The Gourmet Haus Staudt . A overnice place to enjoy good German lager beer . And if you are an Apple Software Engineer nominate Gray Powell , it ’s also a decent place to lose the iPhone 4 prototype .
Gray Powell — a North Carolina State University 2006 alum andtalented amateur photographer — is an Apple Software Engineer work on the iPhone Baseband Software , the short computer programme that start the iPhone to make telephone call . A dream line of work for a talented railroad engineer like Powell , an Apple fan who always wanted to suffer Steve Jobs .
On the dark of March 18 , he was enjoying the fine spell ales at Gourmet Haus Staudt , a nice German beer garden in Redwood City , California . He was well-chosen . After all , it was his natal day . He was turning 27 that very same sidereal day , and he was celebrating .
The place was cracking . The beer was excellent . “ I underestimate how good German beer is , ” he typewrite into the next - generation iPhone 4 he was testing on the flying field , cleverly disguised as an iPhone 3GS . It was his last Facebook update from the occult iPhone . It was the last time he ever saw the phone , aright before he empty it on bar faecal matter , forget to go home .
It a simple error in the middle of celebration . Something that anyone , from Steve Jobs to Jonathan I ve , could have done . Knowinghow fierce and ruthless Apple is about mathematical product leaks , those beers may have turned out to be the bitterest of his life .
Apple Gestapo : How Apple Hunts Down Leaks
(Almost) Impenetrable Security
Until now , Apple ’s fabled security has always play perfectly . Perhaps there was a blurry factory photo here , or some last - minute information strategically whisper to some friendly media there . But when it get to the big clobber , everything is air-tight . At their Cupertino campus , any gadget or computing equipment that is worth protecting is behind armored door , with security lock with codes that convert every few minutes . Prototypes are run out to desk . Hidden in these research laboratory , hardware , package and industrial - pattern elves labor severally on the same machine , without really bear the perfect moving picture of the last product .
And obliterate in every corner , the Apple secret law , a squad of people with a individual missionary work : To make trusted nobody speaks . And if there ’s a leak , hunt down down the traitor , and see him out of the construction . Using lockdown and other fear tactics , these man in black are the last channel of United States Department of Defense against any sneak eyes . The Gran Jefe Steve trusts them to stave off Apple ’s bad incubus : The making water of a strategic product that could be them gazillion of dollars in free merchandising promotion . One that would make them mislay command of the merchandise news wheel .
But the fact is that there ’s no sodding security . Not when human beings are involved . Humans that can lose affair . You lie with , likethe next generation iPhone 4 .
This Is Apple ’s Next iPhone
Lost and Found
Apple security measures ’s mighty walls fell on the midnight of Thursday , March 18 . At that metre , Powell was at Gourmet Haus Staudt , just 20 international nautical mile from the party ’s Infinite Loop main office , hold his play . Around him , other mathematical group of people were partake in the jolly atmosphere , and plenty of the golden liquidness .
The somebody who eventually ended up with the lost iPhone was sitting next to Powell . He was drinking with a friend too . He notice Powell on the feces next to him but did n’t think twice about him at the time . Not until Powell had already go out the bar , and a random really inebriated guy wire — who’d been model on the other side of Powell — returned from the john to his own dejection .
The Random Really Drunk Guy pointed at the disguised iPhone 4 sit on the throne , the cherished image left by the young Apple engineer .
“ Hey human race , is that your iPhone ? ” asked Random Really Drunk Guy .
“ Hmmm , what ? ” replied the person who ended up with the iPhone . “ No , no , it is n’t mine . ”
“ Ooooh , I guess it ’s your friend ’s then , ” referring to a friend who at the time was in the bathroom . “ Here , take it , ” said the Random Really Drunk Guy , handing it to him . “ You do n’t want to lose it . ” After that , the Random Really Drunk Guy also left the legal profession .
The soul who ended up with the iPhone asked around , but nobody take it . He thought about that vernal guy sitting next to him , so he and his friend stayed there for some clock time , waiting . Powell never came back .
During that sentence , he played with it . It seemed like a normal iPhone . “ I thought it was just an iPhone 3GS , ” he tell me in a telephone interview . “ It just looked like one . I tried the photographic camera , but it crashed three time . ” The iPhone did n’t seem to have any special features , just two ginmill codes stay put on its back : 8800601pex1 and N90_DVT_GE4X_0493 . Next to the volume key there was another sticker : iPhone SWE - L200221 . aside from that , just six pages of applications . One of them was Facebook . And there , on the Facebook screen , was the Apple technologist , Gray Powell .
opine about returning the phone the next twenty-four hours , he left . When he woke up after the hazy nighttime , the headphone was dead . Bricked remotely , through MobileMe , the service Apple provides to go after and wipe out lost iPhones . It was only then that he realized that there was something strange that iPhone . The exterior did n’t feel right and there was a camera on the front . After tinkering with it , he managed to open up the fake 3GS .
There it was , a shiny matter , completely different from everything that come before .
He think that eventually the ticket would move up high up enough and that he would receive a call back , but his headphone never rang . What should he be ask to do then ? take the air into an Apple computer storage and give the shiny , new twist to a 20 - year - previous who might just terminate up selling it on eBay ?
The Aftermath
calendar week later on , Gizmodo got it for $ 5,000 in cash . At the time , we did n’t live if it was the real thing or not . It did n’t even get past the Apple logotype screen . Once we watch it inside and out , however , there was no uncertainty about it . It was the real thing , so we start to work on documenting it before render it to Apple . We had the phone , but we did n’t know the possessor . Later , we read about this story , but we did n’t know for certain it was Powell ’s earphone until today , when we contacted him via his phone .
Gray Powell : Hello ?
John Herrman : Is this Gray ?
G : Yeah .
J : Hi , this is John Herrman from Gizmodo.com .
G : Hey !
J : You forge at Apple , right ?
GB : Um , I mean I ca n’t really talk too much right now .
J : I understand . We have a gimmick , and we think that maybe you lose it at a bar , and we would care to give it back .
G : Yeah , I forward your e-mail [ asking him if it was his iPhone ] , someone should be contacting you .
J : OK .
K : Can I send this phone number along ?
watt second : [ Contact data ]
He sounded tired and broken . But at least he ’s alive , and apparently may still be put to work at Apple — as he should be . After all , it ’s just a stupid iPhone and mistakes can happen to everyone — Gray Powell , Phil Schiller , you , me , and Steve Jobs .
The only real mistake would be to fire Gray in the name of Apple ’s legendary impenetrable security , offend by the magnate of German beer and one individual human error .
extra reportage by John Herrman ; extra thanks to Kyle VanHemert , Matt Buchanan , and Arianna Reiche
Update 2 : I have tot the fleck on the $ 5,000 ( in Italic ) and how we acquired the iPhone , as Gawker has disclosed to every medium outlet that asked .
The Complete Lost iPhone Saga
•How Apple lost the next iPhone
•Why Apple could n’t get the lost iPhone back
•All the inside information about the machine
•The next iPhone , dissected
•Apple did n’t leak out the iPhone , and why that matters
•And in the end , how Apple ask for their phone back
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