It’s from a scummy site called Palluxo Media that, when investigated by Fortune, seems to have its sights set on lowering Apple’s stock prices:

“You fell for Palluxo?,” wrote “cynyc” – one of my regular readers – when I cited that quote as an attempt to spread FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about Apple. “That site only exists to promote the agenda of Apple shorts [speculators betting that the stock will go down].” I thought my reader was being overly cynical, but the recent history of Palluxo’s Steve Jobs coverage suggests he may be onto something.

Consider this sequence of Palluxo headines:

* December 31, 2008: “CEO Steve Jobs on Deathbed, Prognosis Poor”
* May 23, 2009: “Apple Rumor: Steve Jobs Could Die Any Day”

and Thursday’s prizewinner:

* June 11, 2009: “Apple Rumor: Steve Jobs Seen Kissing Unidentified Man”

But hey, the unidentified source claims to have evidence captured on a security camera! And he only wants $US75,000 for it! We’ll like, totally set up a PayPal account so everyone can chip in, OK guys? [Fortune]

HTC’s hipsteriffic invitations for a June 24th event in London contained precious few clues (DUDE’S WEARING A ROSE), but the Economic Daily News is now reporting something totally reasonable: it’s for the Hero and Lancaster, HTC’s presumed next Android phones.

Curiously, the paper refers to the two phones as one device, in two versions differentiated only by a keyboard.

The HTC Hero will be available in two versions, with and without a QWERTY keyboard. The model with a keyboard will be named HTC Memphis, or HTC Lancaster for sale by AT&T exclusively in the US for six months starting the third quarter, the paper indicated.

It certainly looks like there’ll be a bit more than that to set the devices apart, and for the sake of variety, I hope there is. In any case, we’ll be there. [Economic Daily News via Digitimes]

BusinessWeek cites two sources reporting that there might be an iPhone “lite” and a connected touchscreen tablet as early as this stateside summer.

We’ve heard talk like this for a long time, but BusinessWeek isn’t going to stick its neck out for rumours that aren’t at least well sourced, and on top of that, the reporters, Arik Hesseldahl and Spencer Ante, say that Verizon boss Lowell McAdam said himself that he’d spoken with Steve Jobs in the past six months about a deal.

There aren’t many details, except that the phone and the tablet would be different from the iPhone that AT&T sells, so that it wouldn’t interfere with the exclusivity deal in place. Much of the piece deals with the hedges, that is, why this whole thing may not go down in the end. Here’s the bulk of it:

It’s possible both sides may disagree over financial terms, such as how big a subsidy Verizon Wireless might pay for each device or whether to share monthly service revenue with Apple. Another deal breaker could be disagreements over distribution of wireless software applications. Apple is the exclusive provider and distributor of apps for the AT&T iPhone. If Apple requests a similar deal on newer devices, Verizon Wireless may balk.

For what it’s worth, I think the buzz is getting too loud to ignore totally. This clearly smells like Apple’s next move, and for Verizon’s sake, I hope it’s true, and not just a ploy by Apple to get a nicer exclusivity contract with AT&T. [BusinessWeek]

Presuming the “Zune HD” is real, that leaves two spots left in the probably concise new Zune product line: An HDD-based player evolving from the Zune 80/120, and a smaller flash player to replace the Zune 4/8/16. It’s unclear where this would fit; all we can see is that it retains the “squircle” and it’s packing a large widescreen.

On the other hand, if we take the Zune HD as real, we’ve got some problems as well. This image doesn’t jibe with the HD either in style (the HD is aluminium, not black) or in advertising tone (this one has the old-school paint images instead of the newer geometric shapes). Plus, we don’t like how low on the player’s body that squircle sits— it looks like it’d be awkward to hold and use.

We’ll keep you updated if and when more info trickles in. [Thanks, onionpiggy!]

Ars reports that buried in the iPhone 3.0 OS is evidence of voice control features that are codenamed “Jibbler,” as well as synthesised voice responses from the phone, a la iPod shuffle.

It looks like Jibbler is an “enhancement” to the iPhone’s SpringBoard app—the essentially invisible app that manages the homescreen and launches applications—and might be controlled by the headset. Unlike the shuffle, which lets your computer do all of the synthesizing work to talk to you, the iPhone would handle it in real time, apparently.

Hello, voice dialing—and if the voice control APIs make it to the SDK—voice Twittering, no more separate apps required. [Ars]

Digg’s Kevin Rose is again peddling his Apple rumours, this time in regards to the upcoming 3.0 preview scheduled for this Tuesday. He was dead on last time around—can he do it again?

Now the good stuff. We’ve had two separate tipsters ping us with the rumours today, which Rose talked about last night during the live Diggnation show at SXSW in Austin.

The breakdown of unconfirmed rumours goes like this:

– Cut and paste in 3.0
– Users magnify or double tap a word to bring up cut and paste
– Pinch “boundaries” to select word(s); Rose called them “copy boundaries”
– Then you get option to cut, paste or copy

Also, the 3.0 update will have enough new features and additions to bring it up to the Palm Pre levels. Whatever Palm Pre has shown us so far, apparently, the iPhone will have too when 3.0 becomes official. That point remains a bit hazy right now, so anyone who was at Diggnation last night who can help elaborate a bit more would be awesome in my book.

Lastly, there will NOT be video, nor will there be MMS. Boo. This last point seems to contradict BGR’s MMS rumor from the other day. [Thanks, Kyle and Abdul!]

Pocketgamer.biz, who we’ve never worked with before, says Apple may be working on a section of the App Store for more expensive (read: $20 and up) apps.

Regardless of the rumor’s truth, they need some sort of method to separate the wheat from the chaff. It’s a mess in that store, full of shit apps. We can’t sort through them at 15k apps, how are we supposed to sort through them at 50k apps in two years? Impossible.

The idea behind this rumour is that free or very cheap apps have been more successful than their pricier counterparts in the App Store, and that a “premium” section could result in meatier profits for developers. Further, this is supposed to tie in with all that ballyhoo about the iPhone being the next great gaming system, as these new rich man’s apps are rumoured to be mostly games.

We’re sure there’ll be a wider variety in app price in the years to come, but at the moment, we can’t think of a reason for a separate section based on price. Plus, no developer would confirm such a thing, so until we hear anything hard, this rumour will stay a rumour. [pocketgamer via Wired]

They are quoting an unnamed source. This may just be what others have reported already or maybe Reuters actually did some original reporting and this is a new source from the touchscreen manufacturer. Whatever it is, now I’m excited. [Reuters]