Fake Apple dock connector leak shows why you should never trust leaks and rumors
You shouldn’t trust leaks and rumors. Ever. If something doesn’t come through official channels, my advice is to assume it’s fake and instead treat it as speculation. Whereas leaks and rumors often come with blurry photos and from sources “familiar with” something, the latest leak, which is a confirmed fake, shows exactly how unreliable such information is simply because it’s much more professionally done than most fake information.
The (fake) story goes something like this: Apple accidentally posted an adapter for the rumored new dock connector in its US online store, complete with images and a compatibility list. That compatibility list not only “confirms” a new iPhone, iPod touch, and iPod nano, but also shows a smaller ~8-inch iPad. Someone found this product listing, and recorded their computer monitor browsing to the site, trying out the buttons and such on the site, and generally proving that it was real, as Apple promptly removed the site once it was known.
The actual story (at least if you trust that as being real) is that a high school student with a history of faking Apple leaks made the whole thing for a school project on viral marketing and internet rumors. Aside from an alleged message from the maker of the video, people have pointed out several obvious mistakes in the video itself – mistakes that are obvious if you’re looking for them, at least. These range from the use of the UK “colour” on a US website to the price not matching Apple standards, though the most definite proof is that no search engines have any record of the website, which is how you normally find removed websites.
If you don’t look for these mistakes, it’s hard to deny that the video is convincing. It’s much harder to fake a video like this than to simply fake an image, especially when such images are often blurry. I guess that the less proof someone has, the harder it is to spot errors in that proof.
[TUAW]
