Bloomberg Reports Apple Chief Dead

Apple fans can breathe a sigh of relief this morning. After brief word last week that Steve Jobs was -- and I know this hurts -- dead, Infopackets has confirmed that the iPod's grandaddy is alive and well in Cupertino.

To the shock of many in the tech and wider world, the Bloomberg business news wire last week ran an obituary describing the death of Steve Jobs, the man who "refashioned the mobile phone". The obit was published only for a few moments after a reporter added the news. Once superiors determined that the headline simply wasn't true, the headline was "immediately deleted".

The obit itself wasn't just a brief line on the wire, either. A 2,500 word article accompanied the news, with blank spaces left for Jobs' age and his cause of death -- eerily, as if someone knew Jobs was in trouble and prepared themselves to capitalize. The 'news' piece went on to describe Jobs as a great man responsible for making home computers "as easy to use as telephones," and a tech leader capable of "persuad[ing] consumers to tune into digital music".

According to reports, the obit mentioned Jobs' rival, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, along with family 'survivors' -- all this amidst a story of Jobs' rise from college drop-out to tech mogul. A copy can be found here.

Most surprisingly of all, this appears to be Bloomberg policy. A spokesperson for the company revealed that "This was a routine update of a biography by the obits department, meant for the internal system and not meant for publication." The actual publication of the obituary was Bloomberg's only mistake, we are told.

"It was momentarily posted on the external wire, in error, and immediately deleted," the company rep added. (Source: zeenews.com)