Alcohol = losing iPhone prototypes. This time, iPhone 5 prototype is lost in a bar.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/08/3...hpt=te_bn9

(CNN) -- Here's a theory: Maybe there's some sort of connection between drinking and losing things?

We're looking at you, Apple employees of America.

Exhibit A: Last year, an Apple employee reportedly left a pre-release version of the iPhone 4 in a German beer hall in Silicon Valley. The gadget blog Gizmodo proceeded to buy the phone for $5,000 and splashed the details all over the Internet.

And exhibit B: Another Apple employee this summer appears to have left a prototype iPhone in a Mexican bar and restaurant in San Francisco's Mission District, according to a report on Wednesday from the tech site CNET.

CNN has not confirmed this report, and CNET says there are very few details available about what actually happened.

Apple declined to comment on the story.

"This year's lost phone seems to have taken a more mundane path: it was taken from a Mexican restaurant and bar and may have been sold on Craigslist for $200," Greg Sandoval and Declan McCullagh write on that site, citing an unnamed source who is said to be familiar with Apple's investigation of the matter. "Still unclear are details about the device, what version of the iOS operating system it was running, and what it looks like."

Apple is widely expected to release a new version of the iPhone this fall, possibly as soon as next month. Such releases always are met with a foaming-at-the-mouth frenzy from the tech media and Appleheads, who are more than ready to lap up any rumored details about the new phones.

The company reportedly keeps -- well, tries to keep -- its unreleased phones under literal lock and key until it throws rock-concert style press conferences to unveil them.

"The next iPhones go for their testing inside locked and sealed boxes so that the carriers can carry out checks on their network compatibility in their labs," writes Charles Arthur at The Guardian. "It's very high security, as you could guess; my understanding is that barely anyone inside the carriers gets to open those boxes, and even when they do the hardware is encased in a dummy body which means there's no clue to what the actual phone will do."

Those precautions seem to work. Until you leave that phone in a bar.

The case of the first missing iPhone hasn't even resolved itself yet. The San Mateo County district attorney's office has filed misdemeanor charges against Brian Hogan, who allegedly sold the first found iPhone to Gizmodo.

We'll have to wait and see what happens with the second "errant iPhone," as CNET has termed it.

Why am I not surprised by this. Apparently alcohol defeats the purpose of the layers of security that Apple is notoriously known for putting on the products it is currently testing, including the future iPhone 5. Apple might as well put a memo out to its employees telling them to GTFO off bars if they're testing a iPhone prototype just to prevent leaks and sh'it from happening due to losing prototypes. Can't hype it as much as you could, the surprise's out of the box already. >_>

Then again, if it pops up somewhere and we get to look at it before release, we win! Then we watch Apple go on a raging spree via its laywers!

Inb4 someone leaves behind a iPhone 6 prototype in a bar in the next year or so.

tl;dr

1) Find a person in a bar who looks like he/she may be fooling around with a iPhone prototype
2) Offer to buy them drinks
3) If drunk enough, they might "accidentally" leave their iPhone prototype behind....
4) ????
5) Profit!!

Don't know if trolling, or just a fail of the company.

Two hundred dollars?

Lol.

Lot of the comments on the page suggest it was a marketing ploy to get free hype.

Kinda makes sense to me. Especially how there's nothing in the article bothering to mention the drunken employee getting FIRED TO HELL AND BACK for such a screw up.

It wasn't lost on accident, i simply wont ever buy that story.

It's just a way to get free attention ~.~

Apple sure getting srs - their "security" employees may have impersonated police officers and carried out an illegal search and seizure of someone's home

Here's a theory: Maybe there's some sort of connection between drinking and losing things?

Losing things... like everyone's respect?

I don't know what Apple is thinking letting employees run around with prototypes. I thought they would have learned their lesson last time.

Missed a ''know'' there. I had to re-read the sentence like 5 times. lol