The iPhone 4 leak will go down in history as one of Apple’s most embarrassing slip-ups, so it should come as no surprise that the company has vowed to ensure it never happens ever again. But the extremes Cupertino has gone to, described in a new report, are still eye opening. Read on to find out about the iPhone that self-destructs.
TechnoBuffalo has a fascinating piece this week on just how Apple and Verizon kept a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 a secret in the run up to its January launch, from a source close to the proceedings. But the most remarkable nugget in the article is a description of how Apple secures prototype iPhones being tested out in the wild.
Field testing smartphones is of course essential, but does expose them to being left in bars, then sold to technology blogs. And as the feature points out, though Find My iPhone can shut down an errant handset from afar, what happens if it’s not reported missing? As TechnoBuffalo puts it, what if the tester “got punched in the head for drunkenly hitting on someone’s girl?”
To prevent this, the report says, Apple requires testers to text a PIN code to a secret number every 12 hours, or be wiped.
That’s smart, but let’s put things in perspective here. Apple is so security conscious that it’s built in a fail safe in case a person doesn’t just lose a phone while testing it, but is incapacitated while testing it.
That’s both testament to the company’s genius, and its overbearing controlling attitude. And it makes you wonder what lengths Apple is going to while testing the iPhone 5, iPhone 6 and even iPhone 7 – which you can bet it’s doing somewhere right now. Vacuums in space? Volcano lairs? Who knows.
Oh, and as a reminder, here’s the video that started the whole affair – police raids, drunken escapades and all.
(via TechnoBuffalo)
