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Apple Tablet: Valleywag Offers $100,000 Bounty
Of course it isn't VAR related, but who can't stop wondering about the mythical tablet from Cupertino. Early on January 14th, 2010, Valleywag.org offered $100,000 to anyone willing to let them play with a prototype for just an hour, and $10,000 for mere photographs. Needless to say, Apple was not amused. Here's the scoop:
Dave Courbanou
January 15, 2010
2 Min Read
valleywag apple tablet
Of course it isn’t VAR related, but who can’t stop wondering about the mythical tablet from Cupertino. Early on January 14th, 2010, Valleywag.org offered $100,000 to anyone willing to let them play with a prototype for just an hour, and $10,000 for mere photographs. Needless to say, Apple was not amused. Here’s the scoop:Both MacRumors.com and Gizmodo followed the story. It’s short, simple and sweet, but it’s loaded with implications. Valleywag posted the following image on their site:
Shortly after this was posted, Apple sent their legal dogs to Gawker Media Inc. with a cease and desist order, quite firmly worded.
Basically, it said that what Valleywag / Gawker was doing was up to no good, even with their cute ‘scavenger hunt’ intentions. Also, quite obviously, anyone who had secrets about the tablet would surely under NDA. Trade secrets are owned by Apple, and ipso-facto, the ‘scavenger hunt’ for the exposure of such secrets were very, very illegal.
Apple’s lawyers gave them to the end of the day to comply, but it looks like they’re skirting in some gray legal territory with egging their readers on and asking for submissions via anonymous emails. They did, however, announce that Steve Jobs, his lawyers and Apple had won first prize. They did so with a very crudely photoshopped image of Jobs as Moses holding two stone tablets, one with an Apple logo on it. The legal letter was also available for consumption. But the bigger story here it’s nearly a confirmation of what we’ve already known: the Tablet does, indeed, exist. For Apple to be so quick to snap on this can only mean it’s very real and — by my speculations — very cool.
The most interesting thing to come out of this though is not more rumors of its existence, but actually, to the contrary Gawker writes.
Since we started offering prizes for proof the thing exists, lots of people have been sending in those fakes. But perhaps the most interesting submission was this:
I am writing to inform you that I have specific knowledge regarding the Apple tablet. I regret to inform you that there is no Apple tablet. These many months of endless tablet rumors have been the biggest hoax in tech history. Apple knows this, I know this, and soon the public will know this. Again, there is no Apple Tablet….zero….non-existent.
But it’s not just him. Jason Snell, the editorial director of the company that publishes MacWorld magazine, has been trying to convince Twitter that there is no Apple Tablet, writing last month, “It’s imaginary until it exists (or until there’s solid evidence) — right now it’s whatever you want it to be.”
Well, the 27th is almost here. Bets, anyone?
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