Updated: Gizmodo stole Steve Jobs' thunder (new iPhone debuted today)

Re: Steve Jobs must be pretty unhappy right now (new iPhone leaks)

If it's an orchestrated leak it'd be a pretty elaborate one, since either a) Apple convinced Gizmodo to make up a story about how they acquired the phone, or b) Apple tricked Gizmodo into paying them $5000 for one of their own phones.

Either way, I think this raises some questions about journalistic ethics. To use a car analogy, I can't see Car and Driver paying someone for a lost prototype car. So why's it okay for a lost prototype phone? Just a question of degree/value?

I also think it's real crappy that Gizmodo published the name of the guy who lost it.

 

Re: Steve Jobs must be pretty unhappy right now (new iPhone leaks)

I know people lose things. I'm sure people have lost their iPhones. But my iPhone... I've misplaced it once. And even then, I knew it was somewhere in my car.

Now, if you're walking around with a piece of technology that could be the equivalent of the "missing link" for future versions, how easily do you just leave it in some coffee joint? I'm leaning toward this being a very crafty leak.

 

Re: Steve Jobs must be pretty unhappy right now (new iPhone leaks)

Jobs is unhappy, my ass. The publicity is priceless, and would have been nearly unachievable by most other means. This makes people think they're getting a scoop they wouldn't have heard about otherwise, and piques their interest even more.

 

Re: Steve Jobs must be pretty unhappy right now (new iPhone leaks)

I like the design of the new phone better than the current version. The curves make it easier to drop, though thankfully I've caught it every time.

 

Re: Steve Jobs must be pretty unhappy right now (new iPhone leaks)


Maybe by the time this phone comes out they'll design a feature that will keep folks from losing it. A lanyard or a catheter or somesuch device.

 

Re: Steve Jobs must be pretty unhappy right now (new iPhone leaks)

I don't know. As far as I know, in the past Apple has done leaks only through friendly news sources in the form of an unnamed Apple source that would only speak on condition of anonymity. How would this have worked, exactly? Like I said before, they either would've had to sell a prototype to Gizmodo for $5000 (the CEO/whatever of Gawker went on record saying they bought the thing for $5K, remember), or they would've had to somehow convince Gawker to just flat-out lie about it. Alternately, I guess they could've just... left the phone in a bar?

I'm not seeing it. Plus, their past leaks have been on the order of "It has a touch screen and is big and flat." or "It can read email and slice bread, maybe, we heard this from a guy." Nothing like this.

 

Re: Steve Jobs must be pretty unhappy right now (new iPhone leaks)

I don't know. This does allow Apple to get a prototype out there for some feedback without having to say where, when or how much the new version of the iPhone will be.

That keeps iPhone owners a little happier, because all the current owners know that the second that the new version comes out, their existing phones will become about as cool as a quickly-rotting pocket-size piece of smelly fish.

 

Re: Steve Jobs must be pretty unhappy right now (new iPhone leaks)

Gizmodo says not a leak.

http://gizmodo.com/5520746/apple-didnt-leak-the-iphoneand-why-that-matters

 

Re: Steve Jobs must be pretty unhappy right now (new iPhone leaks)

I'm glad to see someone at the site calling their coworkers out for how it outed the engineer, but I still think paying for what they knew was a lost prototype that could easily be returned to the company is pretty shady.

Paying any kind of source is shady in the best of circumstances, but what exactly was at stake here to justify something like that? It's not like this is some whistleblower looking out for the public interest or moving because some ill weighed heavy on his conscience, it was a guy looking to make a buck by selling ill-gotten goods. As big a deal as people make about Apple, nobody's life or livelihood was on the line, there was no great need to inform the public that the next iPhone would have squared off edges instead of round, and it's ultimately just fluff.

That post rails against access journalism, but apparently the antidote to access journalism is paying shady sources that are selling stuff they have no legal right to? Ehhhh. They did this because it would get hits, plain and simple; it's only after the fact that they're trying to act like they did it for the good of all journalism.

 

Re: Steve Jobs must be pretty unhappy right now (new iPhone leaks)

Yes, because finders keepers, losers weepers isn't a legal defense.

If you find someone's misplaced property, you're obliged to give it back, or at the very least not to steal it. If you do take it, you've stolen it.

Gizmodo, by paying for it, then commits theft by receiving stolen property.

 

Re: Steve Jobs must be pretty unhappy right now (new iPhone leaks)

None of the Gawker properties are "journalism." Why would would anyone on this thread doubt that Apple might hire Denton to do this kind of viral marketing?