I’m stuck.
I really don’t know what to think of this whole Gizmodo-revealing-the-iPhone-prototype thing. Great marketing for the iPhone to the nerd crowd. I love the design. But Gizmodo outing the person who lost the phone and this feigned allegiance [in my opinion] to the tech that lost the phone is making a bad name for Gizmodo. I’m sure that some will walk away from the site. But like any good train wreck or car crash on a major freeway… some will stay for the photos.
Gizmodo has become the de facto technology tabloid. I know of no other that hasn’t been sued into adherence to the law. Claiming that they didn’t know it was stolen when a stranger shows up to ask for $5,000-$10,000 for a potential knock-off Apple phone belies their true understanding of the device in question. And receiving stolen property, as I said yesterday, does not absolve you of the crime of receiving stolen property. Lawyers like to litigate, that is why they are in the business. They suffer nothing from litigating and losing, other than a dent in their credibility. The lawyers I know have pretty thick armor when it comes to dents in their credibility.
That being said, I still am stuck between this feeling that the whole interaction is unethical at least, criminal at worst, but… great marketing for both Apple and Gizmodo.
Now word is out that Gizmodo is willing to part with upwards of $10k for stolen property (even if they claim they didn’t know it was stolen). And as others have already pointed out the law, I don’t need to. I’ve already said what I think is true… if you FIND an item of value sitting on the street, you turn it over to the police, post an advertisement in the newspaper, or in this case… call Apple, and send a message to sjobs@apple.com which I’m sure would get his attention if it said “I have one of your prototype iPhone 4G’s, would you mind coming by to pick it up? I could also meet you at a very well known coffee shop that is owned by an Ex-Google Chef.”
Then Lam, and Diaz post pictures of the person involved. Jeez. Talk about lighting a fire. I really hope I’m just being punked and it is just a big, albeit late, April Fools joke. All of this, if it isn’t a viral marketing effort, just takes a big bite out of blogger credibility.
But I’ve never considered a “blog” to be a site that has a multitude of writers and various levels of editors. No, a true blog is one person, perhaps two, who sit around in their underwear late at night because they keep finding interesting things to write and think about.
There are so many “blogs” out there now that are pretty large machines in sheeps clothing calling themselves blogs. Just like saying that Star Wars 1-3 were great movies… just because you say it, doesn’t make it true.
UPDATE 12:35pm 4-20-2010:
Thanks for writing up your perspective Andy Ihnatko of Celestial Waste of Bandwidth and writer/tech pundit for The Chicago Sun-Times, MacWorld, CBS Early Show… not to mention several podcasts. I agree, Gizmodo has a lot to explain, but I think you are a bit generous allow them to have an out. They certainly appear to have received lost/stolen property. They ripped it apart to disclose to the public, the information that Apple has kept close, as as I wrote… they earned their Tabloid bones.