“Well, let’s see now, Apple has filed a lawsuit against the rumor site that broke the “news” about the impending release of the fabled headless iMac, so that definitely means that the product is for real, doesn’t it? Apple wouldn’t go to such great lengths to protect its secrets if they weren’t even real, would it? I mean, you don’t sue a site that published rumors that didn’t even come from inside Apple, so the rumors have to be true…right? Yeah, right,” Bill Palmer writes for BillPalmer.net.
“I don’t believe for one second that Apple’s lawsuit against the website that posted the headless iMac rumor means anything as far as the rumor being true,” Palmer writes. “For all we know, Apple decided to intentionally spread a false rumor to certain employees, just to see where that misinformation ended up surfacing, so they could figure out just who it was that leaked it. And if you’re Apple and you’re going to throw something fake out there, then why not use the most laughably false rumor in Apple history?”
Palmer writes, “I don’t know if we’ll ever know what it was that caused the most absurd rumor in Apple history to suddenly find legs this year when it had always petered out in the past. But I do know one thing: I don’t see Apple’s lawsuit as having told us anything about the headless iMac one way or the other… I gave the headless iMac rumor a zero percent chance of being true prior to the lawsuit, and I give a zero percent chance of being true now.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Say what you will about Bill, but he’s staked out his limb quite clearly and he doesn’t seem to be budging, no matter what. If Bill’s right, we won’t forget it here at MDN. Same goes for if Bill’s wrong.
Who is Bill, and why is he telling me his opinion?
I didn’t ask.
Does Bill “Harry” Palmer have a good track record in debunking rumors or something? If not, then why quote his random rants from his amateurish web log here?
Just wondering.
By the way, my magic word is “showed.” Just a second ago it was “shown.” Interesting.
Bill knows what he is doing. Think Secret is doing more harm than good. Bill is on the right side of this argument.
I don’t believe the headless Mac is coming. If Apple really wants to get into the cheap Mac space, surely just dropping the price of the eMac is the way to go? No additional R&D costs, no additional manufacturing costs. They will still sell into education and businesses and grow the market that way.
Any high-tech company makes lots of prototypes and creates products that never see the light of day for some reason or another. So, it is conceivable that Apple has made a headless xMac or media server at some point, and maybe even had folks who’ve signed NDAs test them out.
It doesn’t mean it’s a product that Apple will ever sell.
I don’t agree with Bill, I think an xMac at this point may make sense IF and only IF Apple can make them by the shipload and keep up with demand. Apples supply history only supports their current high-margin philosophy.
I am sure there are even versions of OS X that are routinely compiled on x86 processors “just in case”. Who knows, maybe Jobs is having himself cloned, too. Anyway, Apple is far more prepared and agile than ever before. If it can get out of its historical component supply issues and ship stuff whenever we want to buy it, then Apple is truly a force to watch. Microsoft has never been so vulnerable, too.
The Expo will be fun to watch. That’s about the only certainty here!
I think ThinkSecret has more to lose than this guy.. maybe i’m out to lunch
I think Apple has more to lose – and gain – than this guy or ThinkSecret.. maybe I’M out to lunch
Bill is by no means an expert commentator, but he is knowledgable and I think he sees this rumor for what it is. Nothing but bunk. I am more willing to believe that the eMacs are dropping in price to something like $599, than a cheap mac with no monitor for $499… I’m on Bill’s side here. This rumor makes no sense, business, common or otherwise…
I don’t know if the rumor is true or not but personally I think it would make sense right now for Apple to do something like this. I usually agree with Bill Palmer and he is certainly entitled to his (in my estimation) valuable opinion. But in this case he seems to be stretching really hard to have what he has been predicting be true. I also don’t know that his separating Mac Users on the web from the “other ninety-nine percent of Mac users” rings true with me. Maybe to some extent but certainly not to the level he implies. Oh well, as MDN said, we will know soon enough. And even if Bill proves to be wrong, I will still read his blog from time to time but would probably take it with a bit more of a grain of salt.
It makes no sense for apple to file a law suit if it’s not true. The lawyers would be subject to sanctions and loss of license. There has to be SOME merit to it.
As I’ve been saying all along, people’s a*ses are on the line here. If it turns out to be false, the rumor sites will have credibility of less than zero forever. If Bill is wrong, he’s going to take a hit too. Either way, Tuesday should be a monumental day in the history of the Macintosh. I only hope it’s monumental for what did happen rather than what didn’t…
I have learned over the years to not get too excited about all these wiz bang products Apple is rumored to reveal at Macworld. And as much I wish this one to be true, I fear it will go the way of the all those other rumored products that never materialized.
However, I think Mr Palmer is dead wrong about this not making sense for Apple. It would be a huge hit.
But Apple doesn’t seem to care so much about winning the PC/OS market share battle as much as the Macfanatics do. Sure it would be nice to get back up to at least a 5% share. But lets not kid ourselves folks. The OS battle has been won….not by the best OS, just by the company that got it out there smarter.
Now move on and enjoy the new and improved Apple…a really cool, innovative company that likes to make tools for the “crazy ones” who some people thing are crazy because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
While some see them as the crazy ones, Apple sees genius.
“Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Apple Computer
Let the countdown to macworld begin! I can’t wait!
Why the iHome Pics are FAKED
If you want to see them, do a Google on “iHome Photos” and you’ll be presented with all sorts of sources for the photos and video.
Why they are faked…
The person who faked the photos did a great job, but forgot that the position of the handle means that when the box is carried from the store by a happy Apple customer – the labelling will be upside down. This is unlike all the other Apple boxes with handles, which are (naturally) designed to advertise to others as the box is being carried.
Nice try…. but no cigar!
I’m not going to read the whole article, but I think there is a point to be made. Some people assume that because the lawsuits have started, Apple is simply protecting their secrets, and therefore legitimizing the rumor sites. However, I want to make the argument that Apple is actually protecting themselves because it’s possible (not definite, I’m not sure whether the rumors are true) that the product doesn’t exist.
In other words, a rumor site starts a rumor about a cheap iMac, even though it isn’t real. Hopes are high, and if SJ doesn’t deliver at Macworld, then everybody (Mac users and PC users) are going to be majorly disappointed in Apple. The result is a loss in sales and a loss in credibility for the company.
If the product doesn’t exist, would Apple just allow these sites to continue posting these “rumors” that in teh end will hurt them? Probably not. So they throw up these lawsuits to force them to stop spreading “rumors” so people won’t be so damn disappointed.
Make any sense?
It makes no sense for apple to file a law suit if it’s not true
—
Maybe because they don’t want every one to know what’s true and what’s not based on whether or not a lawsuit is filed.
Obviously they’re not going to say, this lawsuit is directed as X rumour because it’s true.. so your comment is weightless.
Why the iHome Pics are FAKED – Part 2
The packaging of the “iHome” unit has nothing to hold the unit from falling against the lid.
Nope – Apple doesn’t ship their laptops this way, and they sure wouldn’t ship this unit that way.
“If I were running Apple…I would get busy on the next big thing.”
“The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago.”
-Steve P. Jobs, 1996
I already own a G4 “headless Mac” and its great! I’ve been using it for months too. It is less than 1 inch thick, and has a built in keyboard! If you want I can post some pictures of it…but you will think it looks sort of familar.
You see, I dropped my Titanium PowerBook and the screen broke off so I hooked it up to an external monitor and, Ta Da! A “Headless Mac”!!
Now, if Apple could essentially make it way back in 1999, when I bought my PowerBook, why can’t they do it now?
Maybe they don’t want to. Hmmmmm.
correction
My TiBook dates back to 2001, I think, not 1999. It just seems like I’ve had it forever. Still, it make a nice Headless Mac!
In the last Quicktime conference call, I remember Phil Shiller stating that one of Apple’s new objectives was to “increase marketchare.” There was no folow-up information, but his answer was promted by an analysts question about the upcoming quarter.
It seems that perhaps Apple is for once seeking to regain the position it should have held all along. I surely hope so.
One side says the $500 Mac rumor is true, the other side says it’s false. And MDN is playing both sides against the middle because MDN is afraid to put their own opinion on the line. So whether the rumor proves true or false, MDN will make themselves look right in any case.
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments_opinion/4592/
Well, I have to say Think Secret has usually been right, especially with rumors so close to Macworld. As someone else said, the fact that they sued Think Secret rather than issuing a cease and desist means nothing. In the original report, Apple cited examples such as the “headless iMac” and the “flash-based iPod” among others, not saying of course which were true/false. Issuing a cease-and-desist would immediately expose the correct rumor. So, they could be suing only for the flash-based iPod rumor, or the headless iMac, or both. But if the headless iMac rumor was false, I would think that someone at Apple would deny it: since the press has made such a big deal about it, it’s gonna look really bad if they don’t announce it at Macworld. So, I’m thinking this rumor is probably true. Whether it’s called iHome and those pics floating around are at all accurate is another matter.
Adam
“Bill is on the right side of this argument.”
No, he isn’t. Guess what Bill? cpr86 is right and you’re wrong. It’s illegal to file false lawsuits. No matter what Apple’s motivation might be, to suggest that they filed a lawsuit merely to throw people off the trail is simply laughable. Any lawyer who was party to such a thing would deserve what they got, namely disbarment.
This post was brought to you by the word barratry.
Hey, if he’s so sure, why didn’t Bill promise to eat his hat or something if he is wrong? I mean, now we have nothing on him. This is no fun.
Why do some people feel that MDN has to take a side? It’s a rumor, not an election. I take these rumors as nothing more than rumors, and wait to see what happens at the expo. I think people who take a side as passionately at Bill Palmer does are the weird ones. How do they know? Everyone can have their opinion, but why would you belittle those who do not share your opinion? Is it that important to Bill to be able to say “I told you so”?