Purported Steve Jobs Keynote Leaked on Wikipedia

I have been an Apple watcher for years. I freelanced for Mac pubs in the mid 1990s. Now that doesn't make me more of an expert than anyone else. However, I am inclined to believe this alleged Steve Jobs keynote leak. It sounds real. Jobs' keynote is tomorrow at the Macworld Expo.

Don't take my word for it. There's additional soft evidence from Twitter's co-founders here, here, here and above all - here. Twitter is reportedly part of the iPhone SDK and part of the keynote, the Wikipedia leak says.

We'll find for sure out tomorrow if this all true, but I bet it is. Go read it and you will pretty much get a rumored run down of everything Steve Jobs is announcing tomorrow at Macworld - widgets for iPhones, new Macbooks, candy canes and lollipops.

The reason I believe it's real is because it leaked on Wikipedia. And Wikipedia promotes anonymity. So it's very hard to trace who placed the item and his/her motives. I could be wrong. But my gut is, this is the real deal and it's a big moment in the history of public relations.

How big? Very big. This is like Fort Knox getting unlocked. Apple has long operated under a universal code of silence. And this event - again if it is true - shows that those days are gone.

So come back tomorrow and then either a) we'll talk more about what this all means or b) ya'll make fun of me for being gullible and believing stuff on Wikipedia. (Note: Apple competes with several Edelman clients.)

Comments

[Josh Owens]

Steve,

If this is the real deal, where is the fox movie rental announcement? There seems to be way too much evidence around a movie rental deal, imo. Check out this story/screenshot: http://www.tuaw.com/2008/01/08/rumour-fox-to-include-itunes-files-with-dvds-starting-15th-jan/. I tend to believe that fox will be shipping itunes files based on that screenshot, it makes sense given other code uncovered in iTunes.

Thoughts?

[kevin]

that is interesting that something like this has shown up via Wikipedia, but aren't there applications that track the IP address and related info of those users making updates and the like? true, it's more anonymous than, say, ThinkSecret, who, as we've seen, has been overcome by Mac. sounds pretty credible, though...

[Derek Tutschulte]

C'mon. Everything in the this bullet-point doc is much less than surprising. Anyone could come up with it. Not to mention that if it is real, anyone who had access to the doc would be fired faster than you could blog the word, "go".

Seriously, you really think the days of Apple's "stranglehold" on something as important as a keynote address are numbered? Please.

[Steve Safran]

Steve:

I like that you're going out on a limb with this. It does have a lot of interesting points that make it worth noting. I'm with Josh, though, in wondering where the movie rental bit is. Count me as a skeptic - but mostly because of that. But again - way to be bold!

[Wes Kroesbergen]

Doubtful.
UNLIKELY - DVD drive pops open on side when eject button is pressed
Apple has stayed away from these for the longest time.
UNLIKELY - Mac Pro refresh... this happened last week.

Aside from those two warning flags, seemed legitimate initially.

[Alex]

Honestly, the one thing that stuck out to me as making this seem unreal was (as Wes already pointed out) the fact that the DVD drive would supposedly pop out. This doesn't sound very Apple at all.

[Steve Rubel]

@all, I hear you. However, my gut: something like two-thirds of it is true. Look at the Twitter evidence! And I bet the movie rentals will be part of the "one more thing." Plus it says draft. Sleep on this but it seems too specific and there's other evidence out there.

[Tim Elliott]

I don't buy it because I don't think Steve has finished his speech yet. Even if it's real, Steve will change it significantly before tomorrow's keynote.

So we will probably never know if this was legit or not... but I bet Steve's having some pointed conversations in some boardroom right now.

[Joost Schuur]

Remember, the same thing happened last year. Someone purported to have a leaked keynote script for Macworld 2007, and it turned out to be fake:

http://dailytechtalk.com/comments.php?id=540_0_1_0_C

[Shel Holtz]

The real kicker is that, if it is indeed fake, Steve Jobs himself couldn't correct it. The item is about him and he has a "biased point of view."

[Steve Rhodes]

This surfaced last week and the conclusion was it was fake.

http://twitter.com/fraserspeirs/statuses/582828802

http://twitter.com/buzz/statuses/582833032

Not sure why it popped up again today particularly with so many people taking it seriously.

Plus we'll know tomorrow what Apple will be introducing.

As Joost said, the same thing happened last year. Sadly, people haven't seemed to have learned anything.

[CheckSpecs]

Check the specs of the Mac Pro in this "leak". They're almost entirely incorrect. Someone fabricated this before last week's Mac Pro announcement, and got everything wrong except for the top model's CPU, and nobody's noticed?

[Jeff Crites]

My money's on Fake Steve Jobs posting it. A fake keynote by the fake Jobs ...the perfect crime! And some nice traffic for Forbes ...

[Mart]

You believe it's real *because it was on wikipedia*??? Please put the crack pipe down, be cool, stay in school. Caring is sharing so don't use drugs.

And, no, it doesn't sound real. Steve's notes are always very polished. This sounds more like a liveblog of a phony keynote than a phony set of keynote notes.

[William Donaldson]

Sorry, it's fake. I wrote it. A friend of mine posted it on Wikipedia against my wishes.

http://dyo-ecksdee.com/2008/01/14/apologies/ for more info.

[Skeptical Boy]

"Got no time for the Internet, after all its lies...."

[Luke Walker]

I am new to your blog and enjoy what I have read so far. I will be tuned into the keynote and curious to find out if there really was a leak. In this day and age where communication flows like water and can find its way thru any size crevice or crack I wouldn't be totally shocked if there was some credibility to parts of this information. Look forward to reading more of your blog.

[Chris Iafolla]

After all of yesterday's fervor, it certainly appears that the leak was fake. That being said, I think it points to the success of Apple's past PR campaigns. What other company would be able to stir up the same firestorm without ever uttering a peep? The past PR mastery of Steve Jobs fueled yesterday's speculation. This will surely increase the audience for today's keynote.

[Alice Marshall]

If this is real (and I have not even taken a glance) then someone has betrayed their trust, and for what? To show off? I simply do not understand the mentality of this sort of leak.

[Steve Rubel]

No one's making fun of me? Cmon!

[Daan]

Ok, if you ask...
But it was still a pretty decent projection, so no harm done.

[Adster]

If it makes you feel better Steve, TechCrunch is making fun of you - you're "people who should know better" :)

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/14/fake-apple-keynote-leaked-on-wikipedia/

[Adster]

If it makes you feel better Steve, TechCrunch is making fun of you - you're "people who should know better" :)

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/14/fake-apple-keynote-leaked-on-wikipedia/