Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak is chiming in on the iPhone 4G prototype fiasco.
Woz published a photo online, credited to Janet Wozniak, of himself wearing a T-shirt that reads: "I went drinking with Gray Powell and all I got was a lousy iPhone prototype."
Powell, of course, is the Apple engineer who left the top secret prototype at a Redwood City bar after a night of birthday celebration. And, even though he has become somewhat of a laughing stock in the tech world, he seems to have a sympathy vote from Woz.
"I'd laugh if the same thing were done to me," Woz said in an email to his longtime friend and associate Dan Sokol, who then sent the picture and email to CNET.
On Saturday, Woz sent a follow-up email to CNET.
"It seems clear that (Powell) kept the iPhone prototype secret enough to satisfy Apple. It's a bad accident that could happen to any of us," Woz said in the note.
Here's another product sneak peek note relating to that other major item to recently grace the tech world, as relayed by TBNews.com: An Apple engineer gave Woz a brief, yet unauthorized, look a Apple's iPad before it hit the market. As a result of that show and tell, the engineer was fired. Upon learning of that engineer's fate, Woz expressed regret and said, "the secret is good for Apple and should be strictly guarded, but 10% of gentleness and 90% of rigor are equally good."
