Update: Picture me boring a hole through my throbbing temples with my fingertips. PC World has just confirmed Netflix for the iPad. The pictures of the app are even hosted on Apple’s servers and the app is listed on AppShopper, so short of a linkable announcement, this is as official as it gets. The Netflix app will be free to download, but you’ll need a Netflix subscription to stream video, which starts at $8.99 a month.
In other words, due to the web of lies and trickery bloggers weave on April Fool’s Day, I’ve been punk’d by real news. I hate this day so much. See the original (discredited) post positing this was in all probability a prank below.
April Fool’s Day used to be a funny holiday all about exploding cigars, underpants full of farting powder and pushing grannies down elevator shafts. Now, though, it’s marked by a sort of transcendent doofusism that not only mistakes a gag for a lie, but — especially on the Internet — is not even confined to April 1st proper. That April Fool’s Day this year is coming on the last work day before the iPad’s official release makes it all the more maddening: the signal to noise ratio has hurtled through the ionosphere.
Take this report by AppAdvice claiming that a free iPad Netflix app will be available through the App Store on April 3rd.
It is almost definitely an April Fool’s joke: it’s too huge of a honking deal to be “exclusively” broken by some Mickey Mouse little site no one’s ever heard of. Common sense indicates we should have heard of something as big as an iPad Netflix app long before now.
Unfortunately, the rumor can’t be totally disregarded. For one, the post was published yesterday, and even in the comments, the author of the post totally denies it’s an April Fool’s prank. He’s probably lying, but jeez, who can say? I hadn’t heard about that Marvel Comics iPad App before yesterday’s reviews came in either, and that’s also seems like something either Apple, Disney or Marvel should have tipped before now.
As a gadget blogger, this stuff is maddening. It’s like the entire blogsphere has been replaced with people who’s idea of a good gag is to shout “rape clown! in a children’s psychiatric ward, only today they’re all reporting on consumer electronics. Either this Netflix iPad App is legit, and it’s the worst timed exclusive in the world, or, far more likely, it’s just another b*llsh*t lie. Who knows? I’m just going to throw up my hands in disgust and try to make sense of the world again tomorrow.
