Macenstein

Posted by Igor
Opinion

In a bold and decisive move, Apple rumor site Think Secret has flip-flopped for the 3rd time in a week on what we can all expect at Tomorrow’s Apple event. Or have they?

These days, it seems the best way to be sure a rumor site does not get sued by Apple is to make sure you’ve pretty much been quoted as saying almost everything is coming out. That way, Apple ( and more importantly, its lawyers) can’t take you too seriously. Or, if they DO, and you end up in court, you can always point to your vast pile of B.S. articles that never happened as your defense.

It also works well for justifying your predictions to your site’s fans. Think Secret can in all honesty start every “post-Apple-announcement” article with the words ‘as Think Secret first told you (2, 3, 14 etc.) months ago…’, because at some point, they have pretty much said Apple will invent almost anything.

This technique was pioneered and then subsequently perfected by the site Mac Os Rumors, who’s “sources” have not been right in years. However, wild predictions for future Apple projects like PVRS, PDAs, in-store Apple cell phone towers and iPhones, pretty much covers it for anything Apple is likely (or not likely) to invent in the foreseeable future. Currently we believe MOSR’s sources to be Think Secret’s website, so look for MOSR to post an “update” corraborating Think Secret’s “sources”, probably by the time you read this.

On the surface, it would seem this tactic of predicting “flying Apple-branded cars” would hurt the rumor site industry as a whole, and discredit the individual sites in the eyes of their readers. However, just as we Apple zealots tend to forget Apple’s less-than-stellar products, and instead focus on what we truly love about the company’s offerings, the same holds true for lovers of rumors. We can forgive the occasional “Apple to install cell phone towers in their retail stores to support its own wireless network” as long as we also get “video iPods tomorrow”. Rumors are like heroine to the Mac faithful. You need to have quite a few REALLY bad experiences before you are willing to give them up.

In defense of Think Secret, however, if one looks back at their postings, you will notice that while they may appear to be flip-flopping as much as any other rumor site leading up to tomorrow’s announcement, their last posting before an event is almost ALWAYS right. Does this mean they are purposely holding back the real goods until the last moment to avoid a law suit? Or are they just waiting to see what the general consensus of the rumor world is before “predicting”.

Either way, by waiting until the last minute to post what they believe to be the truth, TS has allowed themselves to hold on to their title as the most accurate Apple rumor site out there. Unfortunately, TS almost ALWAYS changes their predictions within a day of the event, so we usually get to know what Apple will release a couple hours before they announce it.

Not exactly the heroine fix we were looking for.

So, as of 11:28 PM, the day before the announcement, based on Think Secret’s latest posting, we can all look forward to video iPods tomorrow.

Just “As Think Secret first predicted months ago”!

[UPDATE] At 11:45 AM Think Secret has once again “revised” it’s predictions for the Apple event.
They now claim a some video content will be available for iPods, but we will not see a new model marketed specifically as a video iPod.
That is cutting it close, even for Think Secret.