By Imaan Jiwa

The iPhone 4G

On the night of Thursday, March 18th 2010, Apple temporarily lost their next iPhone.

The iPhone 4

The way that Apple lost their new iPhone was a simple mistake that anyone could have made. Here’s how it happened: Gary Powell, an Apple Software Engineer, was celebrating his 27th birthday at a bar in

redwood city, California. After having a few drinks, Gary got up to leave and left the next generation, iPhone

prototype on a stool. The person that eventually ended up with the iPhone was sitting next to Gary Powell. Before

Gary left the bar. He asked around the bar for the owner, but no one claimed it.

He decided to wait a while at the bar to see if the owner would come and claim it. While he was waiting, he played around with it. Later, he said that he thought it was just a normal iPhone at the time. He opened the facebook application and saw a picture of Gary Powell.

Intending to return the phone in the morning, he and his friend left the bar. In the morning, the phone was dead because a service that Apple provided to track and wipe out lost iPhones, called MobileMe had bricked it up. It was only then that the guy with the iPhone noticed that there was something different about the iPhone he had in his hands. He tried calling Apple to report his observations to them, but no one took him seriously and just gave him a ticket number.

In the end, GIZMODO bought the new iPhone from him a few weeks later for $5,000 because they wanted to study it in depth and take it apart..

How Apple lost their New iPhone:

Personally I feel that this time Apple’s security wasn’t the best. These are the reasons that I have to support my thoughts:

Apple knew almost exactly when the iPhone had been lost but didn’t do much right away, even though this was a really important prototype

It took Apple over 3 WEEKS to get their iPhone back-maybe they tried to get it earlier, but obviously they didn’t succeed

As you know, the man who found the iPhone even called in and tried to return it to Apple, but the AppleCare reps thought that it was just a hoax and didn’t give it much thought

The AppleCare reps didn’t know anything about a lost iPhone 4G or even that Apple had an iPhone 4G. Because of this, they couldn’t help when the guy called in and told them about a new iPhone

It didn’t really even seem that Apple was looking for the phone-if they did want to find it, shouldn’t they have told at least a few AppleCare reps about it so that

they could be on the look out if anyone reported it-which someone did

Also, Apple couldn’t track down the phone because of a beta software bug

Apple is usually pretty on top of things with their security, and it is unknown why the 4th generation iPhone even left the Cupertino campus in the first place

The iPhone was, however, found inside a black plastic case to disguise the phone as a iPhone 3GS

Apple’s lack of security with the iPhone 4G:

The conversation between the guy with the iPhone and a customer service rep:

Hello, thanks for calling AppleCare

Hello. I think I have some kind of iPhone prototype, or something!

What?

Yeah, it's kinda square, and it doesn't work. I found it in a bar.

Ok! Thanks for calling.

The guy with the iPhone tried to report the suspicious iPhone to Apple:

GIZMODO took apart the next iPhone:

http://gizmodo.com/5520479/a-letter-apple-wants-its-secret-iphone-back?skyline=true&s=i

Apple’s letter to GIZMODO asking for their iPhone back:

ALL ABOUT THE IPHONE

4:

Front-facing video chat camera Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably

larger than the iPhone 3GS)

Camera flash Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)

Improved display Secondary mic for noise cancellation

Split buttons for volume Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

What’s new:

The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through

An aluminum border going completely around the outside

Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but an apparent much higher resolution)

Everything is more square around the edges and just in general- not much roundness

3 grams heavier 16% Larger battery

Components inside the iPhone are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

What’s changed:

The iPhone 4G is said to be

released around June or July of

2010!

I chose this article because I find it really interesting when new technology comes out. I am especially interested in Apple because everyone seems to think that it is such a good brand so I want see if the future products that they make are really as good as everyone expects them to be. There is so much new technology coming out and I think it is really fascinating and exciting to see what people can invent and to see how much our world is developing every single day.

Why I chose this article:

http://gizmodo.com/5520877/open-gal//gallery/13

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/apples-iphone-4g-what-we-know-about-the-iphone-hd/

http://www.redmondpie.com/next-generation-iphone-4g-to-launch-in-summer-2010-9140206/

http://gizmodo.com/5520479/a-letter-apple-wants-its-secret-iphone-back

http://gizmodo.com/5520438/how-apple-lost-the-next-iphone

http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone

http://gizmodo.com/5520155/gal-1//gallery/1

Bibliography:

http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone

Check out this link to find out more about the iPhone 4:

Thanks for

watching!

(You can clap now)