There’s certainly a lot of information missing from today and yesterday‘s iPhone leak. Engadget and Gizmodo both claim that it was lost in a bar and Gizmodo says that they got their hands on it a week ago. John Gruber asserts that it was purchased about a week ago by Gizmodo from whoever “found” it, if this is the case than I would assume that the folks at Gizmodo could be in for some legal trouble. Buying a “found” device from someone is a major issue because (as Nilay Patel points out) in California the finder of a lost item is required to contact the police and return it to its owner.
The biggest question I have is was this device actually just found in a bar? It seems plausible but it’s also nearly as likely that the device was actually stolen (Apple considers it to be, as Gruber pointed out in the aforelinked piece). If this device was in anyway stolen and Gizmodo knows about it, I think they should come out and admit it. But, regardless of whether it was stolen, Gizmodo needs to explain themselves and speak more about how they actually got their hands on the device.
In the realm of conspiracy theory 9 to 5 Mac mentions that we already know about one fourth generation iPhone that was lost — the one that a Foxconn employee lost that lead to his death. I doubt that these are the same device but it makes you think a little bit more about the origins of this device. Could it have been stolen from Foxconn’s factory? Or maybe even Apple’s campus?
If Engadget knew this device was real, and that Gizmodo had it, why didn’t they admit it in one of their posts? If Apple was able to remotely wipe the device, why couldn’t they use “Find my iPhone” to retrieve it? I have a feeling many of these questions will be answered, but we’ll have to wait and see.
