back to article Lost iPhone 4G vendor loaner outed

The man who found Apple's lost iPhone 4G and gave it to Gizmodo for $5,000 has been outed by Wired, the Dick Rowe of hot hardware. Wired identified Brian J Hogan of Redwood City, California via clues on social networking sites, having apparently failed to respond when they were emailed about the phone at the end of March. …

COMMENTS

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  1. Peter H. Coffin

    couldn't get a response?

    ... 'cause Redwood City is so far from Cupertino that it might have taken him all of 20 minutes to run over there and ask a receptionist to help track down the owner...

  2. Craig Taylor 1
    Coat

    So what?

    Finders keepers, losers weepers?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Heaven forfend..

    Could you, no, you couldn't possibly be suggesting that a journalist and the publication he writes for would sensationalise and embellish the truth of a story?

    Never in the history of the universe have the media ever been caught lying or altering the truth to suit their own agenda, how dare you...

    Paris, she can embellish my comments whenever she pleases.

  4. Captain Jack

    Years Ago

    Years ago when the banks thought they we infallible my Grandad found he had an extra £1000 in his bank account (a lot at the time) being a good person he called the bank and told them they'd made an error on his account only to be told 'We don't make mistakes' so he kept the money and brought new furniture.

    Seems Apple is in a similar situation, they fobbed off this guy when he called saying he'd found a new iPhone because they believed they were infallible and now it's comes back to bit them just like it did for the banks all those years ago.

    As Bon Jovi said 'It's all the same, only the names will change'

    1. Euchrid

      re: Years Ago

      "Seems Apple is in a similar situation, they fobbed off this guy when he called saying he'd found a new iPhone because they believed they were infallible and now it's comes back to bit them just like it did for the banks all those years ago."

      El Reg quotes Wired as reporting: "A friend of Hogan’s then offered to call Apple Care on Hogan’s behalf, according to Hogan’s lawyer."

      If this is correct, then the guy who found it (Hogan) didn't call Apple - and it's not clear that the friend did (note the use of the word 'offered').

      Personally, I wouldn't say it was a similar situation for those reasons.

      1. Captain Jack

        Opps...

        My mistake I read "He reached for a phone and called a lot of Apple numbers and tried to find someone who was at least willing to transfer his call to the right person, but no luck. No one took him seriously and all he got for his troubles was a ticket number." as what he'd done instead of what Gizmondo said he'd done.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Entirely different!

      >"...they fobbed off this guy when he called saying he'd found a new iPhone because they believed they were infallible..." Since Redwood City is a mere 20 minutes from Cupertino, he could have personally delivered it to Apple's campus! He could have just handed it to the bar manager, or, and here is a radical idea, HANDED IT IN TO A FUCKING POLICE STATION!!!

      And breathe... Apple's only *real* "fault"? Not physically putting a contact number on the device itself. Lesson learned for everyone I imagine.

  5. Gil Grissum
    Jobs Horns

    Interesting....

    Followed by Apple having their law enforcement buddies file a warrant, break into Chen's house, appropriate his computers and such, and when will someone finally substantiate whether the search and seizure was legal or not? Either way, I sure as hell won't be buying an iPhone EVER, after this nonsense. Waiting to see what HP comes following their purchase of PALM. WEB OS, HERE I COME!!!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lessons here

    Applecare staff can't deal with anything out of the ordinary. As seen elsewhere, providing services is only barely ordinary for applecare. No surprises there.

    Gizmodo will buy hot hardware by their own admission, but will then start a race to ``out'' whoever provided them with said hot hardware. Wired will call in a week or two later and claim ``but we were there first, really'' providing no believable explanation why they dropped the ball so badly and ``out'' a couple more people, just because they can.

    Because if you can't keep the large corporations in line, then you can destroy some small people's careers. Gotta keep up the shtick, you know.

    Tech and tech journalism at its finest.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      re: Lessons here

      "Applecare staff can't deal with anything out of the ordinary...."

      Well, if the friend HAD phone AppleCare, I guess that might be the case, but as the finder's mate "offered" to, we don't know for sure.

  7. The_Police!
    Thumb Up

    Have one on me!

    *For the record, if Hogan or any of his friends called The Register, we were too drunk to remember.*

    A free round at the for El Reg!

  8. The First Dave
    Boffin

    UK

    I am pretty sure that the correct action is to hand it to the police, not to some oik in a retail store, so don't think this holds any water - his alleged attempts to hand it back to Apple directly show that he knew he wasn't entitled to keep it, yet he still ended up selling it on...

  9. Don S.
    Joke

    I know nothink, nothink ...

    Hogan could have been a hero if he just turned the phone into the damn bar.

    Any chance on a Colonel Klink icon?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    who gives a f**k ?

    come on Reg...this is just useless and shameless further publicity for Apples forthcoming 4G phone

    they are desperate right now with all the big buzz around the HTC Desire et al - their new phone doesnt come out until late summer..by which time it might be too late to get new traction...just current 3G iPhone owners upgrading.

    ditch this 'news' which is just speculative clap-trap.

  11. MrHorizontal
    Heart

    <3

    [quote]For the record, if Hogan or any of his friends called The Register, we were too drunk to remember[/quote]

    <3

  12. jules 4
    FAIL

    What he should have done ....

    Is flushed it down the nearest toilet !

    devIL phone !!

  13. Bill Gould
    FAIL

    Security

    Don't let your fscking prototypes out the labs. Sheesh! Can't install anything but 'approved appleware' on the device, but apparently you can just pocket it and walk off the campus.

    1. Jasmine Strong

      If you don't let the phone out of the lab

      how exactly do you plan to test its performance on real networks? It's not like AT&T works indoors, especially in big ferroconcrete buildings like 1 Infinite Loop. This isn't Europe where mobile networks actually have link budget; this is the USA, where cellcos suck.

  14. Andrew 19
    Jobs Horns

    Do you think Apple would have paid the guy a reward?

    If he'd actually made an effort to return it?

    Just wondering...

    I'm guessing "no" because "grateful" is a bit too close to "humble" on the emotional spectrum...

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