The company’s epic battle over a missing iPhone is only the latest in series of contretemps.
Apple is famous for being nuts about secrecy — and for not having a sense of humor. So it was all the more entertaining when Gizmodo, a scrappy Silicon Valley tech blog, recently landed what its publisher called “the biggest tech scoop ever.” It got hold of a top-secret, fourth-generation iPhone, ripped it apart, and published photos and descriptions of the device. (Guess what? It has a camera that faces you for video chatting!) Apple fumed and demanded Gizmodo return the phone, which an Apple engineer had left behind in a beer garden where he was celebrating his birthday.Gizmodo gave back the phone, and that might have been the end of the story, but Apple just wouldn’t let it drop. Four days later, police raided the Fremont, Calif., home of the reporter who had written the piece — and that sent the story spiraling out of control, with everyone from Rush Limbaugh to Keith Olbermann commenting on it. Jon Stewart of The Daily Show lashed into Apple, saying Steve Jobs and his team were behaving like “appholes.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/237186