Woz with the iPad 3G he shouldn't have seen. Twitter Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak has written a post on the lost iPhone and Apple's product secrecy at Gizmodo.

Steve says he doesn't think that Gray Powell, the engineer that left the iPhone in a bar, was fired. Woz speculates that each case is examined individually, and perhaps Gray was not violating Apple policy.

(We'd thrown in our own speculation: If Apple considers the phone stolen, not lost, then he has extra room for cover.)

Another engineer at Apple is not as lucky as Gray. Though, his infraction is much more benign.

At midnight, April 3, the day of the iPad launch, an Apple engineer showed Steve his iPad. Steve played with it for two minutes, testing some of the software. This photo on Twitter shows Steve with it. Note the black strip that runs along the top. That's an iPad 3G, which doesn't go on sale until April 30.

Steve says Apple told the engineer that he could take the iPad out of a secured Apple area after midnight on April 3. But he was not supposed to show the iPad to anyone. (Even though Woz is an Apple employee.)

Steve says he later talked to Steve Jobs about the iPad, mentioned what the engineer did, and Jobs said, "It's no big deal."

Regardless, the engineer ended up being fired. He knowingly revealed an Apple product ahead of time and for that, says Steve Wozniak, he lost his job.

Read the whole Steve Wozniak story at Gizmodo →

See Also: How Apple Conceals Prototype iPhones