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Exclusive: Bogus CNET Touting of “New” iPhone 5 Mockup Sends LiquidMetal Stock Shares Soaring

It seems that industry-leading tech news outlet CNET has recently crossed the line from being a reliable reporter of news to the new tabloid in iPhone 5 lore. Just days after CNET UK boldly proclaimed that the iPhone will be released on September 7th, today CNET is reporting that new iPhone 5 mockups posted by Thisismynext.com were crafted from insider information about the next iPhone form factor and thus paint an accurate portrait of what to expect from the iPhone 5.
In an article entitled “Drawings show big changes for iPhone 5,” writer Eric Mack states: “New renderings of what the next iPhone iteration could look like have surfaced on the site This is my next, and they indicate a major overhaul. Multiple sites claim to have confirmed that the iPhone 5 will not be a simple update of the last generation, but a substantial redesign, complete with a new tapered shape to the case.
The problem with this story is that the renderings are not new at all. A single click takes you to the the original post on Thisismynext.com, which was posted way back on April 22nd. The article has had two undated updates, but the article itself goes back to the 22nd — including the mock-up.
Furthermore, Charles Moore reported on the “wedge” or “teardrop”-shaped iPhone 5 mockup in a report of his own here on the iPhone 5 News Blog on April 27th. The mockup is clearly not “new” as CNET has touted it.
Meanwhile, in a related story, LiquidMetal Technologies Inc. stock shares, which is rumored to possibly be supplying the new metal technology for a revolutionary iPhone 5 form factor, saw an early 12% jump in its penny stock today, all as a result of CNET’s report. From the article: “Today’s surge is driven by speculation that Apple’s iPhone 5, which is expected to have a “radical new case design,” may be made of Liquidmetal Technologies’ alloy technology.”

You can get access to all of these stories in one place by visiting the iPhone 5 News Ticker.
The CNET Report: Irresponsible Journalism or Collusion?
In a sea of irresponsible iPhone 5 reports, this CNET mishap could be seen as merely one in a million of other ones made week after week in anticipation of the iPhone 5′s release. Only the fact that CNET, an otherwise respected media outlet, would make such a blunder in reporting this 2 month-old news as “new,” makes this an unusually big misstep in media reporting.
But the misreporting combined with a soaring of a stock that it typically nothing more than a “penny” stock begs a more conspiratorial question: what the CNET editor who approved this story know, and when did he or she know it?
Moreover, is anyone involved in this story a shareholder of LiquidMetal Technologies Inc.?
There is no doubt that the iPhone 5 hype cycle is regularly manipulated for material gain. But with major influencers like CNET touting old stories as new, particularly as we draw closer to the iPhone 5′s imminent release, which send obscure stocks into a frenzy, serious questions have to be raised.