I wanted to get the date out there incase Apple fans were not aware. The rumors will start flying and get crazy as we approach the date. I will assume a few things to be announced.
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple on Thursday put to rest the last of a series of lawsuits it brought in a losing and costly effort to put a stop to Web leaks about its product plans.
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RelatedBits: Who Is Really Hurt by Apple Rumor Site’s Closure?
The suits raised questions about whether independent Web publishers should be accorded the same legal protections as traditional journalists. They were aimed at the gaggle of Apple enthusiasts who have made both a sport and a business out of pre-empting Steven P. Jobs’s big product announcements.
Nicholas M. Ciarelli, who operated a Web site for Apple rumors called Think Secret, was sued by Apple for publishing trade secrets in January 2005. In a brief statement Thursday on his site, Mr. Ciarelli said that he had reached a settlement with Apple and that he would stop publishing Think Secret.
Mr. Ciarelli, a senior at Harvard, would not comment on whether Apple had given him money to persuade him to cease publishing. But he said he was pleased with the outcome of the negotiations. 
“We’ve been able to reach a positive solution,” he said in a telephone interview.
Mr. Ciarelli filed a countermotion against Apple in March 2005 under a California provision that makes litigants vulnerable to financial damages if they sue over what is determined to be constitutionally protected speech. Mr. Ciarelli’s lawyer, Terry Gross, who represented him pro bono, said the motion could have resulted in a financially damaging and embarrassing ruling against Apple, a risk that he said led to this week’s settlement.
Mr. Ciarelli, a social studies major, also writes and edits for The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper. He was a freshman when Apple sued him and the publishers of two other sites over leaks about unreleased products.
Apple lost the two other suits on appeal after a higher court ruled that the Web site operators were journalists and entitled to First Amendment protections. The court forced Apple to pay $700,000 in legal fees to the sites.
Mr. Ciarelli said his agreement with Apple constituted a clear statement about the rights of online journalists: “Speaking more broadly, I think online journalists can feel confident that they can assert their First Amendment rights, even when they run up against large corporations.”
However, some free speech advocates warned that the site’s closing could be viewed as a partial victory for a large company that tried to squelch an independent voice.
“It’s great for the individual critic to be paid to be quiet, but the public is worse off if we lose the ability to get more information in the marketplace of ideas,” said Paul Alan Levy, a lawyer with the Public Citizen Litigation Group in Washington.
Despite Apple’s attempts to use the courts to silence the ecosystem of sites that try to ferret out information about its products before Mr. Jobs unveils them on stage, the Apple rumor mill has continued to thrive.
None of Mr. Ciarelli’s sources were revealed as part of the settlement, said Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman. He called the settlement “amicable” but noted that the details of the agreement were confidential.
An anonymous reader sends us to The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs for a developing situation. Daniel Lyons, a.k.a. Fake Steve Jobs, made a post earlier today revealing that Apple was offering him some money (in the wake of the ThinkSecret shutdown) to close down his blog. He said he was interested in taking it. A few hours later, Lyons posted again revealing that Apple's lawyers had contacted him angrily, saying the details of the deal were supposed to remain private. Fake Steve replied 'we either deal out in the open, completely transparently, or we don't deal.' A third post gives details of Apple's lawyers' next response, going totally medieval on him. Since then the situation has calmed down a bit.
Since its eagerly anticipated launch on June 29 of this year, the diminutive iPhone handset has caused quite a stir across North America, and has emerged as possibly the year’s most notable hardware launch in the consumer electronics field.
Adding the touch-screen iPhone to its trendy portfolio of desirable products (which includes the all-conquering iPod music and media player) California-based Apple Inc. could be well on its way to reaching the initial sales goal outlined by CEO Steve Jobs prior to the iPhone’s summer unveiling.
According to a report published by tech-watchers at 9to5Mac, Apple could well use the upcoming Macworld Expo in San Francisco to announce that it has already sold some 5 million units of the iPhone – which would put it exactly halfway to hitting the target of 10 million by the close of 2008.
If that announcement does indeed come to pass, then it will give Apple a further 11 months to achieve its target of 10 million, bolstered by the fact that the first 5 million was amassed in a mere 7 months, reports Wired News. The Macworld Expo will take place between January 14 – 18, 2008.
The opening iPhone launch built impressive sales in the United States, with Apple revealing it had surpassed the first million marker in a mere 74 days. The iconic smartphone then shifted over to the UK, Germany, and France in the final quarter of 2007, which, while not as immediately receptive as the US, have contributed solidly to continuing iPhone performance with around 1 million in total sales.
Other regions likely to increase global sales during 2008 include the likes of China, Japan, and Spain.
Apple is forming closer ties with Intel and will begin to roll out a variety of devices based on an upcoming Intel processor that has been designed to work with mobile devices, according to reports.
According to Apple Insider, Apple is planning to use the processor, code-named Silverthorne, in multiple products "currently situated on its 2008 calendar year product roadmap". Silverthorne is central to Intel's efforts to capture a greater share of the mobile-device market.
Apple Insider claims that the most likely candidates for Silverthorne are a 3G iPhone and any new tablet computer.
The inclusion of an Intel processor in the much-hyped iPhone would in some ways mark a change of heart for Apple.
Last year, Intel's director of Team Apple, Deborah Conrad, ruled out putting an Intel processor inside Apple's iPod. "I don't think you're going to see anything soon," Conrad told reporters. But when it came to future devices, Conrad added: "That's where we get very, very excited."
Intel plans to release more details of Silverthorne at the Intenational Solid State Circuits Conference in February.
Apple could offer no comment on the reports at the time of writing.
