> What bugs me is that I can't imagine that every phone that is lost or stolen makes it's way to gizmodo, so how on earth did they find out that that phone was a prototype? Or did they really have a bunch of 'misses' before this 'hit'.
It looked different. iPhones only come in a couple designs, it's not hard to tell when it's different.
It was wearing a case that made it look like a 3GS (in a case), though. You'd have to pick it up and stare at it to realize it had an extra camera cutout, etc. You'd have to be planning to do something with the phone already (steal it, or just return it to its owner) to take that long/hard a look.
> I can't imagine that every phone that is lost or stolen makes it's way to gizmodo
It's not any phone. If it were a Nokia, one would have to be an expert to be sure at a quick glance it's not one of their 300+ phones currently being manufactured and it's, instead, a secret prototype.
Besides, not many people would care for a weird Nokia, Samsung, Motorola or HTC on a bar. We would, but, then, we are all nerds anyway.
What bugs me is that I can't imagine that every phone that is lost or stolen makes it's way to gizmodo, so how on earth did they find out that that phone was a prototype? Or did they really have a bunch of 'misses' before this 'hit'.
Apple should do exactly nothing about this, unless the prototype iphone was taken off their facility without their permission. If it was then the risk is theirs. Every day there must be thousands of phones that are lost, and it's not like it's a big deal anyway. Just another incremental upgrade to a consumer device, who cares.