A few days ago, I was stunned by pictures of what seemed to be the Tungsten T5. TungstenInfo, the creator of the rumor, has admitted that everything was a hoax. At first, I was disgusted at this latest turn of events but in hindsight, I believe it was a good way to wake up my sensibilities.
It was a good time to release such a hoax: many Clie users, who were spoiled with new Clies every couple of months, suddenly had nothing to look forward to; leaks of pictures of the new Treo just came out; and there were no news about any new products from PalmOne. So when the "spy photos" of the T5 came out, it immediately got the attention of the 1src members and was quickly referred back to by other Palm and tech enthusiast sites.
I created news items to set it apart from the regular forums.The discussions were informative and insightful. We saw users welcoming the T5 yet we also got doubts about its authenticity. There were posts of support but sadly, attacks were unleashed too. All in all, it was a familiar blend of reactions over rumors not unlike other rumor discussions in the past (eg. old discussions at Cliesource).
After TungstenInfo sent in proof of his Photoshop-layered T5 hoax, I did this following experiment. I got a publicly availabe T3 picture (right pic) and loaded it in Photoshop Elements (a very simple photo editing application, not even at par with Adobe Photoshop's features). I was surprised that in only a few steps (Blur, Distort, Noise), I was able to create a rough "spy photo" effect (left pic).
I've learned a lot these past few days. If there's something good that TungstenInfo has done, it's to remind me that not all that I read in the news is something to gullibly believe. With enough irresponsibility with tools at my disposal, I can create
literally anything. What I sometimes do not realize is that through
these talents, I can also destroy.
What we experienced was a rumor that got a bit out of control. Reggie and I would like to apologize if 1SRC became a source of false hopes. While we have definitely learned from this experience, we can only hope that we can only be more careful next time. Now we just need to move on.
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Editorial: The T5 Hoax