Apple Media Event: Nerd X-mas Eve?
No, we have to wait until 10 a.m. Pacific Time (1 p.m. for those of us on the East Coast, and 5:00 a.m. Thursday in Melbourne).
Tomorrow's event will not be broadcast live and is closed to pretty much everyone but a selected group of media members, so information will be tough to come by. People will be clicking refresh on text-based web feeds and maxing out their Twitter API calls trying to get all the latest updates on whatever magical device Stevie Claus brings down the chimney in San Francisco.
Back when I worked at an Apple Store, these events were broadcast live across the country in the in-store theaters, and they were like parties for customers and employees alike. However, as Apple's market has grown, the reach of these events has shrunk. There are no more in-store broadcasts, no more live web streams and no more MacWorld Expos with massive keynote speeches. I miss those days.
What I don't miss is the random speculation. Apple is one of the most absurdly secretive companies on the planet. I haven’t worked there for years and there are still things I won’t talk about, for fear they’ll hunt me down and destroy me with the iErase or whatever they use to make people stop talking. So that was the other great thing about Nerd Christmas Eve – it meant only one more day until the product in question was actually announced and we could stop having to answer speculative questions about something that may or may not have existed.
When Nerd Christmas finally arrives, we'll finally have all the information about the latest Apple iThing. And as soon as we do, someone will complain that it's too expensive, someone else will complain that it doesn't do something that it was rumored to do, and yet another person will complain that the screen is too small/too big/too shiny/too dull/too something. All of these people will still pre-order the device. Such is the power of Stevie Claus.
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