However, we're more inclined to believe that nowadays, no major consumer electronics manufacturer wants to be left behind on a new product category, even while we're still deep in rumor territory.
Microsoft is not dealing in rumor or repetition.
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An Apple TV has been in the rumor stages for years now, and while many observers still expect one to surface eventually, there have been no signs yet.
So I see the flurry of interest in this rumor as being more about our primal longing for leaders who appeal to our deeply-held sense of what a leader should be.
Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that Apple is working on a watch-like device. iWatch has been in the rumor mill for a long time, but now the rumor has gained more credibility being spread by these august outlets.
But now and again I would go out to the old swimming hole, the place everybody called the Twenty Two, and spend half an hour or so in the water, not really swimming so much as hanging there, suspended in the rumor of coolness that rose from the depths below.
So Droid Life -- which has earned itself a solid record in the rumor game as of late -- is reporting that Verizon Wireless will be dropping the "Wireless" portion of its name this weekend and announcing that it won't be carrying the iPhone 4, instead concentrating on its high-end line of Android devices that it's done an admirable job of building up lately.
Until Microsoft makes their official announcement on it, this one is still firmly in the rumor category, but we've gotten word from one of our trusted sources that Microsoft has pretty much settled on a name for the next Xbox: the Xbox 360 (let that sink in for a moment, because you're probably going to be hearing it a lot for the next several years).
Then there was the Net-spread rumor in August about supposed riots in Kuala Lumpur.
Sounds nice, but the root of the rumor in all three cases is not how much these pop singers are in love their respective husbands or boyfriend.
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In 1982 a rumor spread that Walesa was to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and international journalists descended on his apartment in Gdansk, to be there when the Nobel was announced.
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CommVault regularly crops up in the Wall Street rumor mill as a potential target for the likes of Dell, HP or IBM, or some other IT giant looking to add to storage software assets.
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Another recycled rumor, in fact.
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In the days before Snopes, let alone the ability for a false rumor to spread quickly in the digital domain, I was involved in another such misinformed groundswell movement perpetrated on a big-branded company.
There was some rumor that United Arab Emirates powerhouse Etihad Airways was going to acquire a stake in the company, but that rumor was quickly dispelled as baseless.
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The imagery was of a lonely freighter out there somewhere in the dark, with Winchell's disembodied voice floating out of the blackness, like a rumor, a message in a bottle.
Earlier in the week, the rumor was that Spain's BBVA was taking a look at it.
With the imminent announcement of the iPhone 5 the rumor mill is in full swing.
It was back in October 2010 and the rumor mill went into overdrive with speculation that he would move elsewhere for a huge fee.
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During a hearing Wednesday held by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, they continued to claim that the investment bank was done in by a cabal of rumor mongers.
There are, in fact, some good reasons for a wide-screen iPad, but I am suspicious of the timing of this rumor, coming in the midst of the iOS Maps debacle.
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While he's not sure it's really founded in anything other than the rumor mill, the fact that both sides have agreed to a full media blackout during this phase of the negotiations could be evidence of progress.
Next a staffer reports happily that people in the Kingdom of Tonga are apparently buying the rumor, spread by Digicel, that it will launch in October.
In 1883, 12 people were trampled to death when a rumor that the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge was in imminent danger of collapsing triggered a stampede.
BTW, A good juicy source of info in the biotech world is Biofind Rumor Mill.
It struck me as the sort of worst-case rumor that gains traction in an atmosphere of extreme uncertainty and mistrust.
There could be a false rumor to this effect in Saudi Arabia.
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