iPhone (and not because I sprinkled it with my magic Cydia pixie dust either ;P).

This is PERFECT. Does the test unit work well? I am seriously interested in this product.

To be honest, it required iOS 4.3, so I didn't install it on my main phone (which is still on 4.0 for various reasons); the end result being that I am not really stressing the thing out trying to determine how well it works (and thereby don't have that much to say). :(

Wow, awesome. Just what I was hoping for and impressive, thanks for sharing the link.

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.

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?

What does that prove?

Well, if it was all happening as Apple intended, why did they do it? Shits and giggles?

To make you believe the leak wasn't intentional?

Look, all of this is complete speculation, there is just no way to know if the leak is or is not a marketing gig; so I don't think a lot can be gained by arguing over it :)

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

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

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".

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.

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.

Btw, downvoting just reaffirms my judgement about your appletardness.

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).

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Apple is not this sloppy. Controlled leak.

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

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.

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