“If you’ve been following the legal ruckus surrounding Apple’s ‘Asteroid leak’ case, you know what happened: Someone leaked details of Asteroid, a breakout box for use with GarageBand, and some websites published the info. Apple then subpoenaed their email records to discover the identity of the leaker, and the websites went to court to protect their journalistic integrity,” Anne Onymus writes for Low End Mac. “there’s a fact that everyone seems to be overlooking – after over two years, Apple hasn’t released a breakout box for use with GarageBand.”
“The company has transitioned its Macs to Intel CPUs, introduced a plethora of new iPods, and even created a speaker system for the iPod, yet they haven’t released Asteroid. Sound suspicious? It should,” Onymus writes. “Since it hasn’t happened, it’s time to reveal the truth: Apple never intended to release ‘Asteroid’ to market.”
Full article here.
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Related articles:
Judge uses Wikipedia as source to blast Apple in ‘Asteroid’ case – May 30, 2006
Apple loses ‘Asteroid’ appeal in California’s 6th District Court – May 26, 2006
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If this is true, then it disappoints me, because I REALLY WANTED AN
ASTEROID! I was even eyeballing a new Epiphone electric / acoustic guitar
to accompany it.
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Remember iWalk ?
(magic word was forces)
sefan:
“If you value the role of the press in getting information out to the public (particularly of more substantive issue like gov’t corruption, etc), than you have to protect the press across the board.”
So, you argue that someone claiming to be a journalist should be able to publish anything anywhere anytime just in case some government employee might possibly in the indefinite future do something inappropriate according to some particularly subjective measure of objectionable behavior. Next week I hope to read about which medications you are prescribed, how much money you make, what websites you access, and what organizations you belong. Now I know that if “the government” was secretly collecting these data that this would be an example of heinous conduct, but if a journalist was to report this information this would be cause for rejoicing “across the board”. Right?
It is also comforting to know that the standards of professional journalism include reporting less important and meaningful items than just the unacceptable antics of your commonplace sleazy politician. I feel so much better as a concerned citizen understanding that professional journalists worldwide are reporting such enlightening, intellectual, and illuminating stories like the nefarious activities of Bat Boy and how to tell if your congressman is actually an alien from a distant galaxy.
http://www.citynewsstand.com/TopTen.htm
Yes, folks, according to stefan nothing is too salacious, too inane, too trivial, too invasive, or too stupid to be called professional journalism.
Guys, who said Apple had actually developed Asteriod?
Because nothing like it has seen the light of day, and note that no other “information” about it has been released, intercepted, leaked, whatever, there may have never been an Asteroid.
It’s called misinformation, and Apple may have placed it to search for leaks and to find out who was violating his/her NDA or simply leaking info out of Cupertino. If only a few people have the info, and it gets out, then you have narrowed your list of suspects down considerably.
Stefan, the only problem I have with what you said is that a free press isn’t the issue here, really. Is the entire internet considered the press? Who’s to say an project member who had signed a legally binding NDA couldn’t just safely violate that legal agreement and post it on his own anonymous blog, thus hiding behind your concept of an across the board free press. Seems a bit ridiculous to me, as before the internet, most items published as “news” generally had to get past the editors for both ethical and newsworthiness concerns. Now, hell, just post in on the internet, and go hide in your cave, and watch the fallout. Kind of like arsonists, who set fires, and then hang around watching all the excitement. Philosophically, this has little in common with the notion of a free press which is intended to keep the population more or less informed, especially of information which might be seriously important, unlike some pre-releasing of a possible future product being developed by your own company… somehow that just doesn’t quite have the same impact on my sensibilities. Maybe I can’t define the difference, but like the old saying on indecency, “I may not be able to define it, but I certainly know it when I see it.”
Justice does require some common sense, and the ability to discern subtleties and make judgements, not just go by some book. The leakers were wrong, they knew they were wrong, and there’s not much defense. It’s not like they were exposing some injustice or conspiracy, and doing the public good. They were only serving themselves and the rumor blogsites, who make money from traffic whether the news is accurate or not. Sorry, but I’m with Apple on this one.