Are the social networkers now ruining it for Apple?

Most are predicting it will be a tablet or netbook, possibly with a new form of publishing service (taking on hardware like the Amazon kindle and software services like Spotify). Apple, of course, isn't saying.

The company sometimes gets a bad press for the way it fiercely protects commercially valuable information. Incidents like the recent suicide of Sun Danyong, the employee of a Chinese contract-manufacturing company allegedly beaten up by his boss after he mislaid a new prototype iPhone, don't help. In Apple's defence, though, it makes complete sense not to tell your competition what you are up to if you can help it.

It's ironic that the Valley's most-hyped business sector of the past few years has been social networking, a phenomenon that positively invites the spilling of beans. But you see remarkably few rumours emanating from even the big social media players here. While Facebook is built on encouraging the rest of us to share, for example, they seem to be pretty good at making sure their employees don't.

None compare with Apple, of course, when it comes to iron, on-message discipline and the fear it inspires in potential leakers of information. But the rumours this year are strong and unusually confident that they have the story right this time. So why is that?

It could be because Apple is making deals with a lot of people this time — not just manufacturers in China but also employees of talkative publishing groups in the West.

But it might also be a sign of the times. As young graduates who've been on Facebook throughout their college years start taking more important positions in tech companies, maybe the culture of sharing is spreading. No doubt to the chagrin of verbally continent boomers like Apple's chief Steve Jobs, the Valley is perhaps beginning to reap what it sowed.

* THIS area used to be all about making high-quality instruments that tested things. That's how HP got started after all. But here's news that two of our test giants, Agilent (which took on the HP test business when the company split in two) and Varian (the biomedical-testing company), will soon merge and it's hardly caused a ripple.

* HP got the Greenpeace treatment this week with a dozen activists climbing onto its HQ's roof to protest against its use of hazardous chemicals. HP prides itself on being environmentally proactive. But it's not doing enough, say the protestors.