Following up on yesterday's post about possible forthcoming iPods, I point you to SpyMac's blurb about the transition from unsubstantiated rumor to unsubstantiated fact, where professional publications erroneously state that Apple 'has announced' products that may or may not even exist.

This reminds me of the early days of the Newton, some ten years ago, when someone would post a self-declared wishful prediction of a new Newton device on the newsgroup comp.sys.newton.misc and it would get rewritten on a Newton rumor site and it would get picked up by a trade magazine with 'industry insiders say' tacked on to the front, then the first guy would run to the newsgroup and say "look! MacWeek says there's a new Newton coming out, and it's exactly what I was predicting! Woohoo!"

Still, kernels of truth and all... I'm sure there will be some new low-cost iPod announced next week, and it's quite possible there will be a mini iPod, though I'm not certain that that smaller necessarily means cheaper. Doesn't usually work that way in the consumer electronic world.

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Update: And now, of course, there's the requisite Slashdot article talking about how the mini iPod rumors have more certainty now, because a mainstream paper is reporting it as fact.