2004年，就在史蒂夫•乔布斯计划于波士顿Macworld大会上发布首款Mac mini前的两周，一位自称“尼克•德普拉姆”的青少年博主在个人网站Think Secret上率先发布了这一消息。

    这不是德普拉姆第一次抢先爆料。从三年前他报道苹果（Apple）正准备推出PowerBook G4开始，他就陆续地收到过大量的勒令终止函。Mac mini是最后一根稻草。苹果根据加州商业秘密法起诉了尼古拉斯•西雅瑞里（这位博主的真实姓名），根据和解协议，2007年西雅瑞里关掉了Think Secret。

    今天，距离苹果将发布新一代 iPhone的9月12日特别活动还有一周，但是关于这款新设备的几乎所有信息早已铺天盖地。

    iMore的瑞恩•里奇发布的iPhone信息相比其他人更为详实，他周三发布的iPhone 5综述包括了产品规格、照片、甚至还有视频的链接。（请看这里）

    苹果是不是已经放弃了打击泄密的努力？现在看起来显然是这样。

    苹果依然在发出勒令终止函。今年1月，它给中国一家玩具制造商发了一封勒令终止函，因为这家公司试图生产、销售乔布斯人像玩偶，利用人们对乔布斯的追思赚钱。两年前，它要求八卦网站Gawker停止一项承诺给予第一代iPad照片发布者10万美元奖励的“寻宝行动”。这封来自苹果法律部门的勒令终止函被普遍视为该公司确认，它即将如传言所称的那样，发布一款平板电脑。

    《Boy Genius 报告》创始人乔纳森•盖勒表示，这就是苹果停止发送勒令终止函的原因。盖勒也收到过很多勒令禁止函，但没有收到过苹果的。他说：“这样做至少能留些悬念。”

    史蒂夫•乔布斯的新品发布总是像百老汇演出一样充满戏剧性，他痛恨泄密以及从中获利的博主。而蒂姆•库克虽然承诺将“加倍重视”保密，但看起来却在放任自流。

    读者吉姆•尼尔表示，这位首席执行官或许已经认定，在产品发布前吊一吊科技媒体的胃口是项不错的营销策略——即便这给了竞争对手一个瞄准的靶子。

    或者，尼尔认为，库克可能在转移大众注意力方面比他的前任做得还好。

    尼尔写到：“一个好的魔术师知道，要让一些事情变得‘神奇’，不只是要转移注意力——用一只手吸引观众的注意力，另一只手忙活其他事情。最后的关键是出其不意。是的，如果正式发布的iPhone 5与泄露的信息差别很大，就称得上神奇。但在苹果泄露出这么多逼真的iPhone 5信息、让人应接不暇的时候，苹果还有闲暇玩出其他的花样吗？”

    下周，一切就会水落石出，且让我们拭目以待。

    译者：早稻米

    Two weeks before Steve Jobs was scheduled to unveil the original Mac mini at Macworld 2004 in Boston, a teenage blogger who called himself Nick dePlume broke the news on his website, Think Secret.

    It wasn't dePlume's first Apple (AAPL) scoop. A report three years earlier that the company was preparing to release the PowerBook G4 earned him the first in a long series of cease-and-desist letters. But the Mac mini was the last straw. Apple sued Nicholas Ciarelli (his real name) under California's trade secrets act, and as part of a settlement Ciarelli shuttered Think Secret in 2007.

    Today, one week before the Sept. 12 special event at which Apple is expected to unveil the next iPhone, there is almost nothing about the new device that hasn't already been widely -- and brazenly -- published.

    iMore's Rene Ritchie, whose iPhone leaks were better and more detailed than anybody else's this product cycle, published an iPhone 5 round-up Wednesday that included links to specs, photos and even a video. (Seehere.)

    Has Apple given up trying to control the leaks? It certainly seems that way.

    Apple still issues cease-and-desist letters. In January it sent one to a Chinese toy maker trying to cash in on Steve Jobs' memory with a look-alike doll. Two years earlier it asked Gawker to halt a "scavenger hunt" in which the gossip site offered $100,000 for a photo of the first iPad. The letter from Apple legal was taken as confirmation that the company was, as rumored, about to release a tablet computer.

    That's why Apple stopped sending cease-and-desists, says Jonathan ("Boy Genius") Geller, who has received dozens in his day but never from Apple. "This way it at least leaves something up in the air."

    Steve Jobs, who staged product launches like Broadway shows, hated leaks and the bloggers who profited from them. Tim Cook, despite a promise to "double down" on secrecy, seems content to let them ride.

    Reader Jim Neal suggests that the new CEO may have decided that allowing the tech press to build up expectations in advance of a product announcement is a good marketing strategy -- even if it gives competitors a target to aim for.

    Or, Neal suggests, Cook may be even better at misdirection that his predecessor was.

    "A good magician," Neal writes, "knows the trick to making something 'magical' isn't simply misdirection -- keeping you busy watching one hand while doing something with the other. The key, ultimately, is producing something unexpected. Yes, an iPhone 5 much different from the leaks would qualify. But could Apple be flooding the world with very real iPhone 5 leaks so everyone who has a vested interest in trying to second-guess Apple is too busy to look for anything else?"

    We'll find out next week.