Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers
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Apple cracks down on Valleywag
THE APPLE RELIGION has thrown down a fatwa on the scribes at Valleywag for daring to post a bounty on a picture of an Apple tablet.
The existence of the Apple tablet, sometimes called the Second Coming of the Newton, is an article of faith in the Mac fanboy community. No one has ever seen it, even Apple denies it exists, yet more has been written about the Apple tablet than about any other non-existent product including Duke Nukem Forever.
What got Valleywag's goat was noticing something we have been saying for years, that Apple has such control of the mainstream press that it can confidently put out rumours of vapourware that perhaps act as spoilers for other products.
This control of the tame traditional press was noticed at CES when most companies released a tablet and they widely ignored those.
However Valleywag's offering of a bounty for hard proof of the existence of the Apple tablet seems to have attracted the attention of Apple's legal eagles.
They sent out a cease and desist letter demanding that Valleywag withdraw the bounty. Apparently offering the bounty would mean that someone, somewhere would have to breach Apple's non-disclosure agreement (NDA). At least one young Chinese man was found dead at the bottom of a tall building after having been accused of breaking an Apple NDA, so this is pretty serious stuff.
Valleywag pointed out that Apple would not have done this, or said all that, if there was not a tablet for it to defend. It's like you can't fear a leak of information about a product if it doesn't really exist.
So, in a roundabout way, Apple has confirmed the existence of a tablet by threatening to sue Valleywag.
The outfit is thanking the Apple legal team for its efforts in leaking the news, but says that it falls short of what it wanted to claim the bounty. µ
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...notice who signed that cease& desist over at Vallwag?
...a Mr SPILL n' Er.... very appropriate..
Its just a computer. Sure, it might be slightly prettier and lighter but less powerful then the others in its class. But since its made by the Apple, it will do everything that you wish as long as what you wish for is what Apple decides you can do.
Nick F will be among the first lining up to get one of the first of these mythical/legendary/other tablets. After all, it'd be amusing.
No doubt Apple found the design for their tablet among the formerly molten remains of the golden calf Moses cast the first ten commandments tablets into.
They're just trying to protect us, lest the world suffer something akin to the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Chicken-hearted and gutless to blame a non-disclosure agreement you couldn’t beat in the ratings. Valleyswag's Scavenger Hunt has amounted to a
12:05 AM deathbed conversion pact
with the devil
@Joe E:
You certainly seem to be the only one who *cares* what the situation was in the 90s, since youre the one that brought it up.
Even assuming it was relevant, that was 20 years ago. Get with the program, grandad.
LMAO; was author Nick Farrell even alive in the '90s? "Apple has such control of the mainstream press" is possibly the most absurdly naive thing I've read thus far in 2010. Am I the only one left who remembers when any product-launch misstep or money-losing quarter at Apple was widely reported in the media as indicative of their imminent demise, regardless of how many billions they had in cash on hand, or how thoroughly they dominated certain key markets (e.g. the Mac in publishing and recording industries)?
Apple, that's excellent way to confirm the existence of the product.
Nicf, super piece for The Inq in true Inq style!
I saw this report on theiSlateinsider.com earlier and thought it was hilarious, obviously a way to get more visitors to their site, but you kinda have to have balls to put out a bribe like that against Apple employees! LOL