We've seen this happen before. An iPhone test device goes missing on the eve of its expected launch, the media drums up the drama, and everybody's talking about Apple's next big thing.
A year ago, an iPhone 4 prototype was lost in a bar in Redwood City, Calif. and subsequently wound up in the hands of tech blog Gizmodo, which paid $5,000 for the device. Two men have been charged with misappropriation of lost property and possession of stolen property, but Gizmodo escaped any legal action.
This time around, the smartphone in question is reportedly the next-generation iPhone 5 and the bar where it went missing is in San Francisco, a Mission District watering hole called Cava 22.
Given the similarity to the earlier case of the missing iPhone, it's natural that some people wonder whether all of this is a publicity stunt intended to drum up publicity for its next big product release. Maybe, but you'd have to wonder why Apple would go through all the trouble?the company gets plenty of media attention without such theoretical shenanigans. In fact, it's the envy of the tech world in that regard.
As with the earlier missing prototype, the tale of the missing iPhone 5 has plenty of drama and has gone through several twists and turns since first coming to our attention, courtesy of CNET.
We first learned earlier this week that an iPhone 5 prototype had either gone missing or been stolen at Cava 22. There was speculation that the device had been sold for $200 on Craigslist, though nobody seems to have corroborated that because the sale is thought to have occurred in July and Craigslist dumps old postings from its site after just a few days. By the time the media caught wind of the missing iPhone story in late August, any smoking gun on Craigslist would have been long gone.
On to the next twist. A San Francisco man was reportedly visited by six individuals searching for the iPhone 5 prototype sometime in July, we learned Friday. They searched 22-year-old Sergio Calderón's home, car, and computer, Calderón told SF Weekly, and at first it wasn't clear just who these people were.
Though Calderón said the searchers presented themselves as San Francisco police, SFPD initially said it had no record of such activity by any of its officers. Later on Friday, SFPD backtracked and said three or four plainclothes officers had accompanied two Apple security officials on the July visit to Calderón's home in the Bernal Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, where they didn't find anything.
But wait, it gets better. An anonymous tipster emailed PCMag late Friday with an allegation that Calderón sold the prototype to a Fort Worth, Texas man, who paid for it via PayPal and had it shipped to his home via FedEx. We won't name the individual who allegedly now has the prototype in his possession, because we haven't been able to confirm that he actually has it.
We did track down a Fort Worth man with the name identified in the email from our tipster?or prankster, as the case may be. A brief correspondence with the alleged prototype buyer didn't yield much, though he never denied having the phone, and on one email he signed off with "Sent from my iPhone 5."
Whether signing off in that fashion was an admission of sorts or just a bit of cheekiness, we can't say. Apple, typically, has not responded to requests for comment. We also await a reply to our inquiries to SFPD.
We'll keep you posted about new developments in this story as they arise. And if you have any information yourself, we'd love to hear it.
Losing track of all the Apple iPhone 5 rumors? Be sure to check out What the iPhone 5 Might Look Like and Six Amazing Phone Technologies We Want in iPhone 5, as well as the 8 Likely iPhone 5 Rumors, and 2 Wild Ones slideshow below.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario