(CNET) — People lose their iPhones all the time. But it’s not often that a super-secret prototype of a not-yet-released iPhone is carelessly left on the floor of a local drinking establishment.
But apparently that’s what happened, according to two different gadget blogs. That this would happen to a company like Apple, which takes secrecy and security of its products very seriously, is surprising.
Apple has not yet said there even is an iPhone 4G — although it’s a safe bet there will be based on the pattern of the past three years. Steve Jobs has said that new iPhone software is coming “this summer,” but the company has stopped short of acknowledging that new hardware is in the works.
Normally the first time we see a new Apple product it is in Jobs’ hands while standing on a stage in front of an audience of geeks and journalists. So what happened this time?
To back up: Over the weekend, Engadget posted photos of what it said might be the iPhone 4G, or the next-generation version of Apple’s phone. It said it was found on the floor of a bar in San Jose, Calif., and a tipster sent the photos into the gadget blog for posting.
The pictures are sort of blurry and the device is never shown powered up, so it didn’t seem that hard to dismiss as yet another fake iPhone knockoff.
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