Here's more details on the recent ridiculousness:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/03/BA781L00L1.DTL&tsp=1

Now if ANYONE, uniformed or not asks to come in and search my home, the first thing out of my mouth would be "not without a warrant".

WTF?

Well, being that this was an Apple employee, I would say that he was a handler. A bad one.

Note to self: hang out at SF cafes once a year when a new Apple product should be out...

Did anyone find an Apple iphone with the words BAD MOTHER F**KER etched on the back? I kind of need everyone's help finding it. Last time I remember using it was at this Mexican bar in San Fransico. I was there with Bob Krist trying to out drink him and steal his Nikon D4 :^)

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/08/31/apple.phone.bar/index.html

I can't believe a year later this is actually happening again! I've "heard" Nikon usually has "handlers" accompanying prototypes when they are out in the "open" with photographers.

Wow! There is yet another Apple iphone prototype that has been "found" and photos of it are now all over the internet.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/12/next-generation-iphone-escapes-in-vietnam/

This has got to be the worst year for people who are responsible for prototypes. First Apple and then in New York a BMW employee left a prototype SUV parked at Central Park with the engine running. Some one called the cops thinking it might be another car bomb attempt! Wow!

http://www.bmwblog.com/2010/05/10/rumor-camouflaged-bmw-x3-causes-bomb-scare-outside-ny-museum/

Blackberry got caught in a scam a few years ago - they wanted to get a new design in the hands of bankers and the finance community, so they hired some models to hang out in bars near Wall street and flirt with the locals. Then they would ask them to enter their phone number into their Blackberry for them, which would start a conversation about the device! Brilliant but underhanded!

admin said:
Only once I was asked to pay for a picture of an unreleased camera before the official announcement (it was the D3s). I refused. Just few hours later, I got pictures from another source.

Well I thought I'd try to get $5,000 dollars from you but after you said no I decided just to send you the pictures for free anyway :^)

admin said:
Do we have any lawyers in the forum? Just in case :)

Actually we do. I think he was part of OJ Simpson's defense team back in 1995. So don't worry, we're safe :^)

Q: What's the difference between a lawyer and a liar?
A: The pronunciation.

Q: What do lawyers use for birth control?
A: Their personalities.

Q: How do you stop a lawyer from drowning?
A: Take your foot off his head.

Haha just kidding Warprints...kinda :^)

I don't imagine NRs cash flow is massively large so I doubt NR could afford to pay much!

Wait? So Niko "has" a D4 prototype and is not sharing it with the drunk buddies? :}

Only once I was asked to pay for a picture of an unreleased camera before the official announcement (it was the D3s). I refused. Just few hours later, I got pictures from another source.

I don't think I will ever pay for a Nikon prototype if offered, especially after this case with Gizmodo. Now, if someone offers me a full frame EVIL prototype from Nikon, I may change my mind... :).

Do we have any lawyers in the forum? Just in case :)

The guy who "stole" the iphone prototype has been identified.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/30/wired.iphone.finder/index.html?hpt=T2

I wonder how you guys field testing black cameras covered with black tape feel about this little incident? I know it would make me ultra paranoid about losing a prototype. So in the future I will leave the D4 prototype at home when I go to the bar :^P

Gizmodo is the gadget blog equivalent of the enquirer anyway. I say let him spend a bit of time in the big house. He can even start a PrisonTech blog.

kellenfreeman said:
Ya'll are making it sound like this guy committed suicide/got canned, neither of which happened AFIAK.

??? My first link is about an iphone prototype that an Apple engineer by the name of Gray lost at a bar.

My second link is about another guy (Sun Danyong) who also lost a prototype iphone last year. The Chinese company he worked for (Foxconn a major supplier for Apple)supposedly tortured the guy trying to find out what happened to the iphone prototype.

His family believed Foxconn/Apple were responsible for his death. They felt the company (Foxconn/Apple) was pressuring their son and they suspected foul play was behind his death although it was ruled a suicide.

Apple sent the family a small amount of money and a macbook as compensation for his death! I'm not joking!

I know you guys probably aren't doing it on purpose, but this discussion at the end is a bit misleading. That guy who lost the last iPhone is not related to the case now, except that another phone was lost. Ya'll are making it sound like this guy committed suicide/got canned, neither of which happened AFIAK.

Anyway, I think Gizmodo pretty clearly committed a felony. But hey, we'll see if it pans out.

You are wrong he was not tossed out, he jumped out by himself. I think it's part of the Apple hiring policy. You get drunk at the bar and leave prototype phone, you find a high place to jump from or something like that

Pete

Well the iphone story goes like this.

An software engineer who was "beta" testing the "prototype" went to a bar to celebrate his birthday. During the celebration he leaves the prototype iphone on a bar stool. Some drunk guy picks it up and asked some random guy if it belongs to him. Random guy initially says no but then ends up taking the phone.

Random guy and his friends inspect the phone and come to realize that it is a "future" iphone. Random guy emails Gizmodo pictures of the discovery. Gizmodo doesn't believe Random guy so they arrange to meet. Gizmodo confirms the discovery and gives Random guy $5000USD for the phone. Random guy says, "Dang that'll buy me a lot of beer!"

Gizmodo is able to identify the name of the software engineer who originally lost the phone. They tell him the story of how they got his lost phone and embarrass him by publishing his name, etc. The phone is eventually picked up by Apple.

noxin said:
I read the article from the link. I wonder how much evidence the police are going to get from the guys business cards they confiscated...

Well they are after Random guy too I'm sure. If they find Random guy and then find him with a Gizmodo business card they could link him to the "stolen" phone.

valonqe said:
I find it very hard to believe these sort of stories!

Unless the person that is testing out decides to sell the product for a profit and make up a story the company that it was stolen from him.

I doubt the software engineer was a willing participant. He will most likely get fired from his dream job now. Or get tossed out of a high rise building by Apple goons like the last guy who lost an Apple prototype! I'm not joking!

http://www.switched.com/2009/07/22/chinese-employee-commits-suicide-over-lost-iphone-prototype/

I find it very hard to believe these sort of stories! Take for example the I phone story, we hare stories that it was lost/sold in bars or street, what ever. To me is more like indirect advertising because surely I phone can produce a prototype that has no name and apple badge for try out as supposed to producing the actual one. It's not a big secret any more, we see fake i phones every where.

Same with camera manufactures they can test out a new camera without any labels and people would know what kind of model is that.

Unless the person that is testing out decides to sell the product for a profit and make up a story the company that it was stolen from him.

I read the article from the link. I wonder how much evidence the police are going to get from the guys business cards they confiscated...

I guess it's cheaper to go to bar than to hire ad company :D

Niko, as for me and my girl... it wasn't that easy:D

I guess getting drunk and taking your company's latest "prototype" to the bar is the in thing to do these days. The new Sony EVIL Nex3 camera has been spotted at a bar too!

The pictures show a very point & shoot looking camera. Is that good or bad? I guess it just depends. It looks good to me. The new lenses are silver and look kinda retro. I like it.

It was still a "stolen" item and when you knowingly pay money for a stolen item, even if it's a prototype, it's still a crime. That's why if you shop on craiglist be very careful and ask to see receipts etc. A ton of stolen items get sold there. And just because you didn't know the D700 you bought for $1200USD was stolen doesn't mean you're off the hook for buying it.

Drama! I had seen the earlier story and this is a fun little update. I stopped reading the comments but some were pretty funny. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Chen probably thought he was wasting dollars and the furthest thing from his mind was committing a felony when he bought the thing. I think his mistake was forcing Apple to write to ask for it back just so he could have proof for his readers (as if the info he had posted wasn't enough!).

Wow I hadn't heard this development. Pretty sad on apples part. It's not like anything is going to come of taking all his stuff, and its already documented that they returned the phone to apple.

So they got a bunch of free publicity, poor Apple.
Even stranger, taking it out on a single person as opposed to the site as a whole. Immagine how much of a scandal it would be if Steven Jobs came home from dinner and his door had been kicked in and police were raiding his home...

Depends on how drunk the Priest is, what about testing this Idea and pretend that we actually have a Prototype, would that ever create some trafic

Pete

A Priest, a Rabbi, and a Minister walk into a bar. The priest looks down at the empty stool next to him and finds a big black camera with black tape covering the words Nikon and D800...

And so begins the story of how Adamz met his wife :^)

But anyway how much should Nikonrumors pay for a "lost prototype" like Gizmodo did for the lost iphone prototype? What could possible go wrong with doing that, right?

http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/26/police-seize-computers-from-gizmodo-editor/?hpt=T2