Google Nexus 4 Prototype Lost In a Bar 200
theodp writes "A little over a year ago, an iPhone 4s prototype walked into a San Francisco bar, prompting a controversial manhunt by a now-deceased Apple investigator and the SFPD. Now, Wired reports that a Nexus 4 prototype walked into a San Francisco bar last month, prompting Google to sic its security team on 'Sudsy,' a San Francisco bartender who notified Google that he'd found their phone, which was slated to make its debut at a since-cancelled Android event on Oct. 29. When the 'Google Police' showed up at the bar, Sudsy's co-worker sent the 'desperate' Google investigator on a wild goose chase which landed him in an under-siege SFPD Station, from which he and Sudsy's lawyer had to be escorted out of under the watch of police in full riot gear with automatic weapons so the pair could arrange a 1 a.m. pickup of the phone."
Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is difficult to take seriously.
Re:Really? (Score:4, Funny)
All that's missing is the hard bitten gumshoe and the dame with legs that go on and on...
A PR Stunt? (Score:5, Insightful)
Google’s Andy Rubin: ’I’d Be Happy’ If Someone Left Prototype Android Phone In A Bar ‘And Someone Wrote About It’
http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-andy-rubin-id-be-happy-if-someone-left-prototype-android-phone-in-a-bar-and-someone-wrote-about-it-2010-4#ixzz2ASEIo0n1 [businessinsider.com]
nope (Score:2)
WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
why wouldn't you just return the fucking property?
why play hide and seek? why play games at all? just give them their property, FFS.
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
It says right there in the fucking article: "What was I supposed to do, look for the guy with Google shirt? How did I know this guy didn't work for Apple?"
Re:WTF? (Score:3)
Because obviously Apple would be monitoring Google's phone lines and sending ninja impersonators to intercept Google's business dealing.
Whether TFA said that or not, how would that even work? You call Google. Google says they'll come to the place you're calling from. How likely is it that someone else is going to show up there, then, looking for the caller?
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
I also rather suspect Google employees carry some sort of card that identifies them as a Google employee. Easy to forge? Perhaps, but probably sufficient for this purpose.
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
Yes, I have a whole pile of them. They're these little cardboard rectangles called "Business Cards".
They also probably have google-issued smartcard ID's of some sort as well.
What is this fucking summary about? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What is this fucking summary about? (Score:3)
Have you tried 'idiot'? I hear it almost sounds like English at times.
I doubt it'll sound better in 'idiot', though, it sounds pretty absurd in English.
Re:What is this fucking summary about? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What is this fucking summary about? (Score:3)
But shouldn't we be worried about an under seige SFPD station? It's like that joke about the detergent being able to get the blood off the shirt...
Re:What is this fucking summary about? (Score:2)
Here you go:
"Yon ti kras plis pase yon ane de sa, yon iPhone pwototip 4s mache nan yon San Francisco bar, sa ki pouse yon manhunt kontwovÃsyal pa yon kounye a-moun ki mouri anketà Apple ak SFPD la. Koulye a, Wired rapà ke yon Nexus 4 pwototip mache nan yon bar Francisco dÃnye San mwa, sa ki pouse Google nan sik ekip sekirite li a sou ', savoneuz' yon San Francisco Bartender ki avize Google ke li ta jwenn telefÃn yo, ki te chache fà okazyone li nan yon depi-anile evÃnman android sou OktÃb 29. Là a 'Google Polis' te montre yo nan bar la, nan savoneuz ko-travayà voye 'dezespere' Google anketà a sou yon Chase zwa sovaj ki te ateri l 'nan yon anba-sÃnen toupatou Station SFPD, ki soti nan ki li menm ansanm ak avoka savoneuz a te dwe akonpaye deyà nan anba gade a nan polis yo nan KovÃti pou revÃlt plen ak zam otomatik se konsa pà a te kapab fà aranjman pou yon 1 am vin chÃche nan telefÃn nan. "
fdsfds (Score:5, Funny)
A lawyer, a priest, a rabbi, and a Nexus 4 prototype walked into a San Francisco bar ....
--
BMO
Re:fdsfds (Score:4, Funny)
but only one was good enough for the bartender to pick up.
Re:fdsfds (Score:3)
Re:fdsfds (Score:5, Funny)
The real mystery is: what kind of Google employee goes to a bar?
Re:fdsfds (Score:2)
The PR goon who is supposed to somehow create a story about their new phone. Duh.
But it was already old when Apple pulled the stunt.
Re:fdsfds (Score:2)
The real mystery is: what kind of Google employee goes to a bar?
...the kind that drink.!!!!
Comment removed (Score:2)
Re:fdsfds (Score:3)
what kind of Google employee goes to a bar?
I realise that I only know a subset of Google employees and that there may be some selection bias involved, but extrapolating from my experience: all of them. Although only when they get bored of the beer that Google provides in the office.
Re:fdsfds (Score:2)
I've experienced the beer that Google serves in the office. To be fair, I'm a big beer nerd, but I haven't found that beer to be satisfactory.
Re:fdsfds (Score:2)
I regularly meet Google employees in bars.
Re:fdsfds (Score:3)
A lawyer, a priest, a rabbi, and a Nexus 4 prototype walked into a San Francisco bar ....
Stop! I've heard this one before.
Re:fdsfds (Score:3)
A lawyer, a priest, a rabbi, and a Nexus 4 prototype walked into a San Francisco bar ....
Also a policeman, Indian, sailor, and construction worker.
Re:fdsfds (Score:2)
That works too...
But the Village People was a NY group...
--
BMO
Re:fdsfds (Score:2)
I found out last week that I work a block away from the YMCA, as in, the YMCA. They might be a NY group, but we've heard of them here in SF.
Yanno? (Score:5, Funny)
Just in case you're wondering about the riot cops (Score:5, Informative)
under the watch of police in full riot gear with automatic weapons
This had nothing to do with the lost phone. Some punk got shot and people went nuts.
Re:Just in case you're wondering about the riot co (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't really get this either. The guy gets shot while he is in the act of brandishing a weapon against a police officer. Weapon turns out to be loaded and ready to fire. The guy doesn't even suffer any shots that would be otherwise lethal. Yet a riot forms and they spray paint killers on the walls of the police station?
Weird city. I wonder if they'd prefer having no cops at all. I remember there was some group around Berkley demanding that the city get rid of its police officers, maybe these are them?
Re:Just in case you're wondering about the riot co (Score:3, Insightful)
The police in the bay area have become increasingly heavy-handed and more than a bit trigger-happy over the last few years. And the public has been responding by an increasing withdrawal of their trust and goodwill.
Johannes Mehserle, and the pittance of a slap on the wrist "punishment" for his murder of Oscar Grant*, for example, probably set relations between the police and the black community back by a good decade or so alone. Then, for an encore, they went about gunning down a mentally ill homeless man on a different BART platform, shooting an Iraq war veteran in the head with a tear gas canister during the occupy protests, and switching off telephone and internet service... something that you expect in North Korea or middle-eastern theocracies and dictatorships, not the United States... to suppress speech and communication during another protest (of the aforementioned killing of the mentally-ill homeless man). These sorts of things are not exactly going to engender trust or goodwill, especially amongst minorities or otherwise marginalized communities.
(* Yes, I know, Oscar Grant was kind of a scumbag. That's not relevant though. This is the United States. We're just not supposed to *DO* summary executions here... at all And being a scumbag doesn't change the fact that Grant was unarmed, unresisting, and lying prone and motionless when Mehserle decided to shoot him in the back.)
Re:Just in case you're wondering about the riot co (Score:5, Insightful)
The article makes it sound like a plain clothed officer was chasing the guy. I don't know about you, but if some random guy started harassing me on the street and following me when I'm trying to get away from him I'd be concerned. You don't know if a plain clothed officer really is a police officer or just a crazy nut out to mess with people.
Yeah, as a gang member on parole I'd certainly pull a gun. What else am I expected to do, ask for ID?
Re:Just in case you're wondering about the riot co (Score:5, Insightful)
A TEC-9? Seriously, the guy pulls out a loaded TEC-9 and points it, (at anyone?)? I think that is *two* lucky people who both still alive; especially the police officer who had to square off against that thing! Wikipedia it like I did; I'm not going to cite the link for it. Cheers for the cop who seems to have handled the situation well!
Re:Just in case you're wondering about the riot co (Score:2, Offtopic)
See, this is exactly the problem when people blow a gasket when they see an "assault weapon", You take a look at a picture of a TEC-9 and say "Oohh. that is a nasty-looking weapon". It's not, it just looks that way. It looks like a military style machine gun, but isn't. It's a semi-automatic pistol that shoots the exact same 9mm rounds in the same way that the police handguns do. In fact most police use 40cal rounds that are actually larger and more deadly nowadays. So-called "assault weapons" are simply pistols with slightly larger magazines. The reason they were made and got popular is they are inexpensive to manufacture, before all the bans, restrictions, and hoopla they cost about half of what a regular handgun cost because they are made of stamped steel rather than precision machined parts. They hold about 25 rounds, while the police guns hold 18, so for the fact that it holds 7-10 more bullets than a normal looking pistol, these weapons have been vilified and unjustly singled out. This is complete nonsense. This is also why after the initial knee-jerk reaction by the anti-gun nuts to ban them, most of the bans are not being renewed or allowed to sunset. People are starting to realize these legal, semi-automatic weapons aren't really any different than conventional pistols, save a few physical features.
That said, the guy is a moron for carrying ANY gun when on probation, and he's damn lucky the cop was a good shot and quick-thinking so they are both still alive to tell the tale.
Re:Just in case you're wondering about the riot co (Score:3)
Re:Just in case you're wondering about the riot co (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just in case you're wondering about the riot co (Score:3)
Several employees of Apple have been reported dead.
Re:Just in case you're wondering about the riot co (Score:2)
theooneinthepinkoneinthestink (Score:2)
That doesn't make any sense at all, even by theo's standards.
Also in the news (Score:5, Funny)
An Apple spokesperson immediately commented on the incident.
"I have to inform Google that we will sue for a billion dollars. We have already patented the marketing trick of "losing" phones. We got prior art, dammit!"
Google taking more ideas from Apple (Score:2)
Worst Slashdot Summary ever (Score:2)
And that is quite a mark for /.
The police station was "under-siege" (in reality just some protesters and vandals in front of it) for something totally unrelated to the phone (if it is not related to the news, why post it?). And why in the world is relevant that the Apple investigator is now dead? Maybe are they suggesting that Steve Jobs killed him to cover something?
Future posts I suggest to the /. editors
Where is the "Delete my account" button?
Re:Worst Slashdot Summary ever (Score:2)
I'm telling you, if child handed that mess into their grammar school teacher, it would make their teacher cry.
Lawsuit! (Score:5, Funny)
The real question is how long it will take Apple to sue Samsung for having one of their prototypes stolen in the same manner as one of Apple's.
Re:Lawsuit! (Score:2)
The real question is how long it will take Apple to sue Samsung for having one of their prototypes stolen in the same manner as one of Apple's.
Because the manufacturer is LG....about four weeks.
The bartender was giddy at first (Score:4, Insightful)
. . . but after making a few dozen phone calls realized no one gave a shit, much less was willing to pay money for access to a Google prototype. To compensate for his disappointment, he dicked around with the Google employee.
Summary is nonsense (Score:2)
Somebody needs to get a proof read things before they're published.
I dare you to understand the story based on that summary -- its like random words strung together.
Re:Summary is nonsense (Score:2)
Sorry, I was laughing too hard.
And my comment at least made sense.
Comment removed (Score:2)
Re:Just a failed publicity stunt (Score:2)
Almost looks like a publicity stunt. Can't really see why someone would go through the effort of having someone run all around - it's not even that funny.
Regarding the size of it - I actually don't think I'd mind it, but I typically wear clothes that happen to have large pockets. I'd have to try it out for a while and see if I'd get used to it. Personally I think it'd be kind of sweet to have a phone that could almost be a laptop replacement for all my routine stuff while not destroying my eyes. If only I could get something like this with a keyboard though...
Comment removed (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:2)
Security (Score:2)
Google Calls Finders-Keepers on Your Stuff (Score:2)
Google TOS [google.com]When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps).
Re:Google Calls Finders-Keepers on Your Stuff (Score:2)
> The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones.
Did you notice this one? Same clause is in every major online services' EULAs, you might check Microsoft's, for example.
What was your point, except showing that you might have deliberately made the submitted summary misrepresent what exactly happened to show your hate towards Google?
Re:Google Calls Finders-Keepers on Your Stuff (Score:2)
Just thought it was worth pointing out that a company which felt it necessary to send out an investigator to make threats to get its own IP back (rather than waiting until noon the next day) won't ever give others their own IP back. And for a company that helps itself to information that others unintentionally leave out where it can be grabbed - e.g., the Street View [telegraph.co.uk] and browser privacy bypassing [allthingsd.com] debacles - Google seemed to get overly outraged and aggressive when the shoe was on the other foot and they found their own information carelessly left in the possession of another innocent party. :-)
Non story, bad writing (Score:5, Informative)
So when you take the drama out of the ridiculous article, here's what you get:
Dude finds phone. Some drama round giving the phone back,
Dude finds a phone. Talks to a friend. Friend contacts google. Google wants to get the phone right now, bartender wants to do it next day. Google security dude goes out ot the bar to pick it up. Bartender is out playing a gig somewhere else. Bartender's coworker for some reason tells security dude that bartender is at the police station.
Security dude goes to police station in the middle of a riot. Calls a random lawyer who gets involved for some reason - or at least makes a statement to Wired.
Then they meet up and after the security dude proves his ID, bartender returns the phone to him.
WTF?
Why was this made to sound like the bar was stormed by Google Secret Service or some such crap?
This stuff is getting absurd... (Score:2)
Why does every situation involving missing prototype phones turn into such a clustastrophuck? Is WWIII gonna be started over the iPhone 7 or something?
The tables turn (Score:3)
After all the Google fan comments about Apple's lost phones, we now have the reverse situation and all the apologists can't fall over themselves fast enough. This is no different than the apple incident. Before you say anything, remember there's two sides to any story.
This was probably a PR stunt just like the apple incidents. However, I don't think it worked as well simply because most people are not familiar enough with different android devices to know something is a prototype. There are too many android devices to tell the difference between them!
I think it's fair for every apple fanboy to rail into google fans on this one just because of the BS comments we've seen in the past on slashdot. You guys are just as bad. I'm sure most of this story is not true, but I don't believe the apple stories 100% either. If google pulls this one more time, everything will be even. :)
Who to blame? (Score:2)
At least with Apple, we knew who the ass abusing power was. Who at Google demanded the crackdown on Sudsy?
Re:Google Police (Score:5, Funny)
Would you prefer they'd sent a blade runner instead?
Re:Google Police (Score:5, Funny)
They should go straight to Taffy's bar.
Re:Google Police (Score:4, Funny)
Not that it's my kind of place, but apparently he's on the level if you want a drink.
Re:Google Police (Score:4, Interesting)
I was wondering about this last night. Why are the nerds at Google naming a product after a model of skin job? Are they running some kind of Voigt Kampff test on their clientele?
What the story doesn't say (Score:3)
A client (we'll call him Tim C. for anonymity) is said to have thanked the barman for having prevented a bad guy from stealing his new iPhone prototype.
Re:What the story doesn't say (Score:3)
Re:Google Police (Score:5, Insightful)
I highly suggest you read the article since the summary is highly edited to make Google look bad. Example: Google didn't send a private investigator. It sent a single Google employee who was jerked around by the bartender and his friend because they wanted to cling to their powertrip. The only lawyer was just guy the bartender knew. Google even offered to give the bartender guy a free phone if he promised to be quiet about the leak until the phone was announced at the Android event.
Bad Luck Google: Sends a guy to pick up a lost phone. Gets screwed around by the people who found it. Still offers a free phone to the guy. Gets called evil by the Internet.
Re:Google Police (Score:5, Informative)
You must have somehow missed these lines:
Kind of paints a different picture to yours, oui / non?
Re:Google Police (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's the thing...
The bartender did not own the phone. 'Finders-keepers' is NOT the law. The opposite in fact.
Yeah, it's not a federal manhunt type case but the guy knowingly in possession of property not belonging to him (the lost vs. stolen line gets blurred quickly) could definitely have criminal charges filed against him. How far they'd get, who knows.
Of course they insisted on meeting right away. They want to protect their secrecy - and getting the phone back is far easier on everyone than the guy possibly getting arrested. You can't expect a company to just let this type of thing go.
What I really want to know is why these people are bringing top secret phones to bars in the first place? I understand "testing" and all but is it secret or is it something you're bringing out in public?
Hell, get one of those bluetooth leashes. Problem solved.
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
It makes you ask the question - "Then, why can't they make a Cell Phone that can't be left in a bar?" You'd think that with all the wonders of technology, they'd invent a solution to this obviously dreadful and omipresent epidemic danger.
Apparently, an important real-world test of a cell phone seems to be their performance in a small crowd of people while under the influence of alcohol. You'd think a valuable prototype in Alpha test would be tracked and controlled a little better. No, a LOT better, actually. Like, after the Apple fiasco, rule number one would be "Don't take it into a bar"!
Pfft. Sounds like another "marketing" stunt to me.
Re:Google Police (Score:3, Funny)
Yep, Apple employees lost a prototype phone in a bar twice and now Google does it. Wouldn't be surprised if Apple had a business method patent on something like a "controlled method of leaking information to increase hype".
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
It makes you ask the question - "Then, why can't they make a Cell Phone that can't be left in a bar?"
You'd have to have a separate device that you always carry that syncs/pings the other device. I'm thinking Bluetooth. Once the phone is out of range, your Bluetooth headset or a similar device on your keychain can beep/vibrate. Using signal strength, you might be able to devise a tracking scheme where you get more beeps as you get closer to the device (in the case someone took your phone, at least you will be close to them; then ask a friend to call your phone, hear the ring, see the person answer it and bust em!). I'm not really sure this is possible given the low bandwidth of Bluetooth and I'm pretty sure you'd need low latency, too. I configured my computer to lock the screen if my phone leaves the range of its Bluetooth signal.
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
Except, just about everything you described would be the actions of an asshole. I thought we believed Google to be better than that.
Re:Google Police (Score:5, Informative)
I highly suggest you read the article since the summary is highly edited to make Google look bad. Example: Google didn't send a private investigator. It sent a single Google employee who was jerked around by the bartender and his friend because they wanted to cling to their powertrip.
Bad Luck Google: Sends a guy to pick up a lost phone. Gets screwed around by the people who found it. Still offers a free phone to the guy. Gets called evil by the Internet.
Not quite how I read it. The guy that came to pick up the phone sent a flood of calls to bartender's teck-savvy friend (who'd contacted Google on his behalf). Bartender felt "harassed" so didn't stick around work for what he seemed to think would be a confrontational meeting.
Indeed, Google rep was described as pushy and seemed to threaten the other employee and maybe even the bar with some kind of charges, although the bartender was not resisting the return of the phone. Colleague that dealt with the rep didn't like being threatened and sent rep on "wild goose chase" to police station.
Seemed to me that Google's security team could've done a bit better job on the recovery had they used a bit less bluster and a bit more appreciation (aka people skills).
Now, I'm not sure how it worked out that the bartender, although offered a free phone to keep quiet, still seems to have provided photos to accompany the story. Should've taken the free phone and shut up about it. I believe the story contained a disclaimer about paying for the photos.
Re:Google Police (Score:2, Interesting)
Shitty bar. Guy loses something, it instantly becomes bartender's property? No lost and found box? No turning over to the police, or trying to find the owner? It's a bar after all, so, I expect people losing/forgetting stuff is a frequent occurence.
No wonder the guy didn't want the publicity and tried to spin it. As a bartender he's done.
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
Try RTFA:
>Not this phone. It sat by the cash register unclaimed all the next day. “I don’t know anything about this stuff, but I know enough to know this phone was different.”
So the phone sat in the bar for a day and then they tried to figure out who owned it. Sounds pretty reasonable to me.
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
Shitty bar. Guy loses something, it instantly becomes bartender's property? No lost and found box? No turning over to the police, or trying to find the owner? It's a bar after all, so, I expect people losing/forgetting stuff is a frequent occurence.
No wonder the guy didn't want the publicity and tried to spin it. As a bartender he's done.
Interesting how you learned to write without learning to read.
Re:Google Police (Score:3)
Disclosure not disclaimer. Wired actually admits paying the phone finder: "(Disclosure: Wired agreed to pay Barton a freelance fee for the photos published with this article.)"
But yes, Google wasn't exactly being nice here. Maybe that was part of the comedy act? That "little but really pushy" Google agent going up against the bartender's "well-inked" associate with a "don't-fuck-with-me" attitude.
What's with all the cloak-and-dagger over some cellphone that resembles every other cellphone made within the past two years? If I were the head of research at one of these mobile companies, I'll order any employee taking out a phone for testing to have the phone chained to his or her wrist.
Re:Google Police (Score:3)
Being a little pushy isn't a shocking crime. And as they intentionally started fucking with him I would expect security to warn them that they could get in trouble.
Where was the phone? Did the bartender take it with him? I'm pretty sure bartenders don't get to take lost phones home with them, if I were in security I'd be warning them about that too! The bartender or manager on duty at the bar should have had access to the phone and returned it.
What's this "meet me at noon tomorrow" garbage? The bar is open, a representative of the phone's owner is there to claim it. He says most people come back in 15 minutes, do all of them have to return the next day at noon?
In the end, it all worked out fine and I don't think hurt feelings on behalf of a bartender who went out of his way to screw with the Google guy is a big deal.
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
Being a little pushy isn't a shocking crime.
And yet everyone here would condemn Apple for doing the same thing.
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
Now, I'm not sure how it worked out that the bartender, although offered a free phone to keep quiet, still seems to have provided photos to accompany the story. Should've taken the free phone and shut up about it. I believe the story contained a disclaimer about paying for the photos.
Easy one. The people he sold the photos to probably offered him more money. Why take one free phone when you could buy several?
Re:Google Police (Score:5, Insightful)
Bartender felt "harassed" so didn't stick around work for what he seemed to think would be a confrontational meeting.
Seriously? If it were your normal phone with photos of your family, and the person who found it took off -- with your phone, that you owned, would that be considered reasonable?
Forget everything about it being "unreleased". That is moot as hell. There's no provision of ethics that an object being "really really cool" gives you a different standard when it comes to returning lost property.
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
Bartender felt "harassed" so didn't stick around work for what he seemed to think would be a confrontational meeting.
Seriously? If it were your normal phone with photos of your family, and the person who found it took off -- with your phone, that you owned, would that be considered reasonable?
Forget everything about it being "unreleased". That is moot as hell. There's no provision of ethics that an object being "really really cool" gives you a different standard when it comes to returning lost property.
If I found a phone, had a friend contact the owner, then *pulls number from arse* a dozen calls came back about it instead of, "thanks, I'll be right there", I might question the sanity of the owner.
If the owner then started making demands on me, I'd be right pissed off. Wouldn't feel bad at all about going out to do something else if I'd been ordered to stay put or interrogated when trying to locate the owner.
You wouldn't?!?
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
So the bartenders friend doesn't like the Google employees tone so, instead of giving the owners their phone back and ending this situation, he sends him on a wild goose chase. Now replace Google with yourself and I'm sure you wouldn't find the goose chase necessary. In fact you'd probably think something fishy was going on.
If I were Google I might think something fishy were going on, but silly me with my super power called "introspection" I might think, "maybe I shouldn't have called back 10 times, making demands & threats. Maybe I should've said thanks and arranged the meeting."
Catching flies with honey instead of vinegar, etc.
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
Bad Luck Google: Sends a guy to pick up a lost phone. Gets screwed around by the people who found it. Still offers a free phone to the guy. Gets called evil by the Internet.
And the police in riot gear weren't there for the phone, as implied in the summary, from TFA:
On nearby 14th Street, undercover cops had just gunned down a gang suspect in the road after he produced an illegal TEC-9 semi-automatic pistol and appeared to point it at one of them. The neighborhood erupted in outrage, and dozens of people attacked and vandalized the Mission precinct station while Katz was still inside.
“It was the night of the riot,” says Ragi Dindial, a lawyer Barton knew through the music scene. “I met Katz there and they hustled us out the back door, past riot police in full riot gear and automatic weapons.”
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
I highly suggest you read the article since the summary is highly edited to make Google look bad. Example: Google didn't send a private investigator. It sent a c who was jerked around by the bartender and his friend because they wanted to cling to their powertrip. The only lawyer was just guy the bartender knew. Google even offered to give the bartender guy a free phone if he promised to be quiet about the leak until the phone was announced at the Android event.
Bad Luck Google: Sends a guy to pick up a lost phone. Gets screwed around by the people who found it. Still offers a free phone to the guy. Gets called evil by the Internet.
Amazing how you skillfully avoided to mention every single bit of the article that could make Google look bad.
Like the obvious intimidation of the guy who called Google. "Google had him pretty worked up. They told him he could be an accessory or something.”
Then (unsuccessfully) insisting that the bartender who found the phone stay at the bar to meet him ASAP - after his working hours, when he had a planned gig.
Continued with the "single Google employee" being "pushy" and threatening another bartender and the whole bar with legal action "He was little but really pushy, like military. He said he wanted to keep me out of trouble — like I was in any kind of trouble — keep the bar out of trouble. They could file criminal charges, he said.”
Is there a special Google filter you can run on articles that whitewashes Google?
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
They should've done like Holy Apple did and send in the police to raid his house instead.
You mean to the guy who sold the prototype, knowing it wasn't his, and knowing that the people he sold it to would publish photos of it?
Re:Google Police (Score:2)
And I'm sure you said the same thing about the incident with the iPhone prototype.
Re:Google Police (Score:3)
Three Questions.
How can you loose a phone while showing it off to all your friends in a bar?
Its already been knocked off in China so whats the big deal?
Can I have one?
And how can you not ask at the bar you were in if they found your phone for over 24 hours? Unless you wanted somebody to "find" it.
And WTF is a guy with a commercially secret document/plad/prototype on his person doing hanging around in a drinking establishment? It should have been Office -> car -> home -> car -> office
Re:Google Police (Score:3)
These phones need to be tested in real world environments.
Re:Google Police (Score:5, Insightful)
Then again, Google might have staged the whole thing. I think they are a little jealous of Apple, with their millions of fans going ohh and ahh over fuzzy pictures of a frickin' new docking connector of all things...
Re:Google Police (Score:5, Insightful)
Brand new /. account posts pretestuos anti-Google comment the same minute the story is published.
Shill anyone?
Re:Google Police (Score:2, Flamebait)
Moron fails to recognize obvious patterns.
Do No Evil (Score:4, Interesting)
Unless it brings you free press. It was staged, just like the apple incidents were.
Re:Google Police Uniforms? (Score:2)
http://www.allgeek.tv/2011/03/02/android-police-rescue/ [allgeek.tv]
Re:Google Police Uniforms? (Score:3)
Re:WTF (Score:4, Insightful)
Wait, you need riot police, armed with guns... to recover a lost phone prototype...?
Crazy.
Tenuous Link from the article.
"Shortly after an officer-involved shooting in which a plainclothes officer shot a suspect who pulled a gun on the officer Thursday night, dozens of rioters surrounded San Francisco’s Mission District Police Station while one person vandalized the police station, according to San Francisco police."
14 people were killed in a cafe suicide bominbg in Somalia too, not sure why Google is not being blamed for than too.
Re:WTF (Score:2)
Wait, you need riot police, armed with guns... to recover a lost phone prototype...?
Crazy.
Tenuous Link from the article.
"Shortly after an officer-involved shooting in which a plainclothes officer shot a suspect who pulled a gun on the officer Thursday night, dozens of rioters surrounded San Francisco’s Mission District Police Station while one person vandalized the police station, according to San Francisco police."
14 people were killed in a cafe suicide bominbg in Somalia too, not sure why Google is not being blamed for than too.
No, that was just a bad battery on a Surface tablet.
Re:Dayum... (Score:2)
What is is about telephone prototypes that drives people to drink?