Well… It looks like the "iHome" pictures are genuine, but the product featured in them is not. Simon Woodside has done some Photoshop magick to show that the Apple logo and "iHome" text are actually on a piece of paper taped to the top of the "iHome" box. Oh well.
Monthly Archive for January, 2005
Paul Thurrott has posted a link and comments to a Forbes article entitled "Apple Bites the Fans That Feed It", referring to the lawsuit Apple has made against Think Secret.
But Paul (and the author of the Forbes article) miss the point of the lawsuit, which was raised by John Gruber yesterday - while some of the rumours get a small percentage of Mac users happy and hyped up about the expos and product releases, the false (or incorrect) rumours can hurt Apple and that's what it wants to stop.
John Gruber provides the example of the iPod Mini:
The iPod Mini was unveiled at $249, but Think Secret's pre-Expo reporting - which was as widely cited as this year's reporting on the "headless" iMac - set expectations that they were going to sell for $100 or $150.
When Steve Jobs announced the $249 price during the keynote, the audience's disappointment was palpable. If Think Secret had been in cahoots with Apple regarding this leak, surely the rumored price would have been higher than the real price, not lower.
Applying this to the "$500 Mac":
The "it's too expensive!" peanut gallery reaction when the Mini debuted last year was partly fueled by the low-cost expectations set by Think Secret's rumor. I've been thinking the same thing could happen again - what if Apple's plan for next week is to release a cool new "headless" Mac with decent specs, but at a price of, say, $699 or $799? If it had remained a secret, it might have been hailed immediately as a terrific new low-cost Mac. Or what if it is G5-based, but costs $999? If Apple unveils something at those prices Tuesday, the immediate reaction will be that it was "supposed" to have cost $499.
Or, what if the rumored cheap iMac and the new iWork office suite exist, but aren't ready to be announced at Macworld next week? In which case post-keynote press coverage is likely to focus on what wasn't announced, rather than what was. Clearly, this would be worse for Apple than if the products had remained secret until they were ready to be announced.
He makes some excellent points…
So get over yourself, Paul. Apple has not forgotten about the Mac.
The Sydney Morning Herald has an article with some details about how an alleged Australian "terrorist", Mamdouh Habib, was tortured, namley in Egypt. I don't think anyone should be treated in such a way, especially when he had not been proven guilty. The people who engage in these acts should be thrown in jail and left to rot - but that won't happen. *sigh*
Wired has a great interview with Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent: "The BitTorrent Effect". The author raises the fact that although BitTorrent is mainly used for piracy, its creator seems to have no interest in using it for that purpose.
The article also raises the possibility of online movie stores in the future. What if Apple (or another company) used BitTorrent to distribute files to people who "rent" the movies? That would be great… (and certainly faster).
John Gruber talks about "The Rumor Game" and why it probably isn't such a good thing.
Engadget has some news on the naviPlay Bluetooth adapter for the iPod that was announced some time ago, including a picture. While I was initially very interested in this, the price is horrendous - US$199 for the adapter, or US$240 when bundled with HP Bluetooth headphones. No thanks.
The OmniGroup has released OmniWeb 5.1 and OmniOutliner 3. Go get them!
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