“Apple Computer has filed suit against a Mac rumor site alleging that proprietary information and trade secrets were posted there. Rumors on the site include plans for a budget-priced Mac, an Apple-developed line of office software and potential marketing plans that the company claims are confidential,” Elizabeth Millard writes for NewsFactor Network.
“Apple may be attempting to spread misinformation, says Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg. With the company’s annual conference just a week away, the lawsuits could distract observers from actual plans. ‘They’re making a loud noise, and that could be protecting whatever they’re going to say next week.’ Given Apple’s avid customer base, the balance between sparking interest and protecting trade secrets is particularly delicate,” Millard writes.
“‘These type of passionate users are the core of Apple’s customers, so they don’t want to alienate them,’ Gartenberg noted. ‘At the same time, Apple has built a mystique around its events and product launches, and they certainly don’t like their thunder taken away by a rumor site,’ he added,” Millard writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve come full circle, and earlier than expected. To recap: first we have the rumor, then we have the naysayers who don’t believe it arguing with those who can’t wait for the rumored product, then we have another rumor and more arguing. Finally Apple fires off some cease and desist letters and/or files a lawsuit or two. Then we get arguing about whether or not Apple’s doing the right thing trying to bring the law to bear. Then, for good measure, we get some more rumors, with their attendant arguments mixed in with the Apple lawsuit stories. Then we finally get the “it’s all a smokescreen to hide the REAL secrets” stuff. The good news? The actual Steve Jobs’ Macworld keynote is less than four days away on January 11 at 09:00 AM – 10:30 AM. With any luck a few more rumors and the stuff that goes with them will happen before the line begins to form for Jobs’ presentation. Only with Apple.
Good grief. Filing a lawsuit is serious business. Frivolous ones can cause a company lots of money. Apple isn’t that stupid. The analyst, on the other hand……….
Ah, but have you seen the latest leaked pics of the new budget Mac MDN? Very nice indeed ….
You say you’ve got leaked pics of the budget Mac? Let’s see ’em. Anything like
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cute
Hahahhahaha, BSOD!
Man that was a blast from the past, I cringed at the feeling of nastalgia, all those papers I had to write on that in middle scool, oooooooooooh.
I actually said something similiar to this in a previous thread. Not a smokescreen necessarily, but perhaps this is an attempt by apple to scare people off from revealing anything further because some the really big stuff had not hit the rumor mills yet and they wanted to assure that it did not.
But then again, with Apple, who knows?
Elizabeth Millard = Sherlock F*cking Holmes
Dunno… if they can fit a Mac into a LCD monitor, I am sure they can put a “headless” Mac in just the keyboard.
I posted a link to daringfireball twice and each time they were removed. I felt that the article had relevance to this specific topic. Why was it deleted??
Its only a few more days until Steve’s presentation… Thank Heavens!
Then we can all go back to work instead of crawling the web looking for more info and rumours about our favorite tool.
Remember guys… its just a tool, not a religion.
macnut222,
Maybe it was removed because you or some other joker keeps shamelessly posting the same link to virtually every remotely related article that MDN posts. It’s just annoying. Buy a frickin’ ad already or cut it out. Flaming the site with the same link over and over is getting old.
macnut222,
I read the article and felt it had significance as well. For those of you that think that Apple is somehow cooperating or behind Think Secret, this article gives some good reasons why it wouldn’t make sense for Apple propogate rumors. Anyway, here is the link once again and maybe this time it can stay:
http://daringfireball.net/2005/01/the_rumor_game
BSOD,
I don’t see how you are any different than macnut222, but feel free to prove me wrong, I don’t mind being enlightened.
BSOD,
Good one.
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But, an eMac in a keyboard. Hmmm.
Wow. This is so lame. What is up with the Jim Jones types insisting on planting their “daring fireball” links on every thread they can find. Even after MDN removes their posts, they just keep coming with the same bullshit about how ‘significant’ and ‘relevant’ it is. It’s just some guy’s lame weblog! Get over it and bring your own comments to the table.
It wasn’t me, BSOD. I respect this site too much to bombard it with repeated posts.
I just wanted to show a different point of view than that of the analyst’s.
No smokescreen, nothing of the kind. Attorney’s are too expensive to use as PR hacks. PR hacks are much more affordable. ;-]
Oh yes, that “photo” reminds me of the iMac G5 in elevator photos prior to the Paris Expo. Apple simply doesn’t leave open boxes of new products for all to see days before an event. Every Apple item to be put on display at MWSF will not arrive until Sunday and new products won’t be put out (and they will be covered with cloths) until late Monday night/early Tuesday morning. That’s the way it’s always been. People are so gullible. They want to believe everthing. We’ll know for sure next Tuesday if Apple does indeed release a low priced Mac of some kind. I’m more excited about the possiblity of a flash-based iPod.
Analyst and Millards are a step below the great apes, the problem is Analyst and Millards can write and speak, in this case thats a BIG neg. I apologize to all of the great apes if i’ve offended any on them.
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BSOD,
I read some of your posts in an earlier thread and I think I understand a little more clearly now your feelings on the matter of the “daring fireball” links. I agree with the point you make about about someone merely trying to generate some traffic to their own site, but I think this instance with macnut222 is purely innocent.
I think Apple cracked the speech recognition problems by utilizing the 64-bit power of the G5, thus opening the door for a keyboardless computer. The Star Trek computer may be here!!
By combining their…
– advanced speech recognition (under the guise of a “handicap” feature
– advanced/fast file search abilities with Spotlight
– OS X 10.2 changed the menu items’ wording to be more distinct when spoken
– adding audio features in the OS core
– extraordinary focus on audio compression technologies
– multinational spelling and grammar checkers
– enhanced fonts, especially foreign
– lack of focus on mouse improvements
– lack of apparent focus on office software because all efforts were on developing an office software suite customized for speech recognition
– the current iMac design would be PERFECT for such a computer!
– close ties with Motorola to produce personal computer control via audio-only using a mobile phone w/ audio and video feedback
– remember when Apple played with audio passwords? They felt they were showing their cards too soon, and dropped it.
– it still amazes many programmers that the lowly Mac can be taught what to understand by simply typing the phrase in normal English rather than phonetically (Drag the URL of Apple.com to your “Speakable Items” folder – rename it “Apple’s home page” – quit your browser – turn on Speech Recognition and say “Apple’s home page” … waaay cool!! No need to put applications’ aliases here, just say “open” and then the application name, Mac automatically looks for it in its own directory of installed applications, regardless where they are located on the hard drive.)
An intelligent, keyboardless, iMac will make the CES look like a garage sale.
If its a headless iMac, it will go for only $99 because all that will be left is the stand.
I’m done reading anymore rumor stories until after MW. This has become infantile.
People on the Think Secret forums are saying that the sotr of Apple suing TS was a rumor started by ThinkSecret. If you go to TS’ website they make no mention of the complaint.
Actually, BSOD might well be on to something. OSX is a UNIX based OS, and pipes all graphics processing to a dedicated GPU. Sounds rather like un updated Amiga to me. Maybe the comparison has inspired someone at Apple to look into the form factor of a low end machine.
The aMac. I like it.
Well…
I read that Apple is ready to release the G6 in the new Power Mac [enclosure made of carbon fiber] line and is dropping Tiger deveopment alltogether … instead it’s going to relaese a Beta of Gorilla aka: OS XI [eleven]…