Apple monitors these forums closely at times

[blairwillis]

Within hours of posting to these forums in late June, he / she called me up all freaked out. Apparently they were interrogating employees, trying to figure out who told me. He / she instructed me to delete all relevant posts--and I did--or Apple would hunt me down and figure it out. He / she were really scared. I could tell by the tone of their voice...it was not normal for them to act like this.

Put your hands up and step away from the bong.

We are watching you.

 

[clayj]

Not to discourage the free flow of information, especially since this is a rumors site, but those of you who have friends or insider connections at Apple and who may find yourself coming into possession of "secrets" might want to make yourselves familiar with the concept of a canary trap.

Canary traps are a common method of determining the source of a leak. The way they work is that specific words or phrases within a document may be tweaked prior to distribution (usually by computer, using a thesaurus or some other prepared list of similar words), with a unique document going to each recipient. If some part of the document gets leaked and they find out, they can look at the text of the leaked document and compare that to what was initially distributed... and based on that, they have a good chance of determining who the leaker is.

One way you can avoid a canary trap is to always reparaphrase or rewrite leaked text that you receive. Don't ever copy-and-paste even a single sentence of text; if you get a lot of text from someone, rewrite it and change the words. This will help prevent situations like the one described above.

 

[jsw]

Not to discourage the free flow of information, especially since this is a rumors site, but those of you who have friends or insider connections at Apple and who may find yourself coming into possession of "secrets" might want to make yourselves familiar with the concept of a canary trap.

Which is why you should always get to the meeting first and switch your document with that of someone you despise.

Then you can feel free to quote in delicious full sentences.

 

[weckart]

You did factor in the important point that the US prices are before tax, and the UK ones are after 17.5% VAT is lumped on top?

$499 @ $1.9777 = £1 is £252.31 plus 17.5% VAT = £296.47

Now... the 16GB model is £269 - which makes you what is technically known as dead wrong. The 32GB model costs £329 - so there is a difference. But various factors do make it a bit more expensive for Apple to do business in the UK (minimum wage, stronger consumer protection laws, different import/export duties).

Apple however are not ripping people in the UK off. Microsoft on the other hand reckon we don't mind paying nearly double what they charge their US customers, and Adobe are more than happy of stiff us for an extra 70% on the CS3 software.

Unless Apple is paying its staff in both the US and the UK at minimum wage, and consequently more than it would otherwise, I fail to see the relevance of that to price setting.
Similarly, the consumer protection laws should only make a marginal difference to the cost base unless Apple is in the habit of sending out substantial proportions of its stock base unfit for purpose/of substandard quality. I will say nothing with regard to that.
Computers attract no import duties into the UK whatsoever - cannot say for mp3 players or phones, but again, this cannot account for cost discrepancies overall between the US and the UK.

Vista and CS3 are more glaring examples of rip-off pricing, but Apple is not exonerated from this, either. Behold the pricing of the AppleTV.

They're all at it!

 

[JNB]

Not to discourage the free flow of information, especially since this is a rumors site, but those of you who have friends or insider connections at Apple and who may find yourself coming into possession of "secrets" might want to make yourselves familiar with the concept of a canary trap.

And you have no idea how many of you I've caught with that.

Oops...

Did I say that out loud?

 

[bmcgrath]

Dear Apple:

- Aperture 2 please.
- Release the iPhone in Ireland
- Oh please open an Apple store in Dublin!!

 

[MacsRgr8]

Just wanted to say "hi Steve, we love ya!!"

 

[Cooknn]

This thread is taking on a life of its own. Very entertaining to see what everyone would write if they knew Apple were actually reading

Apple: Please develop a tablet with multi-touch / Wacom functionality so that serious photographers, designers and artists can get their work done more intuitively.

 

[Unspeaked]

Dear Apple,

£1 (GB Pound) is currently worth $1.9777 (US Dollars).

Thanks,

Actually, it's $1.9457 and dropping...

 

[netdog]

Dear Apple,

Please give us new MacBook Air rev. 2 with Dual Quad Core Penryns, Dual-link DVI out, Gigabit Ethernet, Wimax...shipping today for $199.

 

[Dustman]

Dear Apple,

Please give us new MacBook Air rev. 2 with Dual Quad Core Penryns, Dual-link DVI out, Gigabit Ethernet, Wimax...shipping today for $199.

Best idea I've heard yet! They'd sell like hot cakes!

 

[Naimfan]

Which is why you should always get to the meeting first and switch your document with that of someone you despise.

Then you can feel free to quote in delicious full sentences.

Great one!

 

[CalBoy]

He / she instructed me to delete all relevant posts--and I did--

Really?

So you bothered the mods to delete every single post you made about the iPhone's launch?

And they agreed with you that the information wasn't valuable?

And Apple knew it was this "friend?"

And Apple was going to be able to prove that you knew this "friend?"

Just saying.

 

[Hankster]

They read these boards?

"Hey! Get more online games for Mac! Without the crashes and graphics issues!"

 

[zblaxberg]

oh really


ok Apple.

tell your retard rep call me back and apologize to me about that idiotic claim that 1.5 hour battery after 18 months is reasonable.

I also want a new MB to compensate my suffering with your rev A product.

Just email steve jobs...i did it and they were more then happy to help

 

[JNB]

Really?

So you bothered the mods to delete every single post you made about the iPhone's launch?

And they agreed with you that the information wasn't valuable?

And Apple knew it was this "friend?"

And Apple was going to be able to prove that you knew this "friend?"

Just saying.

Don't forget clearing the Google cache...

 

[colinmack]

OK Apple, seeing as you're reading:

- where's the iPhone in Canada already?
- where's the updated MBP?
- where's the updated Mini? not even Santa Rosa?

Hmmph.

 

[CalBoy]

Don't forget clearing the Google cache...

How could I have forgotten that one!

 

[Eric Lewis]

Just wanted to say "hi Steve, we love ya!!"

yes steve ur the best

you rock my boat

 

[corywoolf]

Just thought I would post an interesting tidbit. This happened to me right before the iPhone launch. I had posted some sensitive information that was leaked to me by an Apple Store employee, who was a longtime friend. He / she had given me some numbers on how many iPhones would be at their store, about how many each AT&T store would be getting, what time they would arrive and the method of their arrival, all of which turned out to be accurate.

Within hours of posting to these forums in late June, he / she called me up all freaked out. Apparently they were interrogating employees, trying to figure out who told me. He / she instructed me to delete all relevant posts--and I did--or Apple would hunt me down and figure it out. He / she were really scared. I could tell by the tone of their voice...it was not normal for them to act like this. The person in question wasn't an active member of these forums and didn't know I was either, so there was no way they could know that I posted it, or that it was even me other than the specifics I gave.

Since I think enough time has passed, I thought I would post this for anyone who thinks its interesting how closely Apple was monitoring these forums during the iPhone launch, and perhaps still are now. I wonder how many Apple IP hits Arn gets on his stats every day?

So poster beware! Apple could hunt you down...lol. Or at least find out your sources! Be careful about specifics that could track back to them!

Similar thing happened to me, I was tipped off that Apple was not going to remodel a certain CompUSA Apple Shop that had been planned and openly stated at the monthly employee meeting. Just hours after I posted, I got a voicemail from an Apple employee asking me to take out the tidbits about Apple pulling out of CompUSA. This was a clear indication that something was up and Apple didn't want word to get out. This was about a year ago. Pretty crazy how fast news travels. There was obviously some truth to it, since Apple obviously (wont admit it though) knew that CompUSA was on the fritz and decided to not invest money in the scheduled remodeling. It was supposedly about a 3 million dollar remodel plan, just for a small section of the CompUSA. It's amazing how much money it can cost to remodel a small section of a store. True fact, AOL spent two million dollars on remodeling the 20' x 10' section in the Fifth Ave. CompUSA back in late '06. They had about four huge plasmas and some nice furniture and cool looking raised platforms.

Really?

So you bothered the mods to delete every single post you made about the iPhone's launch?

And they agreed with you that the information wasn't valuable?

And Apple knew it was this "friend?"

And Apple was going to be able to prove that you knew this "friend?"

Just saying.

It sounds ridiculous, but only since a similar thing happened to me, I believe it. Except it was a double whammy for me. Both CompUSA (my employer at the time) and Apple were asking me to take out a few details I posted, which were really nothing that interesting.