thomas fitzgerald.net

There’s been a rumour doing the rounds the last few days that really doesn’t make sense. It started when some analyst (I think it was on techcrunch) said that they’d heard that Apple plans to offer people the ability to put their iTunes collection “in the cloud”. Basically, it would allow people to access their music anywhere in the world. CNET are now reporting that Apple have been talking to the record labels about the possibility. Needless to say the mac rumour web has jumped on this. I have doubts though. There’s one aspect in particular that just doesn’t make sense. Here’s an example From 9-5 Mac:

Once again, the extreme stupidity of certain tech blogs on the internet raises its ugly head. Following up from yesterday’s post about the insane “bounty” that Vallywag offered for anyone willing to reveal information about the Apple Tablet, Apple has unsurprisingly responded with its Lawyers.

“While Apple values and appreciates vibrant public commentary about its products, we believe you and your company have crossed the line by offering a bounty for the theft of Apple’s trade secrets. Such an offer is illegal and Apple insists that you immediately discontinue the Scavenger Hunt.”

Before Apple wowed everyone with the iPhone when it was first unveiled the usually active rumor mill went into overdrive. That, however paled into insignificance compared to the way the online technology community has lost their fricken’ minds over the upcoming tablet. For every rumor and idea that gets floated another one comes along to shoot it down. I think we’ve had every possible combination of feature and service that this thing is going to offer, along with another bunch of rumors claiming the first bunch of rumors is bogus. On top of that we’ve had people complain about the non existent device, argue how apple’s non existing policies regarding a non existent NDA for developers on a non existent product is going to stifle the development community.

I’ve been doing my best to avoid the whole tablet rumour scene, because for the most part the predictions are too vague and random for any of them to really hold weight, with the possible exception of the WSJ’s recent assertion of a media event on January 27th. I couldn’t help myself though when I came across this gem from Cult of Mac this evening:

According to reader Tom: “I just heard [to] be ready for a steep learning curve regarding the “new” Apple product about to be released [and its] interface. This person is an employee of Apple and had just had a meeting regarding some of the new things coming. He/She would not go into details, but did say that he/she hoped we liked learning.”