Police raid home after iPhone 4G revealed

Gizmodo admits it paid for the 4G, but states it did not know what it was buying Source: news.com.au

POLICE have raided the home of gadget blog Gizmodo’s editor after he last week revealed details last week of a secret next-generation iPhone prototype.

Gizmodo published excerpts from a search warrant that gave police permission to seize property from editor Jason Chen’s home that was “used as the means of committing a felony” or “tends to show that a felony has been committed”.

The search warrant signed by a local judge specifically authorised the seizure of “printed documents, images and/or notations pertaining to the sale and/or buy of the stolen iPhone prototype”.

Gizmodo last week stated it purchased the iPhone 4G prototype for $US5000 ($5400) from an unidentified person who found it in a California bar, where it had been lost by a 27-year-old Apple software engineer named Gray Powell.

Mr Chen stated in a post on the Gizmodo website yesterday that he and his wife returned from having dinner out on Friday to find police searching their home in the northern California county of San Mateo.

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“The officers had a computer and were cataloging all the items they took from my home,” Mr Chen said.

“They told me they were here for a few hours already and had to break the front door open because I was not home to open the door.”

The officers, members of the California Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, took four computers and two computer servers from the couple’s house, according to the posting.

Gizmodo has stated it returned the iPhone prototype to Apple after the notoriously secretive company asked for it back.

Gizmodo also published a letter from a lawyer for its owner, Gawker Media, objecting to the raid on Mr Chen’s home and arguing that a “search warrant may not be validly issued to confiscate the property of a journalist”.

“We anticipate the immediate return of the materials that you confiscated from Mr. Chen,” stated the letter from Gaby Darbyshire, who is also Gawker’s chief operating officer.

According to Gizmodo, Mr Powell, the Apple engineer, was celebrating his 27th birthday at a beer garden in Redwood City, about 32km from Apple headquarters in Cupertino, on the night of March 18.

Gizmodo stated Mr Powell forgot the prototype phone, which had been disguised to resemble the previous model iPhone, the iPhone 3GS, on a bar stool when he left the establishment.

Gizmodo stated the phone ended up with a person who had been sitting next to Mr Powell at the bar after no one else claimed it.

“Weeks later, Gizmodo got it,” the technology blog said.

Nick Denton, founder of the Gawker blog network, stated on his Twitter feed that $US5000 was paid for the phone.

“Yes, we will do anything for a story,” Mr Denton said. “We’re proud practitioners of checkbook journalism.”

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

 

More Source:

Police raid Gizmodo editor's home - NEWS.com.au
iPhone 4G leak: Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's house raided by ...
Police Raid Gizmodo Editor's Home: The Fallout Continues | PCWorld
Police raid after iPhone prototype lost in bar | News | The Week UK

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Submited at Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 1:00 am on Technology by samantha
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