Dude, Where's My Top Secret Next-Generation IPhone?

Everyone makes mistakes - but if I were making Apple's policy I would dictate that the prototype phone should not have been allowed out in public - and only booked out for job specific needs - such as to show to other related business leaders. This would not include using it out of work for personal use.I don't know the actual policy - or the level of trust and responsibility that the worker was employed to fulfil.
As for who gives a flying hoot about the rapid and currently unfolding development of an emerging mobile connectivity that is far beyond 'a phone' - well - HELLO? - or who gives a moment to a such a predicament as this hapless worker's, regardless of the interest or not in the content of the disclosures?

Personally I would forgive anyone who repents of an act made in error - but that doesn't mean I would continue to support a mentality that is liable to error. Mistakes are great - if humiliating - ways to learn how better to live. Blame and shame is a refusal to learn anything except a righteous disregard for a greater perspective than one's own.

Industrial consumerism has encouraged a mentality of identifying with or against products and brands that is a mere vanity and the manipulation of such consumers is a way of milking the herd, and the competition to be in a position of what is effectively mind control - is fiercely contested.

However, even through such a seemingly chaotic process - the new technology unfolds and extends for better and for worse - changing the way we live and - I believe - the way we perceive the world.

It is not in Apple's interest generally to have such leaks and Apple - does - push the development of technology even if it may not maintain dominance once the market develops.