... blog post:
There are a quite a few web pundits out there who trade on giving the impression they are on the inside track with a particular manufacturer or creator that gives them access to privileged information about upcoming new products. It helps pull you in and give them cred, but...
Now many of them are genuine and will have signed appropriate Non Disclosure Agreements. Thus they will actually tell you nothing about what's coming without the manufacturer's express permission. However, some are philosophunculists. These are people who pretend to know more than they do to impress others and use simple trickery to suggest that they know about products in development and will share this with you, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
For example, I make no secret I am a big fan of Leica digital M cameras and the M10-R in particular. So if wanted to imply I was on inside track with Leica (which I am not at all) I might try stating in a blog post about my M10-R something along the lines of, "The M11, take it from me it's coming" or even, "Take it from me, the M11 will be with us sooner rather than later". I would also attach a rumour-like no brainer but vague factoid to it like, "with its new super high resolution sensor" to make it sound even more authoritative, trying to imply that I know a lot more but am not at liberty to be more specific, when of course I don't.. Put it all together and you get, "Take it from me, the new super high resolution M11 is coming sooner rather than later"!
Hooked yet? Now how can I make such claims? Well, anyone can. We can all say with a certain degree of conviction that will be an M11 (Leica would be dumb not to have one in its development cycle) that it will be with us soon whatever that means (it's a totally unmeasurable term) and especially considering the M10 series has been around quite a long while now anyway. As for it having more mega-pixels, well these days that's simply a given. Thus all you need to do is make highly plausible, but unverifiable, statements but do so with a sense of reserved authority and you can represent yourself as a 'secret squirrel' privileged insider. A proper important - philosophunculist!
Mind you, if only you could see what they have got planned for the M12, take it from me, that will be something else ;).