Apple is about to release the iWatch! No, wait, it's the Apple iTV! No, that's not it either, hang on. It's the iGlasses!
I've lumped those three together because they're all on a Word document I keep on my desktop called 'Not a Snowball's Chance in Hell'. And yet, if you stop your average man or woman in the street they'll know all about the iWatch. "Ah yes", they'll say. "Apple is about to bring it out!" with a look of smug satisfaction that says they know they have their finger on the pulse of modern technology.
No, Apple is not about to bring it out. Or maybe it is, but the fact is that nobody actually knows what Apple is about to do, except Apple, and it isn't talking. We've all being fooled by an overly click-hungry technology press who so over-report every Apple rumour that you'd be forgiven for thinking they're all fact. Every time I visit my in-laws at the moment I get locked into a conversation with my father-in-law about how Apple is about to release the iWatch. When I say that nobody really knows for sure he looks at me in disbelief, as if I'm stupid. Of course, that's also a possibility, but looking around the headlines on various websites I can see how we got here.
"Apple has a team of 100 people working on smart watch".
"Apple Said to Have Team Developing Wristwatch Computer"
"Apple iWatch 'heading into production'"
Yes, I admit I could be wrong and Apple is about to unleash the iWatch. (Hey, remember that stupid tablet rumour in 2009?) And if it does then I really hope they call it something better than an iWatch. But either way, there has to be a better way of sorting out the reporting of Apple rumours so that there's a clearer differentiation between fact and (however well informed) fiction. It's not the individual stories that are the problem, it's their combined weight and Apple's own secrecy, and tendency to selectively leak information, doesn't help the situation either.
I'm not sure what the solution is, but I'm sure we should be doing better.