Well, this story sounds familiar. A report out of CNET is alleging that at the end of July, an Apple employee lost a prototype iPhone at a San Francisco bar named Cava 22. According to a "source familiar with the investigation," the device was taken from the bar and sold on Craigslist for $200. A couple of days after the iPhone went missing, Apple reportedly tracked it to the home of a man in his twenties who said that he was at Cava 22 the night the device was lost but that he had no knowledge of the missing handset. The police then searched the man's home and found nothing. There's no mention of whether or not the device has been returned. A San Francisco police spokesperson told CNET that Apple didn't file a police report about losing something at Cava 22.
Keeping up with the iPhone news, a photo of an icon popped up today that depicts what some feel may be the design of the iPhone 5. Where did this icon show up, you ask? Why, in Apple's own software! The image you see below was spotted in the beta version of Apple's new Photo Stream software, and the icon doesn't seem to resemble any current or past iPhone. Not only does the screen in this icon looks to be larger than the iPhone's 3.5-inch display, but the normally circular home button appears elongated. Check out a close up shot of the icon in question below.
This purported iPhone 5 icon does seem to line up with a report from earlier this year claiming that the new handset would feature a larger display and larger home button. The shape also looks similar to some alleged iPhone 5 cases that popped up last month. However, it's entirely possible that the artist responsible for the graphic just whipped up a generic iPhone-looking icon and put it in the Photo Stream software.
As for the lost iPhone, it seems kind of strange that Apple could lose another prototype after last year's "iPhone 4 in a bar" fiasco. The company can't do all of its testing on-campus, though, meaning it has to take its new handsets out into the wild to make sure everything works as it should. Apparently Apple just needs to figure out a way to make sure its testers don't lose track of their prototype devices. Perhaps chaining the handset to the user? That wouldn't be too obvious, right? It remains to be seen whether or not any more information about this missing prototype will emerge, but we'll let you know more when we do.
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