The strange story of a lost iPhone prototype was no publicity stunt, says the founder and publisher of Gawker media, which shared Apple's secrets with the world via Gizmodo.com.
The test phone was found, and eventually sold to editors at Gizmodo.com, who shared Apple's secrets with the world.
Nick Denton says Gizmodo acquired the iPhone 4G despite initial skepticism.
"We, as well as a couple of other websites, received an e-mail last week with some blurry photographs of a device that looked like a rather hard-edged version of the current iPhone," Denton says.
They eyed the photos suspiciously at first, Denton says, adding: "But as we looked into it further, it became more and more apparent" that the device was legitimate.
Denton and Gawker media offered $5,000 to the middleman for the 4G.
"It wasn't explicitly up for sale," he tells NPR's Neal Conan, but "we've never made any secret of the fact that if the story demands it, we will give rewards, bounties for exclusive stories like this one."
Denton says that many "tech conspiracy theorists" have speculated Gizmodo is in cahoots with Apple, "but if you actually think about the history of Apple, their reputation of being an extremely secretive company, they have never ever leaked significant information before a product launch." And beyond that, Denton insists, "it's just not true."
Jesus Diaz, senior contributing editor at Gizmodo, has played with the iPhone prototype. "It's much smaller," he says, than a iPhone 3GS. Aesthetically, he compares the current iPhone to Taiwanese phones: "all plastic and kind of out-of-place with the whole Apple product line, which is more square, more German, if you will." The 4G, Diaz says, is more in line with the iPad and other Apple products.
Leaving a top-secret prototype in a bar isn't the best career move. Have you ever had a terrible work-related gaffe? Tell us about it.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDYwMzgxODUyMDE2MzQ1Nzg1MTRlNTA2Yg000))