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People keep seeming to talk about how "Apple is not this sloppy". It wasn't Apple, it was some employee who like all of us, probably had a bit too much to drin
by HaloZero 15y ago
People keep seeming to talk about how "Apple is not this sloppy".
It wasn't Apple, it was some employee who like all of us, probably had a bit too much to drink and left his phone. Or maybe it got pick pocketed? Honestly, this only a recent occurrence because Apple iPhones are small enough to forget, unlike laptops, and people actually care about them, unlike the latest ipod nano/mini/shuffle/touch.
And it's only happened twice in a period of what? 4 years of iPhones?
- vacri 15y agoMy company creates a device the size of an iphone, and we've never left one in a bar, whether a stock production unit, or a super-secret, heavily-NDA'd, jackbooted-police-summoning prototype.
- nknight 15y agoHow many dozens of your employees walk around with the device every day in the course of their routine non-work-related lives? Are the devices a ubiquitous, integrated part of daily life that reach the point of barely being thought about? Are they even something one pulls out and uses in a bar?
- benjoffe 15y agoAlso an important question: "Does your company have anywhere near as many employees as Apple?"
- skeletonjelly 15y agoThis implies that every employee of Apple carries around an iPhone 5 in public for testing.
- vacri 15y agoAs skeletonjelly points out, this question is basically a total furphy.
- vacri 15y agoNope, but the point of my comment was really the bits in italics - because they're in italics - and not the fact my company makes stuff. stock production refers to the point that most Apple employees will not be using prototypes out of the office the jackbooted bit refers to this happening before and Apple would have been thought to have been using a lot more care this time around The italicised bit was not 'my company makes stuff'. I find it weird that I have to point this out.
- nknight 15y agoI suppose I ignored the italicization because it seemed entirely irrelevant, akin to useless scare quotes. You didn't think there'd be a focus on the fact that you compared your company to Apple? In any case, cell phones require real-world field testing. There's only so much care you can put into it without crippling the tests. Most companies lose mobile consumer electronics prototypes constantly and don't think twice about it. The fact that it happens so rarely for Apple is ample evidence that they're being far more careful than most companies, and it only gets attention because they're incredibly secretive and react to leaks as you describe.
- stonemetal 15y agoThere's only so much care you can put into it without crippling the tests. Looks like they need to put a where's my phone app in those test builds.
- vacri 15y agoIn any case, cell phones require real-world field testing. There's only so much care you can put into it without crippling the tests. Create a paired bluetooth device (or whatever), one half is a tiny attachment that goes on the prototype, the other is attached to a buzzer on your keychain or somesuch. Out of range or only at half power? Off goes the buzzer: "Hey, I forgot something!". For a company as secretive, innovative, and wealthy as Apple, this kind of 'prototype protection' in the field is easily answered.
- vacri 15y ago
- mahmud 15y agoMaybe your company doesn't have competent and determined adversaries who are hell bent on stealing your product designs by targeting your elite staff. I wont be surprised if the person who lost the prototype was wined & dined by a "new friend".