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Apple Blacklists "Rumor Promoting" Publications
Billy_D_Goat writes "Talk about control, Apple has now decided it can block users from recieving media passes at MacWorld Expo It blacklists these users by deciding if they run "rumor promoting" publications. This includs the webmasters of sites which have little to do with rumors or speculation such as Graphicpower.com/." Probably
just bitter cuz Steve's thunder seems to get stolen at every show, and
their lawyers can't seem to stop it ;)
...doesn't seem like a wise idea on Apple's part. Why would you restrict access at ALL to a Mac convention? You could do that if you had an overpowering presence in the computing world... but seeing as Apple hasn't had that since 1984 , it just seems bogus to me. Restricting access for your own fans and users just seems like a daffy idea to me. Lordfly
hookers and grits.
So? Apple can do what it likes. It runs the expo, and decides who gets the media passes.
It makes sense for them to not give special access passes out to those who they know are going to publish only the negative aspects of the expo. Obviously, they don't like bad press.
Really, they are just trying to get the media they allow special access to print more balanced reports. You can't say fairer than that!
But threatening the press is never good. "Never get into an argument with someone who buys ink by the barrel."
Don't go to MacWorldExpo(tm). Don't support Apple(tm).
Who is ever going to be turned away from LinuxWorld(tm)?
It's their show, and they can do anything they want. Nobody's free speech rights are being infringed upon, since this is a private event. Apple is only trying to stop the wild speculation that diminishes the surprise of Jobs' announcements.
qslack.com
Their control over their hardware/software is justified, but they can't stem into free media, they must keep better internal control over there trade secrets rather than restrict access to trade shows.
Some of these sites hurt Apple with their rumors. If I run a well-trafficked web site and I say "APPLE IS GONNA RELEASE THE G5 AT MACWORLD" some (not all) people would be inclinded to hold off purchases. Apple thrives on the media attention it gets every Macworld. If someone spoils that surprise, it spoils Apple's media splash.
I have a shitty sig!
Why is it so wrong for Apple to protect their own products from being leaked before Apple gets a chance to release them? Apple is just looking out for their best interests in this case.
IDG's doing this anyway, not Apple. They are probably doing this because of some fear that Apple could bring some sort of legal action against them for what other publications invited to IDG's expo might publish.
Is this the right answer? No. Do I agree with this answer? No. This will probably be repealed next year anyway. But doesn't Apple have a right to protect their products?
Does anyone else find it amusing that at the January Macworld Expo, not only did Apple goad users into rampant speculation with their 5 day home page teaser campaign (changing the home page tagline to "Way Beyond the Rumor Sites" and the like), but that, in the end, the night before the keynote, the story was leaked by Time Magazine, who let out pictures and an Apple-sanctioned expose of the new iMac and iPhoto?
The rumor sites had nothing on them in January, and for all Apple's teasing, it was their own media partners who fucked up, but you don't see Time or Newsweek getting their credentials pulled.
One has to wonder what the point of this action is. After all, the damage that a rumor site does is done by the time they would get anywhere that a media badge would get them, unless Apple's planning on showing the press something cool under an embargo date which, given the Time debacle, you'd think they'd be ever less likely to do.
Kevin Fox
Did you read the link? Here's quotes:
IDG: Dear Scott, Recently, you received an automated message from the registration system for Macworld Conference & Expo. This message erroneously stated you were registered for the event. We're contacting you to alert you to this system error, and we are unfortunately not able to offer you a media badge *snip*
GP: Unacceptable. I do not understand how this conclusion was made. Sure, there is the occasional "pre-Macwolrd Expo Predictions," but GraphicPower is most certainly not a rumor and speculation site. *snip*
IDG:Scott, We've done all we can to accommodate as many media as possible for Macworld. It's *never* in our best interest to turn away legitimate members of the media, such as GraphicPower, as your stories fuel attendance for future shows. However, Apple has tremendous pull over who we can allow into the show as members of the media. They deem GraphicPower a rumor site and, as such, demanded that we pull your media credentials. IDG World Expo cannot reverse this decision. Call me at 617-937-2532 and I'll explain the exhibits-only pass to you. - Rob
From the site: "Further research, phone calls, and e-mails turned up these facts:
"GraphicPower is not being singled out, but rather this blacklisting policy has been exerted on several Mac centric Web sites that are news and information sites, not rumor sites.
"The blacklist was given to MS&L only just Monday, and they had to scramble to notify press people who had received confirmation of their media status of the change.
Not everyone who has been blacklisted has even been notified.
The black list was compiled by Nathalie Welch of Apple's PR department.
"After a few hours of hell raising on my part, Robert Halpin of MS& L, was in a lot of very hot water with Apple for revealing to me via E-mail that it was Apple who deemed GraphicPower a rumor site. He begged me to give him the list of people who I had sent E-mail to regarding the press blacklist. Later still in the day, he changed the story, saying that IDG World Expo, not Apple, was pulling my media credentials because GraphicPower had not posted new content recently enough... an obvious lie given that he had already documented that it was Apple who compiled the black list."
And it goes on.. but it is clear that despite what IDG wants people to think, Apple had a big part in this.
slashdot!=valid HTML
Perhaps I am in the minority here, but we are only talking a press passes. Apple would be within rights to deny press passes to any particular person or group. They are not restricting overall access, just special press privileges.
Clearly, this is still a bad pr move... at least among the mac fanatics. But let's be real, we don't go to the rumor sites to read apple press releases. We (or at least I) like to surf the rumors sites for the pure humor, and occasionally a tip into what apple's thinking. Knowing of course that until 48 hours before the announcements the "information" has is more than often wrong.
But let's remember... This is really only pissing off the people that run the "rumor" sites who enjoyed (and rightfully) one of the few perks they get. For the average rumor site surfer, it means nothing. For the average mac user... less than nothing.
I think that this move is in line with apple's move from mac fanatics to well informed macintosh advocates. While this might piss off some people, in the end, I think the over all trend is good for the OS...
but this doesn't ban them from the show.. it just revokes their press pass. Well that is NORMAL.
Press passes are handed out to those whom you want to report on the activities.
Nothing is stopping any of these poeple from going to the show and reporting on everything anyway.
It's also the building of expectations that are too high or just plain wrong. There've been at least a few MacWorlds where what Steve did present wasn't nearly as big as what the rumor sites had been saying. I think the 'new' iMac had been expected at least a few events prior to its appearence, and DDR pmacs have been rumored about since shortly after they first hit the PC market.
Oh, pleeaazzze.
*That's* why you can never own a mac? Like it has ever been an issue before.
Try badmouthing Linus. I'm pretty sure that you would feel the sting of Linux-users pretty soon.
It has nothing to do with "diminishing the surprise of steves keynote".
I ALWAYS tell my friends to "Wait till macworld" to buy macs. (if its close to macworld). However this attitude CLEARLY hurts apple. Apple is trying to stop the osborne effect.
First, I think Apple / IDG are smoking something funny if they think this is a good idea. I mean, yeah, Apple does have to clamp down on leaks and such. Anyone who doesn't understand Apple's necessity to do this really doesn't understand their business and should shut the hell up. But is this a good way to do it? Shit no.
After having said all that, l have a few comments on the "way to go Apple, shooting themselves in the foot again...This is why Apple will go out of business...The entire world is in chaos because Apple did it again!" crowd that has crawled out of the slashdot woodwork for this one.
Imagine it's, oh, five years ago. I come to the slashdot crowd and ask the following question:
What would Apple have to do to earn some of your business and respect?
Can you imagine? After the flames and guffaws died away I might get some answers like these.
"Sure. Call me when they open source some of their products."..."If they would only use more standard hardware I might think about it"..."If they had one or two killer apps that made everyone stand up and take notice"..."maybe when I can run Apache and Gimp on it. As if."
And let's flash forward to today when all of those ridiculous-sounding ideas have come true. Does the average slashdotter have one iota of additional respect for Apple? I've yet to see it. Frankly I think Apple could make a completely open source, totally off-the-shelf hardware-based, fit-in-your-pocket, fanless, never-crash, artificial intelligence, world changing computer that also levitated, kept your breath fresh and costs $1.99 and most here would sneer at it still.
Parting shot - Libertarians shouldn't use the Internet until they're prepared to discuss how a Libertarian society would have ever created it.
You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
The point isn't that they're not allowed in. It's that Apple is being an active censor, in some cases to their biggest advocates. They're thumbing their nose at people.
Would YOU want to promote Apple if Apple shot your site down as a rumormill after years of devoting yourself to promoting the OS, the hardware, the brand, the community, etc.?
Apple plays this game of give and take all the time, chasing away their loyal fans with stupidity to rival that of Microsoft... Then attempting to lure in new markets as it cedes the old for no good reason.
-Sara
The Apple fucks are slowly taking over Slashdot.
Pretty soon there will be few articles that don't have a Mac tilt to them. The same thing is happening at DaemonNews. More and more Apple shit all the time.
Apple discovered they could easily take over the various BSD websites because their proprietary Operating System happens to use some BSD utilities.
I don't work at Apple, but I do work with the press at my job a lot.
If this is like other trade shows, the media passes are free to the legitimate press (or are a lot cheaper than a regular attendance badge), and they offer special access to some events. Thus, one wants to limit access to the badges to legitimate reporters. Why would you want to do this? Oftentimes we'll talk to the press about stories "under embargo", meaning they can't publish information on something until a certain date. A legitimate reporter can be counted on to respect the embargo (though I can think of a case when they didn't, the bastard!), but some joker who pretends to be a reporter can't be counted on to do the same thing.
Apple is not blacklisting these rumor sites; someone involved in MacWorld Expo is just cracking down on giving away media passes to web sites that pretend to be real journalists. Oftentimes these web sites are basically being run by some guy who publishes unsubstantiated rumors onto the web. I don't read Graphic Power, but it's certainly not in the league as real media sites like Macworld, MacCentral, MacAddict, eWeek, CNET, etc.
Despite how these guys call themselves part of "the media", it takes a lot more than a domain name and a few articles to call yourself a journalist so you can get a media pass. Media passes are intended for journalists, and giving them away to every wank that can upload some screenshots and half-baked opinion pieces is unnecessary.
If someone were blacklisting the sites, they wouldn't be able to purchase a general admittance pass to the event at all. But in the Graphic Power story, they were encouraged to pay for the attendance fee to get in, like person who wanted to attend the show.
The web sites supposedly blacklisted are more like blogs than real news sites, and denying them a media pass makes sense to me. Next you'll have the geek that runs http://www.startrekfans.com or whatever demanding to be invited to press-only screenings of the new Star Trek movie.
To me this is a good illustration of why Apple is apparently not too happy with the fanboy sites. Even though these sites might sometimes might post something interesting (seemingly good for Apple), they can be a bad source of publicity if they aren't given the special treatment they think they deserve (like coveted media passes to a trade show). And as we all know, Heav'n has no rage like love to hatred turn'd. Nor Hell a fury, like a fanboy scorn'd.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
Speculate 10 different things you expect Apple to do and 7 of them will be spot on. They can't tout innovative or revolutionary products because their "innovations" are obvious.
The flat panel iMac was not revolutionary. Hell, we were all expecting them to build one the year after the bondi arrived. The fact is they could have done it then. The were very late with that "revolution".
DDR support on the desktop. Obvious. They'll say it's a revolutionary new step to insure their voracious G4 gets fed data. Sorry, 2 years late is not a revolution, it's joining a crowd that has already passed you by. With a 133 non DDR fsb, the G4 can't take advantage of the bandwidth anyway, except in pairs, which is required to keep up with a plain old single processor x86 machines anyway.
Basicly, rumors prevent Apple from spinning their mediocre hardware into revolutionary and inovative crap. Since Apple's performance figures are all about spin without substance, the journos catch it in the teeth.
Apple will never deliver what we expect them to. Unless we expect crap hardware. I predict there will be more crap hardware announced at mac expo. They will not let me down.
OS X is not slow. OS X is great, it's just running on crap hardware!
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
More FUD from PPA, who's still bitter that she was unable to properly run OSX on her old iBook [check her old posts, kids]. Where are my Moderation points when I need them?
...." /first/, or to do something in a novel way.
/that/ long to fabricate injection-molded neoprene sleeves.
..."
... genetic acheivement. However, when you pose as knowing what you're talking about, but you're really full of shit, you should be sure to understand that someone's going to knock you down.
PPA, to counter your babbling:
" I, for one, couldn't care less about what Apple is trafficating with the press badges and who's going to get the scoop of what's cooking in Cupertino. For some time, I just gave up on the rumors of what's happening on the platform. It's not that I don't like the Mac. I own an entry level iBook. "
-We can safely ignore this part, as it is irrelevant.
"But I'm getting tired for lake of interesting software (games)"
-WarCraft 3? Neverwinter Nights? Return to Wolfenstein? UT? Q3? D2? I wonder which games PPA is into. M$ Flight Sim?
"slow overpriced systems"
-More baseless FUD. PPA equates MHZ rating with the racing stripes on riced-out Hondas. It sure makes 'em go FASTER!
"inability to deliver when new stuff is announced"
-Say what? "Announced" by whom, an Apple 'rumor' site, or Apple Corporation?
"Last time I visited an Apple store, I almost ran away: I am scared of hospitals and was almost terrify about the look of their clinical displays."
-I suppose having psychoses is a legitimate reason for hating Apple, but it doesn't lend credence to your technical statements.
"The fact that Apple is secretive
-Apple is secretive because they must be. They have a tiny fraction of a huge industry, and oftentimes their only way to success is to do something
"no third party accessories were available for the [iPod]"
-This is true, for PPA's stated reasons, but moot. Third-party accessories quickly came to market, as it doesn't take
"somewhat killing the inventive side of addon shops"
-Wildly incorrect statement, but has nothing to do with the main topic. Besides, third parties have just as much right to existence as Apple Corporation --that is, none. Those who can adapt will. Those who can't will die.
"If the g5 was out"
-If the G5 was out, Blizzard would release the Diablo2 1.10 patch and Hell would also freeze over. Again, PPA displays her love of racing stripes and tinfoil spoilers. There is no real need for the G5; the G4 demolishes AMD and Intel chips that run at twice the G4's clockrate in some tests, and conversely the G4 is demolished by the same chips in other tests. What matters is code optimization and the actual real-world uses of the chips.
"Imagine if Apple had as much market share as Microsoft
-Yes, and I'm sure that if PPAcorp had as much market share as Microsoft, she'd be just as ruthless as Microsoft, except all our devices would be Palladium-encoded to force us to watch anime 24/7.
"The only trouble is that [Jaguar] won't work well on system that were bought last quarter."
-Here, PPA based her research on rumors gotten from those EVAL REWMOR SITEZ, and meant to point out how the iBooks won't run Jaguar at all. Sadly, she doesn't understand that "recommended" doesn't mean "unsupported."
"Insanitely great marketing folks!"
-I'm not quite sure about this one. Maybe the Babelfish translator didn't work out.
"I happily run Linux on my 2001 iBook."
-And here we finally have it, Pinkpineapple's true credentials: she's definitely an OS X expert, because she runs LUNIX!
PPA: I'm really proud of you for being a girl. That's a fine
http://unxmaal.com
How many people have ever heard of Graphicpower before? Nobody on MacAddict seemed to know them, either...