Apple iPhone prototype finder identified

The iPhone 3Gs is displayed at an Apple store in 2009
The iPhone 3Gs is displayed at an Apple store in 2009. A 21-year-old Californian man was identified on Thursday as the person who found and sold an Apple iPhone prototype to the technology blog Gizmodo.

A 21-year-old Californian man was identified on Thursday as the person who found and sold an Apple iPhone prototype to the technology blog Gizmodo.

Brian Hogan, of Redwood City, California, regrets not doing more to try to return the next-generation to its owner, an who left the device behind in a bar, the magazine Wired said on its website.

Wired said that Hogan's attorney, Jeffrey Bornstein, had acknowledged in a statement to the technology magazine that Hogan was the finder of the prototype iPhone.

Hogan has been interviewed by law enforcement but has not been charged with a crime, Wired said.

According to Hogan's lawyer, he was handed the iPhone by another patron who found it on a bar stool in a Redwood City beer garden. "When no one claimed it, he and his friends left the bar with the device," Wired said.

The iPhone had been disguised to resemble the previous model iPhone, the iPhone 3GS.

"(Hogan) regrets his mistake in not doing more to return the phone," Wired quoted Bornstein’s statement as saying.

"Even though he did obtain some compensation from , Brian thought that it was so that they could review the phone."

California police last week raided the home of Jason Chen, the editor for Gizmodo who published details of the iPhone prototype, which the technology blog has said it purchased for 5,000 dollars.

Gizmodo has since returned the iPhone prototype to Apple after the notoriously secretive company asked for its return.

According to Gizmodo, features of the new phone, expected to be unveiled later this year, include a front-facing video camera for , a flash and an improved regular camera with a larger lens.

It also has a flat back instead of curved back, is thinner than the 3GS, is three grams heavier and has a battery that is 16 percent larger.

(c) 2010 AFP

Citation: Apple iPhone prototype finder identified (2010, April 30) retrieved 19 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2010-04-apple-iphone-prototype-finder.html
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