New iPhone Prototype Leaked?

April 21, 2010— -- A prototype of the next generation of the iPhone -- scheduled for release this summer -- seems to have been left behind in a Northern California bar. Snapped up by patron who sold it to a tech news site, it has set off a game of corporate intrigue worthy of the Cold War.

Apple, which makes the iPhone, has built its towering technology reputation on secrecy. Last month, BusinessWeek reported that software developers testing the then-unreleased iPad had to promise to keep the device tethered to a fixed object in a room with blacked-out windows, and then send the company a photograph to prove compliance.

Secrecy is so much a part of the company's culture that a legend has grown up around what techies call Apple's "Gestapo," or 'Worldwide Loyalty Team' -- a group of moles who spy on fellow employees and report back to Apple executives.

So when the popular tech website Gizmodo was recently approached by an unidentified individual who said an Apple employee on the next barstool left the prototype on the bar, the site's editors had their doubts.

The person who claims to have found the device apparently tried to return it to the patron who left it behind, but was unsuccessful, Gizmodo editorial director Brian Lam told ABC News.

So the finder sold it to Gizmodo, Lam said. Lam said Gizmodo offered to return it to Apple. "I told them, all they have to do to get it back is claim it -- on record.''

There's the rub. To claim the phone and get it back, Apple would need to confirm that it was a true Apple prototype. To leave it in the hands of an outsider could give up highly valuable trade secrets and marketing strategies Apple would not want exposed.

And so began a delicate dance between one of the most powerful tech companies in the world and one of the most popular tech websites that cover the industry.

Gizmodo said the the iPhone prototype was working when found and then switched on in the bar, the mobile Facebook app was logged in to the account of Gray Powell, an Apple software engineer whose last post on the social networking site was reportedly "I underestimated how good German beer is."

It only gets better from there.