Apple tests employees' trust-worthiness with fake iGadgets

by Esat Dedezade  |  Tuesday 31 January 2012
Apple tests employees' trust-worthiness with fake iGadgets

Apple employees are made to work on fake products to test their loyalty, claims Inside Apple author.

Apple employees made to work on fake products to test their loyalty

Apple’s interview process is as tough as you would expect it to be, given that it is one of the world’s largest tech companies with a fierce focus on secrecy.

Now Adam Lashinsky, author of Inside Apple has revealed in a LinkedIn interview that people are "hired into dummy positions where they are not really sure what it is they’re doing", in a bid to determine their trustworthiness.

The thought of people working on bogus iProducts seems rather surreal – after all, why pay people to work on something that will never exist – but we have to admit it sounds like a sneakily effective way on keeping tabs on loose-lipped tech boffins without spilling any big secrets.

It didn’t stop the iPhone 4 from being left in a bar mind, but overall it shows the great lengths that Apple takes to ensure that its iProducts remain shrouded in secrecy till their big stage debuts.

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See more about:  apple  |  phones  |  iphone  |  rumour  |  mill
 
 

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Comments: 11
photohounds
31 January 2012
Those 'secrets' what are they? The release date and what hardware they are buying from others and stuffing into a new gadget to market? Tech gossip. Still there's always a market for gossip.

Quite odd, really. Possibly using pages taken from some totalitarian regime manuals.


Comment made about the PC & Tech Authority article:
Apple tests employees' trust-worthiness with fake iGadgets?
Apple employees are made to work on fake products to test their loyalty, claims Inside Apple author.

What do you think? Join the discussion.
amcmo
31 January 2012
 When the launch of a completely new product/market is on the way, seems a worthwhile method of ensuring not too much info gets out, and weeding out those who goss too much.

It's actually a centuries old process for keeping secrets and diseminating false info.
rubaiyat
31 January 2012
 photo Why don't you tell us what Apple is going to "steal" next?

It only becomes a secret after Apple gets its hands on it. Right?
photohounds
31 January 2012
 Nope - the paranoia is interesting though. Xerox should have been more paranoid, perhaps :)

Completely new, actually completely new? Oh, I didn't think of that!

I was thinking history: An incremental development of what's gone before, followed by a huge swag of marketing to convince the feeble that it actually is new and innovative.

Time for a swim ...
rubaiyat
31 January 2012
 Xerox was happy with the deal they struck, after all when you haven't got a clue what you've got, you'll never miss it.

Which it's hard to know what you'll ever miss.
ory_zm
1 February 2012
 Yep Xerox were so happy they sued Apple:
"Xerox also sued Apple alleging that Mac's GUI was heavily based on Xerox's.[2] The district court dismissed Xerox's claims without addressing whether Apple's GUI infringed Xerox's" (from https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microsoft_Corporation)

Maybe in your world you always go and sue companies you are happy with.
amcmo
1 February 2012
 They may have sued, however part of the reason they lost is they had agreed for Apple to use the GUI in the first place, and in fact had invited Mac staff to the Parc to view the work they (Xerox) had done.

The suit was to try to establish that if the look and feel patent was valid, and Microsoft lost, Xerox would get the money.
ory_zm
1 February 2012
 Not disputing that amcmp but certainly disputing "Xerox was happy with the deal they struck"
amcmo
1 February 2012
 ory_zm,

Yes, I believe they may have initially been happy then thought 'Oh F.ck' when they realised what they had given away.

Definitely time to cry in your beer!
photohounds
3 February 2012
 Like IBM giving DOS away, the marketers didn't bother listening to the engineers.
amcmo
3 February 2012
 I don't know as I'd rate IBM and DOS in the same boat.

During the early days when PCDOS would only run on IBM product (I tried it on a number of 'clones') there was a workable alternative in CP/M, (for the kids on the forum, CP/M was almost supplied on the IBM PC in place of DOS) plenty of software for that, and IBM offered it alongside DOS as aprt of a settlement, though too expensive for anyone to want. Then of course, there was Microsoft's version MSDOS which didn't run on all kit, CPM/86 which was better than PCDOS and ran on PC's. Later there was DRDOS. I believe there may have been one other in the mix somewhere.

End result, IBM didn't stuff up and give it away, it was already out there in various formats. I recall DRDOS being faster than DOS with advantages such as memory and disk management, to the point it ws preferred at several companies I worked with.

It was only Micorsoft's dirty tricks that killed that option. (Again for the kids, M$ engineered Windows 95 to refuse to start on DRDOS, which killed it) It's actually still out there in embedded apps and can be purchased as a stand alone DOS.

For a supposed Apple Fanboy, I know far more about DOS/M$ etc than anything Apple, and use Win to this day!

I've probably missed out large segments on the DOS saga, however those braincells that didn't die from abuse in the 60's and 70's have faded somewhat through the (many) years since.

Edited by amcmo: 3/2/2012 09:20:10 PM
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