http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Apple-iPhone-5-Prototype-Maybe-Lost-In-Bar-218212/

I smell shenanigans, but it's too early to call this a hoax. What do you guys think? If this is real, I hope they don't go after the current owner of this as militarily as the last guy, who as far as I'm concerned should have sued for a butt-load of cash and/or started a people's army given the treatment he received. I think whoever gets it this time should go into hiding and find a way to analyze and disseminate the specs of the prototype, and perhaps give/sell it to a rival company(like Google) who has lawyers and mercenaries of their own before Apple tracks them down and breaks down their door.

Again? This seems almost like apple is losing it on purpose in order to get big hype on their products.. of course, this is just from an apple-hating view

As far as I'm aware, the two people who were convicted were treated fairly and under the law. Where can I read on how they were mistreated?

They had their doors broken down and their homes ransacked. I don't consider that fair treatment when all they did was buy something that used to belong to Apple. I say used to, because the moment it was abandoned it became no one's property but the person who found it next. When you find a derelict ship floating in the ocean, it becomes yours, under international laws of salvage. I can't see treating a smaller device any differently.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking too.

Maritime law doesn't apply on land.

Ah, yes, the "Finder's Keepers, Loser's Weepers" clause in property law.

0x5 I heard about this yesterday. It's something like the third time already, with two iPhone 4s lost last time. Apple really needs to keep better track of its prototypes.

"Under California law dating back well over 100 years, anyone who finds lost property and who knows the identity of the property's likely owner is guilty of theft if they appropriate the property for their own uses instead of returning it."

They broke the law, made no effort to return it despite the heavy press. Under the law, they were seen as criminals and treated as such.

http://www.slashgear.com/apple-investigator-accused-of-leading-fake-police-iphone-5-search-02176709/

I doubt Apple, or any company, would stoop that low. It's likely someone who had the business card of Anthony and used the immediate anonymity to his advantage.

I, for one, wouldn't Facebook/LinkedIn someone immediately. So, that person can claim to be Edward DeGaull, give me a phone number and an e-mail. Upon searching the information, I see that his profile pictures don't match the person I talked to.

I assume this will all lead to some thief impersonating an Apple Employee impersonating SFPD.

Typical Apple fanboyism. That sounds exactly like the sort of trick any corporation with the brutal cultures of commercial secrecy Apple embodies would attempt. I wouldn't even be surprised if some eggheads deep within the company ran the numbers on bad(?) publicity and legal cost from backlash over such a thing versus the commercial value of preventing competitors from getting their hands on a prototype. No offense to you personally by the way, comic; I merely refer to the archetypical fanboy defending the morals on his or her corporation of choice.

None taken. I speak mostly on the part that Apple is a corporation of extreme secrecy and as such, I'm surprised this act is being considered a publicity stunt. I see where the conclusion is being drawn from though: no iPhone photos, no posts, etc. But don't these sort of stunts typically yield information of some kind?

I'd if it were/is a stunt, I'm sure all third-parties involved were paid handsomely for silence.

To extract part of the above, what do you mean by this? Isn't the information, once public, making its way into their hands anyways? Granted it's not all the information they'd want but still info. But since no physical evidence as surfaced in the investigation into the "investigation" or in the form of personal blog posts, I don't see how this classified stunt could prevent such companies from getting their hands on the device.

I mean if it's not a stunt, and they did indeed lose a prototype, i could see them deciding that some bad publicity and some lawsuits might be a small price to pay for preventing [competing company] from getting their hands on an iPhone 5 and reverse engineering it, thus bringing a competing product to market faster. I have no doubts that the dark underbelly of corporate America includes some high-efficiency industrial espionage.

This Short Film comes to mind regarding the corporate espionage.

That's a good point, and clearly see another aspect of the "publicity stunt" angle.

I also thought of that, it's not to hate-apple, but it makes sense.

I feel like Apple gets enough free hype and hysteria from their fanbase and from press and media and blogs and the Internet; I don't feel like they really need to do anything to fan the flames themselves.

I wonder what the other Apple would have to say about this. You know, the one that ran those commercials in the 80s where they were freeing people from a futuristic totalitarian regime?