It seems Apple has not taken to heart the harsh lessons learned from last year’s massive iPhone 4 debacle, as a new report filed by CBS News has confirmed that yet another iPhone prototype device has been lost in San Francisco, with its whereabouts unknown.
The device was left in a restaurant/lounge in San Francisco’s Mission District, where a random passerby picked it up to then sell on Craigslist for $200, believing it was a normal iPhone 4.
As of today, the phone has not resurfaced since being sold and is raising questions about Apple’s security procedures in the wake of last year’s leak which led to criminal charges for the two men that recovered the iPhone 4 prototype and subsequently sold it to Gizmodo for $5000, leading to investigations against former Editor in Chief Jason Chen and Gawker Media, which have since been closed. Because of the leak, Apple has since gone to great lengths to protect such test devices, including shipping sealed and locked boxes containing the internal hardware of new versions meant for internal lab testing instead of sending finished prototypes.
The latest version of the iPhone is expected to feature the A5 processor from the iPad 2 as well as an enlarged home button for gesture support, but other details remain nebulous, such as the display size and camera sensor type. Apple is currently working with investigators regarding the prototype device, but have refused any direct comment to the media regarding the matter along with Craigslist. Apple is expected to make a formal announcement regarding the next iPhone sometime between September and October, with Sprint preparing to receive its variants of the iPhone 4 and 5 in October according to the Wall Street Journal.
