Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “I got an UNRELEASED iPhone”.
[ Applause ]. Thank you, [ Applause, ]. When I give a to John, if I was gon na shock the world, I was disappointed in that’s what I do with it. After all, the Hoops I jumped through to get their phone and get it to John point.
Five six different speed and I was part of it so sitting in this chair. Looking back on my career in the past 10 or 15 years, I got some juicy stories to tell and I’ve told some of them. I’Ve told some lawsuit stories. I got blacklisted by Apple, but one story that I have never told was it because I wasn’t sure if I could uh is how I got my hands on essentially an iPhone before it was released. So 2013 was the year that we got the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5C and the C seemed like a gritty.
At the time Apple was getting slammed for the iPhone being too expensive. I think they were starting to feel it um. So solution was introduced. A more affordable version at the same basic four Factor as the iPhone 5, but with less premium materials um this. What’S the infamous Johnny Ive unapologetically plastic a moment in the keynote which I think has been memed to death, but that’s exactly what it was uh. It was an iPhone 5 that had a plastic back and came in colors cost 99 bucks on contract compared to the Staggering 199 of the iPhone 5S on contract.
Obviously so, if I can sort of set to these my stage, um 2013 YouTube was really small portion of what I was doing. I was running a website called techno Buffalo focused a lot on Tech news that was my primary job was running this website and sort of getting the most views on on this website paid me money and helped raise a profile of the site, but also try to Make sure I was adhering to ethical standards, we were just a few years removed from that lawsuit. Where I talked about where the Printing House backed my Motorola, tried to assuming to reveal a source, so I was really very heavy that ethical standards make sure. I was very clearly in the right, so I shoot another lawsuit arise.
I didn’t have to almost bankrupt myself to defend it now, sort of the frame of reference that I went into getting this iPhone 5c show August 2013 uh. I didn’t have an email record of this, so I’m assuming the message came via social somebody reached out to saying that they had the back shell of what they were saying was the iPhone 5c. At the time the rumor was is going to be called the iPhone 5e. They wanted to know if I wanted it. So this is only three years past the Gizmodo thing where someone left an iPhone 4 in a bar and it got sold, and it was a huge legal thing. I want to know part of that.
So I remember asking like: are you trying to sell this? He said no, he said I just want to send it to you, so the world can see the next iPhone um. So he sent it to me – and I got this thing in and at this point no one had seen the back of the iPhone 5S. You know, ultimately, these shells ended up getting out everywhere, but nobody had seen what this phone looked like and essentially had minus a screen. Uh an iPhone 5c in my hand, and I was really unsure what to do on one hand uh.
I could have gotten all damn views, uh, which would have been awesome and I probably would have gotten myself suited in the process. I could have gotten a bunch of views on YouTube, a bunch of views on the website. I would have violated pretty much every ethical standard that was going so now. I had this thing and had to figure out what to do with it again. Two paths: do I publish it uh and that’s awesome, or I think, maybe ethically gray, or do I not do that, and so this this shell, it wasn’t just the bad casing. It had sort of the internal components that would connect ultimately to the motherboard and all of the electronics of this thing.
Honestly, the 5c. When it came out, I think it felt relatively good. Ultimately, the battery started, swelling and Screen started peeling off, but it looked good. Initially in the hands, maybe I thought Apple actually might pull off a plastic phone. I remember thinking that this was seemed like a quality product uh. At the time it was cool to sort of see an iPhone with all the electronics yanked out of it. You know we usually get dummy phones that come in that are based on sort of CAD designs, um, but never an actual real part, and I think this thing came from some apple Factory uh along the production line. You know, wherever it came from, I don’t know, and I still probably should have inquired more sort of what its origin was. But my assumption is that this was sort of part of the entire production line of iPhones and somebody one fell off a truck and sort of made its way uh to my desk in Irvine. I didn’t have really a relationship with apple 2013.
But honestly I figured like this is probably a pretty good chance to maybe get the relationship going to build a better foundation with Apple. So I had a friend who had a pretty good relationship with apple corporate was very high up the fact that he knew how to get a hold of Tim Cook himself. So I sent him this email, so I had a bit of a strange week. I received an email from a source asking if they were interested in the back casing, for what was called the upcoming iPhone 5c.
You know as much as I love surprised that, along with Apple keynote, I also feel I have a journalistic obligation to get this off. The streets, I’m still disgusted by what happened with Gizmodo a few years back. I never want techno Buffalo to mention the same breath. If we tell our writers to cheer the last ethical standards we have to do the same. I have it in my possession and give you my word I’ll, never see the light of day, if possible, we’ll have to find a way to return it to Apple and get away from prying eyes, even if they’re most likely going to be many out there. For response, I think responsible for this one and to me that’s what counts with your part and hopefully others follow suit.
I’D rather be surprised if, when it ever comes back to Market, I probably laid down a little too thick and my friend agreed. So, with that information in hand, I wrote a letter to Tim Cook’s office as a person that was, Mr cook, the sign of my company’s hydroelectric ethics, dot, dot dot. I like to return this ill-gotten part in hopes that we can do our small part to keep the Wonder alive. Techno Buffalo, journalistic responsibility to take very seriously I’ll, never accept attempting to get more page views by using these little tactics.
No matter what the reward is. We sure are small comment to other Tech sites who are owned by Giants but keep our morals and much higher standards. I think that’s what differentiates us again, probably later, not a little too thick there, but it’s like the CEO of Apple and it’s a 2013 and I was hoping to get a good relationship. So we got a letter back and I couldn’t find the letter that came back, but essentially it just said. Please return to this address, so I’m thinking so I’m doing the right thing, so that was most important but also like we got ta be invited to Keynotes. Now, right, like we got ta, be an app with good graces. I didn’t share this with anybody. I didn’t tweet it I had to make videos on it.
I didn’t show it to anybody. I put an envelope, wrote the address I sent to and sent it off to Tim Cook’s office and I was like oh, I can’t wait for the letter back and I waited I’m gon na wait in. I waited some more and I get that doing. The right thing is its own reward totally no, but I was still hoping for like it’s like a letter back, but that letter never came. I never got anything back at all from Apple, never heard a peep from anybody, not even the assistant that we spoke to nothing. Nothing back from Apple didn’t get invited and he could have been a precursor for me getting blacklisted um, but nothing ever came from Apple from sort of having that uh iPhone, 5c back and ultimately like a week or so later.
These things just exploded everywhere. So maybe they were like yeah, what’s the point um, but that was a story that happened. I think that these stories happen a lot behind the scenes of your favorite websites and your favorite YouTube creators and there’s definitely a difference between standards for a website and standards. For for YouTube and then the Creator can sort of decide what they want to adhere to. But again I was fresh off of getting sued to reveal a source and sort of redefine him ethical standards on the website side. So I was really kind of trying to draw like fine line there, but there’s a lot of these things that go on behind the scenes.
I got a lot more stories. Uh uh tell this is just sort of a fun one of how I could have leaked the iPhone 5c. I don’t know.
Maybe I should have leaked the iPhone 5c um. I I don’t know um, but it’s still. I thought made for a really interesting kind of story and tidbit, and at least a small part of my history and a small part of my history with apple, and, if you guys like these stories, let me know in the comments down below I’m just spinning my Wheels, nobody cares I’ll, stop telling them, but I got a lot of stuff to tell a lot of things get off my chest over the past 10 15 years, and there are some juicy ones uh in there.
So again, a like and comment down below will. Definitely let me know that you want to hear more of these stories. .