When it came time to test the CDMA iPhone 4 on Verizon’s networks, Apple had learned a few things about security from the infamous Gizmodo early iPhone 4 leak. They weren’t about to make the same mistakes twice.
A new post from Technobuffalo tells the story about how Apple tested the iPhone 4 on Verizon’s network earlier this year.
Apparently, select Verizon employees only got iPhone 4s to test out in the field two weeks before it launched. When talking about the handset, they weren’t even allowed to call it the iPhone: they had to call it the ACME Device.
Even more interesting? The security protocol Apple followed to make sure that they knew where every iPhone 4 was, all day, every day.
Our source describes a unique protocol requiring staffers to text a secret PIN code to a dedicated phone number every 12 hours. This served as ongoing confirmation that the handset was still in the proper hands. So no PIN code, no functionality.
If this is the security protocol they went through to keep a seven month old phone that everyone had already seen kept secret, imagine what Apple will do to test the iPhone 5.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
9 responses to “Inside Apple’s Top-Secret iPhone Field Tests [Security]”
Including leaking false rumors that they aren’t releasing one until September?
Funny….
i cant wait for the iphone 5,so much so i wont buy a iphone 4
I am with you, my friend. Don’t count it out.
God, I hope so. My 3G is freakin’ shagged. The new phone can’t come soon enough!
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