Thaindian News

Washington, April 20 (IANS) Apple’s future generation iPhone model, which was leaked after being mistakenly left at a bar in California, has been put on display by a technology news portal.
The secret version of the next generation iPhone was not expected to be formally unveiled for a couple of months.

But, the technology news site Gizmodo said the gadget was left by an iPhone software engineer at Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German specialty store and beer garden in Redwood City.

“The person who found the phone peddled it to Gizmodo, which bought it for $5,000,” Nick Denton, chief executive of Gawker Media, which owns Gizmodo, said in a blog Monday.

Leaks are rare in Apple which is known as the most secretive in Silicon Valley. But after the phone prototype was left in the bar, photos of the device began appearing in technology blogs, sparking a frenzy of hype among the Apple-obsessed, the New York Times reported.

The phone’s authenticity was debated. However, a person with knowledge of Apple’s hardware plans, who was not authorised to speak on behalf of the company, confirmed to the New York Times that it was real.

Though, Apple declined to comment.

“It is very stunning,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, who has been following Apple for nearly three decades.

“Apple has such tight control on new products, and they are kept under wraps diligently and religiously until the day of their release. If it is true, it is really a first.”

Apple’s chief executive Steven P. Jobs had reportedly called Gizmodo to get the device back. Denton declined to comment, saying any conversation between Jobs and Gizmodo would most likely have been off the record.

“We haven’t had any formal communication with Apple,” he said. Brian Lam, the editor in chief of Gizmodo, said his publication would “probably” return the device to Apple.

Late Monday, Gizmodo said that it received a letter from Bruce Sewell, Apple’s senior vice president and general counsel, requesting the phone back.

“It has come to our attention that Gizmodo is currently in possession of a device that belongs to Apple,” Sewell wrote in a letter that Gizmodo published.