The Gourmet Haus Staudt.
A nice place to enjoy good German lagers.
After all, it was his birthday.
He was turning 27 that very same day, and he was celebrating.
The place was great.
The beer was excellent.
It was his last Facebook update from the secret iPhone.
It a simple mistake in the middle of celebration.
Something that anyone, from Steve Jobs to Jonathan Ive, could have done.
But when it comes to the big stuff, everything is airtight.
Prototypes are bolted to desks.
And if theres a leak, hunt down the traitor, and escort him out of the building.
One that would make them lose control of the product news cycle.
But the fact is that theres no perfect security.
Not when humans are involved.
Humans that can lose things.
You know, likethe next generation iPhone 4.
Around him, other groups of people were sharing the jolly atmosphere, and plenty of the golden liquid.
The person who eventually ended up with the lost iPhone was sitting next to Powell.
He was drinking with a friend too.
He noticed Powell on the stool next to him but didnt think twice about him at the time.
Hey man, is that your iPhone?
asked Random Really Drunk Guy.
replied the person who ended up with the iPhone.
No, no, it isnt mine.
Here, take it, said the Random Really Drunk Guy, handing it to him.
You dont want to lose it.
After that, the Random Really Drunk Guy also left the bar.
The person who ended up with the iPhone asked around, but nobody claimed it.
Powell never came back.
During that time, he played with it.
It seemed like a normal iPhone.
I thought it was just an iPhone 3GS, he told me in a telephone interview.
It just looked like one.
I tried the camera, but it crashed three times.
Next to the volume keys there was another sticker: iPhone SWE-L200221.
Apart from that, just six pages of applications.
One of them was Facebook.
And there, on the Facebook screen, was the Apple engineer, Gray Powell.
Thinking about returning the phone the next day, he left.
When he woke up after the hazy night, the phone was dead.
Bricked remotely, through MobileMe, the service Apple provides to track and wipe out lost iPhones.
It was only then that he realized that there was something strange that iPhone.
The exterior didnt feel right and there was a camera on the front.
After tinkering with it, he managed to fire up the fake 3GS.
There it was,a shiny thing, completely different from everything that came before.
No one took him seriously and all he got for his troubles was a ticket number.
What should he be expected to do then?
The Aftermath
Weeks later, Gizmodo got it for $5,000 in cash.
At the time, we didnt know if it was the real thing or not.
It didnt even get past the Apple logo screen.
Once we saw it inside and out, however, there was no doubt about it.
It was the real thing, so we started to work on documenting it before returning it to Apple.
We had the phone, but we didnt know the owner.
Gray Powell: Hello?
John Herrman: Is this Gray?
J: Hi, this is John Herrman from Gizmodo.com.
J: You work at Apple, right?
G: Um, I mean I cant really talk too much right now.
J: I understand.
J: OK.
G: Can I send this phone number along?
J: [Contact information]
He sounded tired and broken.
But at least hes alive, and apparently may still be working at Appleas he should be.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
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