According to Gawker Media’s Gizmodo technology Web site, the supposed prototype of Apple’s forthcoming next-generation iPhone 4G, which was found on the floor of a San Francisco Bay Area bar, was ‘lost’ by Gray Powell - an Apple software engineer!

As per Gizmodo, Powell had ‘accidentally’ left the device behind on a stool at the German bar Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood City, California. Going by a story making rounds on Twitter, the prototype iPhone was brought to Gizmodo by a ‘mysterious man’ who found the device on the barroom floor.

The ‘mysterious man’ managed to identify Powell from a Facebook app on the prototype phone; but since Apple “remotely killed the phone”; he brought it over to Gizmodo, and supposedly received some payment for handing over the device to the company.

Going by the information forwarded by Gizmodo, the company got in touch with Powell over the telephone, offering the return of the phone to him – however, Powell asked them to return him the device via Apple.

In an email, Gizmodo editor Jason Chen acknowledged that he had received the phone nearly a week back, but added: “We were not the people who found it originally.” Chen did not reveal anything about the ‘mysterious man’ who evidently got paid by Gizmodo for giving it access to the prototype iPhone!