by Rachel Brodsky

If Gawker's Nick Denton knows how to do anything, it's keep his readers on their toes. According to SF Gate, Denton's been tweeting up a storm (no doubt with his confidence bolstered by some ten million reads yesterday) and dropping hints as to how Gizmodo found the phone by stating that they paid 5 Gs for it (5G! geddit??). In an email questionnaire, Denton reportedly answered "$5K" when asked how much Gawker had paid to gain access to the new smartphone.

By now we're all familiar with the story of how an Apple engineer accidentally left his top-secret iPhone 4G at a Redwood City bar, where it was picked up and handed over to a Gizmodo reporter. In his blog post, Jason Chen wrote that "[It is] our understanding that the phone was lost," (ie. not stolen) which would mean that his reporting wasn't a web exclusive, and therefore not some marketing ploy. But the stories are becoming mixed. In an early-morning tweet, Denton said "Does Gizmodo pay for exclusives? Too right!"

But wait! Look here. A recent news update suggests that no fair and legal transactions were made. Apple has requested that Gizmodo return the lost prototype by stating: "It has come to our attention that Gizmodo is currently in possession of a device that belongs to Apple. This letter constitutes a formal request that you return the device to Apple. Please let me know where to pick up the unit." The letter was signed by Bruce Sewell, Apple's general counsel.

Yikes.