Apple Lawyer Tells Valleywag to “Knock It Off”

By Dena Cassella January 15, 2010

Apple’s top secret—and technically unconfirmed—tablet PC has been flooding the Web with rumors all week. Tech blog Valleywag decided to up the ante on the mythical tablet and initiated an Apple Tablet Scavenger Hunt. Valleywag announced it was offering a $10,000 reward for “bona fide” pictures of the tablet, $20,000 for a video, $50,000 for pictures or video of Apple CEO Steve Jobs holding the tablet, and $100,000 “to let us play with one for an hour.”

Apple was not pleased with the site and told its legal representative Michael Spillner of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe to warn Valleywag—which he did, in the polite form of a letter. “While Apple values and appreciates vibrant public commentary about its products, we believe you and your company crossed the line by offering a bounty for the theft of Apple’s trade secrets,” read the letter, which was quoted in The Wall Street Journal. “Such an offer is illegal and Apple insists that you immediately discontinue the Scavenger Hunt.”

Unaffected by the legality of the issue, Valleywag confirmed on its site that it was still offering prizes for the tablet information and that “we can’t tell Apple who you are if we don’t know who you are.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Haole built. O'ahu grown

Computing

The gloves are off as The Zuck lays into Apple’s Vision Pro

Mark Zuckerberg discussing the Quest 3 and Vision Pro.

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg took to Instagram on Tuesday to knock Apple’s new Vision Pro headset while singing the praises of his own company’s Quest 3 alternative.

In a video lasting 3 minutes and 40 seconds and shot entirely on the Quest 3, The Zuck only had two positive things to say about the Vision Pro, praising its higher screen resolution and its “really nice” eye-tracking. For the rest of it, he lauds Meta’s Quest 3 headset while at the same time tearing into Apple’s competing device, which launched earlier this month.

Computing

Could the Vision Pro replace your iPad? There’s just one problem

The front visor of the Vision Pro on display at an Apple Store.

In the time since it launched in early February, we’ve heard a lot about how Apple’s Vision Pro could replace some of the company’s other devices, especially the iPad. Now, prominent leaker Mark Gurman has joined the fray and lent weight to the idea of the headset becoming a tablet killer. But while that seems plausible, there’s one major problem with it.

Specifically, it’s the price. Because while Gurman’s Power On newsletter makes some good points about the Vision Pro’s strengths, it can’t get around the unavoidable obstacle that is the device’s $3,500 asking price. If the Vision Pro really is going to replace the iPad, a lot has to change first, especially given how wide of a range of prices the iPad line hits.
The iPad killer?

Computing

MacBooks could soon fall behind the iPad Pro in this important way

The iPad Pro (2022) sitting in the Magic Keyboard.

The dynamic balance between the Mac and the iPad may be about to shift again. Both the MacBook Air and iPad Pro will reportedly get updated this spring, boosting performance with the inclusion of the new M3 chip.

But a new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman indicates that a new "landscape Face ID camera" may be in the works for the iPad Pro, potentially taking away one of the main advantages that MacBooks have over iPads. With so much of work happening in video calls, the iPad Pro might become a far better laptop replacement in this new generation.
The dream experience