I'm not following this very closely (as I don't care too much), but the jist is this guy found a phone in a bar, and then sold it to Gizmodo. Gizmodo then released information about the new phone on the net, resulting in a decrease in the current iphone demand
That's nonsense. If anything decreased iPhone demand it was the release of the new iPad. And even then the demand will only be decreased until the new iPhone comes out. At which point they'll probably be setting records. That's how it is with this whole new sub-species of people that Apple created. They want whatever the newest thing is.
They just happen to be living in a recession. So the gas, water, and electricity bills won't get paid for a month and they'll pick up one thing. If the iPad just came out it'll be that. If there's a new iPhone out it'll be that. If the economy were strong they'd be buying both... but they can't.
Not without getting DCFS involved...
To make your argument you'd also have to make the argument that people stop buying cars when they see the specs for next years model. And they stop buying CPUs, graphics cards, and motherboards when they see the next gen specs. You can probably make that argument... but the point is moot because, as soon as this "new thing" comes out... people are going to start buying it anyway and the demand will be higher than ever. In Apple's case they aren't losing a dime because they're the only ones making the hardware. Whether somebody buys an iPhone today or next week is irrelevant.
It does raise an interesting point about journalism, corporations, and the military state though. "Journalism" or not...Gizmodo is an established tech news outlet. I don't see it as any different than the Chicago Reader or the Village Voice in New York, or the City Paper in DC. Surely you can't call yourself if you just create a username on blogspot, but maybe you can if you've been doing it long enough and a million people a week read what you have to say.
At any rate, the cops busting into this dudes place and taking his stuff was a bit of an extreme step. What's next? I figure out how to get Linux back on my PS3 and Sony sends Blackwater to take me out?
Well thank goodness this is in General Computer Related and not General Discussions (I don't post there anymore... it shouldn't even be on this site.)
Now I can finally get a word in!