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Apple fires engineer after his daughter’s iPhone X video goes viral

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Re: Apple fires engineer after his daughter’s iPhone X video goes viral

#51

Post by nikanj »

joezydeco wrote: post #33
bonestamp2 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems harmless at first, but... In the video, we can see an email on his phone marked "restricted" with a project code name and some other details. That could potentially be harmful. His daugher is probably not allowed to see that, let alone post it on youtube. Not to mention, they want to tightly control the message prior to the pre-order sale... they don't want any unfinished software on the device changing peop…

I saw way more harm in the engineer using the phone to pay for lunch at the cafeteria and mention that he worked on that feature. Was that cashier under the same NDA? Now he's seen it and can leak the design to the world and nobody would know. Or were there dozens of these prototypes running around the Apple campus and everyone (including contractors and guests) knows to look the other way?

You can be pretty damn sure janitors, cafeteria workers, etc sign NDAs before starting on Apple/Microsoft/etc

Re: Apple fires engineer after his daughter’s iPhone X video goes viral

#52

Post by notfried »

She came from SoCal to visit him, planning to make this video, and possibly knowing she'd see the iPhone X. I wouldn't be surprised if virality was her target, and this was her way to get into Hollywood. And the father, this must have been his way to help his daughter, maybe he was already planning to retire.

He must have known he'd be fired. No one of his seniority is that naive. And no way they shot all this footage in the Cafè and had this much face-to-face interaction with workers there without someone reminding them about "No Photography." No reasonable response he could've given except that they had permission.

Edit: Come think of it, forget about the iPhone X, this is probably one of the very few (only?) videos ever of Cafe Macs.

Re: Apple fires engineer after his daughter’s iPhone X video goes viral

#53

Post by abtinf »

I would think this kind of unintentional mini-leak happens several times per day at Apple: there must be hundreds of employees running around with prototype hardware, using them as their primary phones.

If that is true, then it would seem pretty arbitrary to fire the employee, especially since the articles makes it seem like his daughter took the video down immediately on request.

Regardless, there is no shortage of demand for RF engineers. An engineer with 17 years of experience, getting fired over something uniquely a concern for Apple, that he was not even primarily responsible for, and getting featured on TechCrunch... This could be one of the best things to ever happen to his career.

Re: Apple fires engineer after his daughter’s iPhone X video goes viral

#54

Post by dpark »

djrogers wrote: post #45
dpark wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remember that one guy they fired for a bad decorated apartment? No. What are you talking about?

Sarcasm folks... GP complained about it being a 'lifestyle' thing.

This doesn’t read like sarcasm to me and the “lifestyle” comment is not in this comment’s parent tree.

Maybe it is sarcasm, but it’s bizarre if so. (Bizarre either way, actually.)

Re: Apple fires engineer after his daughter’s iPhone X video goes viral

#55

Post by [deleted] »

davidkuhta wrote: post #36
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. And that's my point: We have no autonomy to decide whether something matters. You don't get to choose. Unless, of course, you're in a position of power. Then you do. That kind of cheapens the idea that we're all working to build something great. Situations like this reveal what we're really working for.

What do you mean by: > We have no autonomy to decide whether something matters.

[deleted]

Re: Apple fires engineer after his daughter’s iPhone X video goes viral

#56

Post by jacquesm »

deedubaya wrote: post #41
jacquesm wrote: post #35

If Apple does not want their devices to be used as intended until an embargo date has passed they should keep them on premises. Once the device is out of the gates the secret is out as well. NDA's are very effective when you are talking about documents and adults. As soon as you're talking about devices and/or kids NDA's are ineffective because anybody that spots the device can post a picture without any recourse by…

> In the video, which has since been deleted, Peterson shops at Santana Row before meeting her father, Ken Bauer, for pizza at an Apple cafeteria in Cupertino. Bauer pays for their meals with an unreleased iPhone X, telling the cashier that he worked on the phone’s wireless payments feature. This all happened on Apple's campus, mentioned in the second paragraph. Maybe read the article before commenting?

Ah, I missed that. Ok, so even then: don't let your super secret phone out of the developer area. Many non-Apple employees visit Apple and eat at the cafetaria, any one of those could have spotted the phone.

I visited a couple of hardware manufacturers in the past (Swatch, Logitech) and have seen pre-production hardware of which only single working prototypes existed. There is no way that you'd be able to take a photograph of any of those and those are not companies that are as paranoid as Apple about this stuff.

My guess is that they are making an example out of this guy to cover up their utter failure in process that allowed this to happen in the first place.

Re: Apple fires engineer after his daughter’s iPhone X video goes viral

#58

Post by BFatts »

notfried wrote: post #52

She came from SoCal to visit him, planning to make this video, and possibly knowing she'd see the iPhone X. I wouldn't be surprised if virality was her target, and this was her way to get into Hollywood. And the father, this must have been his way to help his daughter, maybe he was already planning to retire. He must have known he'd be fired. No one of his seniority is that naive. And no way they shot all this footag…

I assume this is all sarcasm?

Re: Apple fires engineer after his daughter’s iPhone X video goes viral

#59

Post by skywhopper »

Showing the phone itself and its features does not seem like a fireable offense, but it sounds like some internal naming, documentation and links were visible, which is surely a major violation of company policy, if allowing your family to have access to your internal account were not (which it also certainly is).

Re: Apple fires engineer after his daughter’s iPhone X video goes viral

#60

Post by nix0n »

notheguyouthink wrote: post #39
dijit wrote: post #17

Feels like someone has an agenda, this is the 10th time I've heard this story and it has exactly the same information. Father told/showed daughter prototype phone in breach of an NDA that I know he signed if he had access to that hardware. Daughter felt really proud of superstar daddy and took to the internet to show off. Apple has three recourses, 1) Sue the employee to the fullest extent covered under the NDA. My e…

Can someone explain why you're down voting this person? His/her comments seem very reasonable, am I missing something? I hate that HN lets you downvote without an explanation. edit : And now I'm being down voted for asking a question!? Wtf is going on.. I'm trying to get information here..

From the official HN guidelines[0]:

> Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

[0]https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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