Filed under: Peripherals, Rumors, Apple
Asteroid a Hoax?
Anne Onymus (get it? hehe!) over at LowEndMac is hypothesizing that the entire Asteroid fiasco was all part of an evil Apple plan to quash rumor sites. The assumption is based on the fact that two years after the Asteroid leak, Apple still hasn't released a GarageBand breakout box. If Apple had actually put work into Asteroid, surely Jobs wouldn't be so petty as to shut down the entire project because of a leak? (Jobs is rumored to have pulled some product announcements at the last minute during MWSF2006 as a way of punishing the development teams for the leak.) Despite the fact that Apple's competitors then knew what was brewing in Cupertino, the company still had a good head start, and could surely have pushed the product to market well before anyone else. Anne postulates that Apple never had the slightest intention to release Asteroid, and created the product for the precise purpose of the leak. After the leak, Apple expected it would be a piece of cake to squash the rumor mill with a flood of law suits requesting the names of the mole. Instead, the EFF took over the case of the rumor sites, and a federal district court recently ruled that online journalists have all the rights and protections as the traditional media, effectively destroying Apple's claims.While an interesting idea, I think LowEndMac might have the paranoia meter set a bit high this week. Apple may be secretive, but until I see evidence to the contrary, I'm sticking with Occam's razor.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ben Englert said 11:02PM on 6-10-2006
Well there's always the M-Audio iControl, EXCLUSIVELY for Garageband.
And Apple collarborated with Apogee on the Ensemble.
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icruise said 2:24AM on 6-11-2006
Just read some of this person's predictions in the past to see that they aren't to be taken seriously (I can't quite tell if it's completely a parody or not, but it might as well be).
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kg said 2:48AM on 6-11-2006
Technically, M-Audio's iControl is not an exclusive GarageBand product, since it also works with Logic. Especially if you're going to put it in all caps. The original Asteroid rumors have very little in common with iControl anyway, being an audio interface and not a control surface.
The Apogee Ensemble is very interesting to pro users, who are waiting for it to ship right now. It's been pushed back at least once since its announcement. The current word is that Apple's native CoreAudio support is having problems with dropouts and stability (evidenced in Mackie's Onyx 400F interface problems in OS X), which may also be why Asteroid has not seen the light either.
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John Muir said 8:43AM on 6-11-2006
Regular Low End Mac reader here, Anne Onymous is mostly in jest. Kind of like the other non-non-fiction column they have there which is very noticeably surreal: The Lite Side.
Having read Revolution in the Valley though, sometimes you think twice...
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James Donevan said 9:07AM on 6-11-2006
Are there actually people with brains so small as to believe this drivel??
Apple, like any other company, frequently develops products to pre-production stage before pulling the plug. Jobs has acknowledged this on many occasions particularly with respect to new handheld products. Really folks, the TUAW postings need to have more merit than this. What next: Steve is actually a Martian sent here to take over the planet?
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David said 10:27AM on 6-11-2006
Contrary to what the entry says and what the EFF and other supporters of the leakers of Apple trade secrets would have you belive, the Californai Sixth District Court of Appeals *did not* rule that online journalists have all the rights and protections of traditional journalists. No amount of 'spin' by the EFF or other so-called 'journalists' will change that.
It's always a good idea to read the ruling for yourself and understand it, rather than repeating the same nonsense over and over.
As for Anne Onymus, what she's suggesting is that Apple is somehow obligated to actually introduce a product that is under development. Looks like she's been watching a few too many X-Files episodes.
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Sam said 11:09AM on 6-11-2006
@ #5.
If you dont like it, dont read it, and dont ruin the comments for everyone else. Let them have their opinion. Last time i checked, you dont run Weblog's Inc, and if you have better work to post, go make you own site. Good Luck with that. No one wants to hear you complain about this. You just add fuel to the fire with this "Steve is a martian" bull.
Good Day Sir.
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Buthidae said 11:18PM on 6-11-2006
Umm, Anne Onymus's posts on LowEndMac are satirical.
:thumbup:
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