The New iPhone Predicament

Probably the biggest news to hit the tech industry in the last couple of days would have to be the leak of what is thought to be Apple's newest iPhone. On April 19th at 10 in the morning the tech blog Gizmodo put up a post that showed that they had what is believed to be the prototype for what they are calling the iPhone 4g. The post as well as four to five others break down in great detail what exactly this phone is and how the blog came about to having one.

The original post "This Is Apple's Next iPhone" http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone?skyline=true&s=i has since generated millions upon millions of page hits and has generated huge revenue for the tech blog. It has also been disclosed that the blog had paid the person who found the phone for it, a total of 5k dollars. In my honest opinion I believe that the posting of this phone and its specs was probably the best course of action for Gizmodo. I understand people's qualms about checkbook journalism and how it hurts the journalistic art but in all honesty stuff like this happens all of the time. We have not heard of the other people who have bid on this phone and for all we know other tech blogs were just not putting up enough cash; now they are seen as sitting on the moral high ground?

The one thing that I do no agree with is Gizmodo's leaking of the Apple employee who managed to lose his phone... on his birthday. "How Apple Lost the Next iPhone" http://gizmodo.com/5520438/how-apple-lost-the-next-iphone?skyline=true&s=i this post by Gizmodo goes into detail in exposing the person who happened to set down his phone and forget it. Gizmodo even displayed photos and the man's facebook page. I believe that in today's work specific snooping of personal information online that this Gizmodo has hurt this person's reputation. Sure people may claim that this was necessary to garner validity to the phone but as of 11:50 April 19h Apple had already sent Gizmodo a formal letter requesting the phone back. Doesnt this validate the phone as an important piece of hardware? I think they acted in the wrong and have hurt this man's ability to find jobs in the future. He will always be known as the man who lost the iphone.