20 April 2010 | Author: J. Cave SEO Consultant

Where did Gizmodo get a 4G iPhone from?

It's called chequebook journalism, at least that's what Nick Denton, head of Gawker Media (who publish Gizmodo) calls it. In a tweet on Monday, Denton wrote "Yes, we're proud practitioners of checkbook journalism. Anything for the story!" and "Does Gizmodo pay for exclusives? Too right!"

This tweet answers all of the questions and allegations about the Gizmodo iPhone in which Gizmodo happened upon a prototype for the next iPhone and went ahead a published it, earning them at least 10 million page views according to sitemeter.

So where exactly did the new iPhone come from? Well, supposedly it was found at Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German beer garden in Redwood City near San Francisco. The phone was apparently discovered on a barstool at around midnight. Upon discovering the phone, the anonymous finder asked around for the owner and when nobody claimed it, he unlocked the phone and saw the sign in profile of Gray Powell, a software engineer for Apple.

The next morning when the person went to return it, he found that the iPhone had been wiped of its data remotely. He then noticed that this iPhone was different to most other iPhones and - realizing it was something special - decided to offer it to the highest bidder. That's where Gizmodo stepped in, snapping up the exclusive story.

As for the legal implications, just because you're Gizmodo doesn't mean you're immune to the legal ramifications of theft. Denton doesn't seem bothered however citing legal cases with the Church of Scientology and saying Jobs has less of a reputation for litigation.

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