Police called in for search as ‘priceless’ prototype iPhone 5 is left in Mexican restaurant in San Francisco, according to report
An Apple employee left a prototype iPhone 5 in a Mexican restaurant on San Francisco, according to a report. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Have you heard this one before? An Apple employee walks into a bar in California with a top-secret iPhone prototype – and leaves it behind. Apple then scrambles to recover the phone, involving the police in the process after it has been sold by a finder, eventually getting it back under wraps.
It happened in April last year – and now, says CNet, it has happened again with a prototype of the very latest iPhone, expected to be launched within the next few weeks.
But this time Apple does not appear to have got the phone back.
According to the report, the phone was lost while being tested outside the Apple campus in a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco’s Mission district, and then sold on Craigslist for $200 (£123).
It was initially left in a bar called Cava22, which says it takes “real pride in bringing a live and festive Mexican experience, for all our cleints [sic] to enjoy” including a margarita sweet-and-sour mix, by an Apple employee who appears to have been testing it off Apple’s campus. The company carries out external testing by letting selected staff take prototypes to urban and other locations in order to test its behaviour in normal settings, rather than the laboratory conditions of its own headquarters.
But they are not meant to leave them behind. “I guess I’ll have to make my drinks a little less strong,” the owner, Jose Valle, told CNet.
CNet says Apple contacted the San Francisco police as soon as the loss was discovered and told them that the phone was “priceless” and that the company wanted its safe return.
It was eventually tracked down via a location-tracking system built into the phone to a single-family home in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights area, says CNet. But when police and Apple’s investigators visited the house, the occupant denied any knowledge of the phone, and it wasn’t recovered despite a search – with the occupant’s permission – of the residence.
Apple has not commented on the events, which come as interest in the successor to the iPhone 4 – which has variously been guessed at as being called the iPhone 4G, 4S and iPhone 5 – is growing. With the existing model now comparatively old in smartphone terms, having been released in June 2010, the expectation is the next model will have to bring dramatic improvements in performance to compete with rival handsets from companies such as Samsung, Motorola and HTC using Google’s Android operating system.
New versions of the iPhone are expected to use more powerful processors and have a different arrangement of the antenna system in the casing. The external antenna caused a media furore last year after some users complained that reception seemed to drop when their hand completed a contact between two metal components. One source at a carrier company suggested to the Guardian the problem arose because the prototype phones are principally tested on the Apple campus, in areas with relatively strong mobile signals; the signal drop from the antenna “bridging” was principally seen in areas with weaker reception.
Apple is understood to provide carrier companies with iPhones for testing that are shipped in sealed boxes so that staff cannot see the exterior. The tests are necessary to ensure that the phones comply with network software requirements.
Last year a prototype of the iPhone 4 was left in a beer garden by Gray Powell, an Apple engineer. That eventually made its way to the gadget blog Gizmodo, which published pictures and a video of the device. Apple called in the police, who got a warrant to search the home of Jason Chen, Gizmodo’s editor. Early in August, prosecutors in San Mateo filed criminal charges against two men, alleging that they sold the iPhone 4 prototype to Gizmodo. It is illegal under California law to take lost property if you know who the owner is likely to be, punishable by up to a year in prison.
Steve Jobs has been around since the dawn of the computer industry, and, as he’ll admit, he’s had more than his share of great moments. Here are a few of Apple’s greatest product introductions, and a few more we suspect Jobs may spring on us yet.
Did the Apple Macintosh revolutionize the computer industry when it was introduced by Jobs in 1984? At the very least, it gave the folks at Microsoft a few good ideas. While the Macintosh never dominated the computer industry, it became the first mass-market computer to sport the point-and-click interface Windows has since made ubiquitous. Apple fans would argue that no one, to this day, does it better. And while credit for the Mac should be shared by Jobs and his team of engineers, when it came time to introduce the Mac, it was all Steve.
Just as Jobs united networking and the computer at NeXT for engineers and scientists, with the iMac, introduced in 1998, he fused the two into a single product that the average consumer could afford. While the sleek machines never dominated the market, they revived Apple’s fortunes and pointed the way toward a future where personal computers would be less about computing and more about communicating–via e-mail and the Web.
To say Jobs invented digital music players gives him too much credit. And not nearly enough. Instead, Jobs did something more important: He took a product category that was on the fringe and connected it with the engineering and design know-how to make it mainstream. Apple’s iPod digital music players are now ubiquitous, and Jobs has built a thriving media business around the beautifully designed devices.
The introduction of the original iPod Nano came with a classic piece of showmanship: To unveil the device, Jobs reached deep into the coin pocket of his blue jeans to surprise the audience with Apple’s first flash-memory-based digital music player.
Even a year after its unveiling, Apple’s touch-sensitive, portable entertainment and communications devices seem more like something from the future than anything built in the here and now. But beneath the surface, there’s little new–after all, it’s just a Web-friendly phone and media player. The ability to wrap it all in a beautiful, engaging interface is what sets it apart–and makes it fundamentally Jobsian.
The MacBook Air may just be a niche product, but the introduction of the slimmed-down notebook computer was unforgettable. Jobs simply reached into an interoffice envelope and slid the thing out.
The original iPhone was introduced in the United States on June 29, 2007 before being marketed worldwide.
Apple has hinted that the iPod touch won’t be the only device that will get a version of the iPhone’s touch-sensitive interface. One product many have long speculated about: a thin, lightweight Web tablet with a touch interface perfect for browsing the Internet or viewing a classic episode of The Sopranos. Odds: 2 to 1 this doesn’t roll out.
While Forrester Research has pooh-poohed the idea, others, such as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, think Steve Jobs’ drive to master media will eventually bring him to design his own boob tube. If Apple tackles television, the capabilities of today’s Apple TV, which pours content from Apple’s iTunes online music store onto televisions screens, would be just the start. Odds that this will come to market: even money.
In a report earlier this month, the tech prognosticators gamely made predictions about future Apple products. One quirky idea: an Apple clock radio. It’s a seemingly odd suggestion, but it also fits in with Apple’s pattern: moving the music, movies and videos to where its audience is. If Forrester Research is right, the next place Jobs plans to invade could be your dreams. Odds this will come to market: 5 to 1 against.
Here’s another gutsy suggestion from Forrester Research. At first glance, it doesn’t jibe– after all, there are plenty of cheap digital picture frames out there already. But just as Apple took the dowdy MP3 player and turned it into a gotta-have-it lifestyle accessory, Apple’s deft touch with user interfaces and industrial design could help it make digital picture frames a hit, not to mention a no-brainer accessory to Apple’s suite of movie- and image-editing tools. Odds Apple will make digital picture frames: 2 to 1 against.
For a control freak like Jobs, a remote control might just be impossible to resist. Or so speculate the prognosticators at Forrester Research. Yet a touch-sensitive remote control could put Apple at the center of all your home gadgets, giving it an edge when it tries to sell anything from televisions to music systems. Odds for an Apple remote control: 3 to 1 against.
This will probably never happen (but never say never with Apple). Still, something with Starbucks is likely in the works. Last year, Apple announced a deal with Starbucks giving iPhone users the ability to download music in the company’s coffee shops wirelessly with the touch of a button. And Apple has applied for a patent that might cover much closer interaction with real-world stores, such as the ability to order that latte outside the store and pick it up at the counter–no waiting (see