Love Hate Relationship With Apple Rumors
There is a certain thrill in following Apple rumors leading up to a keynote. What is Apple planning for Mac OS X and which cat comes after Leopard? What fabulous new products are going to appear when the store comes back online? Will the iPhone have GPS with navigation software? The possible answers to all of these questions and more can be found on a wide variety of Apple and gadget related sites.
Between Macworld and WWDC the average Apple follower has read thousands of blog posts discussing topics from the iPhone to ultra portable notebooks. The exciting (and sometimes disappointing) thing for many come keynote day is finding out how big of a sucker they were for the past five months. How many fabricated stories did they buy into? How much time did they squander reading crap designed to drive traffic and advertising impressions/clicks?
The fact is that an estimated 97% of what you have read was wrong. The rumor sites likely got you excited for *something* that Apple is not currently planning to deliver. I have written this post to help many who are struggling to deal with the post-keynote blues. The following points will help you avoid these pitfalls between this Apple announcement and the next.
A picture is worth a thousand words. In many cases this is true, but we are talking about Apple rumors here. When viewing leaked product images you should know that a picture is worth one of two words -- real or fake. Realistically the ratio is 1 real leaked image for every 75-100 altered images.
The problem is that after seeing a wide variety of altered images it is hard to believe anyone who claims to have a real image of new products. By the time Steve Jobs shares the real thing during the keynote it is hard to believe what you are seeing. Wait a minute Steve -- that looks like a Photoshop image if I have ever seen one!
The trick to writing a good rumor is the strategic placement of publicly known or widely accepted details mixed in with the desired fabricated statements. For example, everyone has been talking about a 3G iPhone for months. AT&T, CNN, analysts, even Apple let on that they were going to have 3G in the future. So this serves as a good base for the story.
Next, a good rumor writer will let you know why you should believe the story. This is one area where you can tell a rookie from a true craftsman -- how cleaver are they with providing a source for the information. Don't believe any rumor unless it comes from a reliable source close to the situation, a chip manufacturer, or Apple!
Notice how the following sample paragraph uses these techniques to successfully fool the unsuspecting site visitor:
I would also like to suggest that you stop reading any post that uses the phrase 'Take this with a grain of salt'. Translation: We have no idea what we are talking about, but since you are here would you mind clicking on a few of our unrelated advertisements?
So who can you trust? Well, when it comes to Apple rumors you can't really trust anyone. Apple is just too darn sneaky with their plans. If you absolutely must have your rumors I would suggest visiting popular sites that are not rumor driven. For example, posts on The Unofficial Apple Weblog cover a wide variety of non-rumor topics (and they even had a few posts about Snow Leopard prior to the keynote). The pages we enjoy section in the navigation to the right contains a few of my favorite sites.
The most important thing you can do when reading rumors is to remain calm and skeptical. This is often easier said than done. A solution to this is to visit sites that have authors who have the ability to see through the bull and look at things logically. My favorite source for this is Daring Fireball by John Gruber.
Bonus tip... The further away we are from an Apple event the lower the quality you can expect from rumor sites.
I think a lot of sites just accept information from "anonymous" individuals who claim to know what they are talking about. Not sure why site owners allow articles to be published without checking sources.
A lot of these rumor sites are run by fanboys. They think if they can build enough excitement for a feature that Apple will see the light and add it to the phone.
I have been a little off this week and haven't been able to put my finger on the issue until now. I have the post-keynote blues. Thanks for putting a name to it.
Things would be going a lot better right now if Apple would have released the iPhone 3G or the AppStore the day of the keynote.
Reading these websites gets me excited for something big and then reality sets in and we are left waiting again. Now I need to visit these sites more often to get me through to the next announcment. :-)
What else do you expect the Apple blogs to talk about? Apple doesn't release enough news to keep 100+ blogs pumping out original content on a daily basis. All they have left is rumors and copying TUAW and Engadget stories.
You can safely start listing to rumors a day or two before major media events. Any sooner than that and you are setting yourself up for dissapointment.
Why do you people even spend time reading gossip forums? Just wait for the announcements from Apple.
I loves me some good rumors. It seems like there aren't as many as there was before the iPhone was originally released. Maybe they used up all their creativity.
I wish there was a rumor going around claiming that the GPS features of the new iPhone included something more than a dot on a Google map. Like maybe some navigation features. Sure this is their first release with GPS but come on. I have come to expect more from Apple.
I keep telling myself that I am going to stop reading the rumor sites because they are seldom correct and everyday I go back for more. Someone please help me.