A day after launching its Apple Tablet Scavenger Hunt, Valleywag has declared its first winner: Apple itself. By dispatching its lawyers to put an end to the scavenger hunt, Apple has tacitly confirmed the existence of a tablet PC.
Congratulations, Michael Spillner of the prestigious Menlo Park law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe! Your “Letter from Apple” demanding that we stop the Scavenger Hunt – specifically the line “Apple has maintained the types of information and things you are soliciting … in strict confidence” – is the most concrete evidence (from Apple itself, no less!) yet that there may indeed be a tablet in the works.
Apple’s legal forces have made similar moves in the past when sites have published leaked product information that turned out later to have been accurate.
For now, the scavenger hunt appears to still be on but it remains to be seen for how long.