Sydney Morning Herald Apple Tablet Rumours – When News Just Ain’t News

image source: Innoblog

So, the web is abuzz with Asher Moses’ story in the Sydney Morning Herald about Apple shopping the iTabletPadPod around Aussie media organisations. The story has even made top spot on TechMeme.

Let’s look at what Moses says after having spoken to unnamed sources:

• Apple Tablet coming
• Next year some time, probably pre-June
• Small enough to fit in handbag, too big for a pocket
• Apple is speaking to all media, including newspapers, about content deals
• Quotes the Bill Keller (Editor of the NYT) video where Keller was caught speaking off the record about an Apple tablet
• Says Fairfax Media’s (the company Moses writes for) Director of Marketing is “interested to see what Apple comes up with”
• Apple is working on a new album format (um, iTunes 9 + iTunes LP?…)

So what has he really said?

I mean, anyone could have inferred the “facts” of the story without having spoken to anyone, based on other rumours that have been floating around for the past year or so.

Let’s be clear, I’m not calling bullshit on this one. I have no doubt Asher has, in fact, spoken to someone at a large media organisation (Fairfax?) .

It’s just his story isn’t news , it’s a summary.

Now, if someone could get a video of Rupes and Jobsy having coffee and a chat, while entering in paid subscription details for WSJ content to be delivered via iTunes to an Apple iTabletPadPod, I’d call THAT news.

Anybody?