Apple EarPods Not Real, Don’t Trust ‘Secret’

It’s truly amazing how fast rumors can spread nowadays, especially when the rumors pertain to the highly speculative consumer electronics industry. Last week, the anonymous ‘Secret’ social network was used by an “Apple employee” to let everyone know that the company would be releasing biometric EarPods.

A handful of Apple patents and acquisitions seemingly backed up the anonymous post–literally anyone could have posted it–which somehow gave credence to what was said. Shortly after the post was realized, news organizations picked it up as though it was actually a story. However, as one would expect, anonymous tips posted on ‘Secret’ probably aren’t legitimate.

Apple EarPods Were A Hoax

DMx, who claimed to be the Apple employee when posting on Secret, has clarified that in reality, he doesn’t even know anyone that works at the company. On top of that, the user apparently did not even know about Apple’s fitness-centric patents.

Although DMx is not a great example of Secret being used anonymously–he has the same username of Tumblr–news organizations need to source their stories in a more professional way. Anyone can create a username and join Secret, but that doesn’t make them a credible source for a big story.

Just out of sheer luck, DMx happened to post something that made sense to people in the tech industry. The EarPods would have included biometric sensors for a user’s heart rate and other metrics. This sort of wearable would have fit nicely into the fitness-based wearable market, if of course it were actually real.

Even though many people were misled–actually, more like chose to be misled–DMx’s confession post on Tumblr has made it sound like he never intended to misled anyone. If anything, the original post was meant to be a joke, which is what he thought Secret was for. In fact, he may very well be correct, Secret is definitely more suitable for jokes than for legitimate information.

Summary: The ‘Secret’ user who claimed that Apple would be releasing biometric EarPods has recanted his story. After posting that he was an Apple employee and that he knew of the EarPod plans, user DMx took to Tumblr to admit that it was a joke.

image via abc