Apple Rumor Mill Think Secret Settles With Cupertino To Shut Down. We Eulogize.

Blogs can be lovely magnets for rumors and gossip and plenty of other things analogous to under-the-table chitchat. Sometimes too lovely, even.

Enter, Think Secret. Wait. Actually, no. Exit, Think Secret is really as it goes today.

Yes, apparently Apple has succeeded in taking down the site that irked CEO Steve Jobs a thousand-million times too many through its brazen disregard for the oddly tight-lipped Cupertino machine that it’s editor and owner relentlessly pursued since the website’s inception. Well, maybe “taking down” isn’t the right way to put it. How about “negotiating the permanent dismantlement of…”?

Whatever the details might be concerning the precise method and course for the mutual resolution of the two parties’ very public dispute, the result is quite clear. The settlement agreed to by both Apple and Think Secret stipulates that the rumor monger (we mean that in the lightest and most kindhearted way) no longer publish dirt on the rumored, effectively halting the operation entirely.

Nevermind the fact this legendary relay of juicy memos sent out Apple’s back door was often stuffed full of inaccuracies and sometimes wholly mistaken as to the nature of future developments, essentially making it into a water cooler of hearsay and vague whispers. The fact of the matter is that Nick Ciarelli, Think Secret’s blabbermouth in chief, annoyed the hell out of Infinite Loop’s head honcho. And he was going to pay for it.

Or did it just so happen to be the other way around? Might the billion-dollar icon have given the man behind Think Secret a nice package to shush up for good? Not an overt bribe, per se. Maybe a buyout of the business? Surely such an arrangement wouldn’t be entirely out of realm of possibilities.

One thing is absolute. Think Secret is no more. Bow your heads and take a moment to remember the strangely addictive Apple fan feed that was. Half a siphon of gold and half a guide of misinformation, blog rolls everywhere will miss it dearly for certain.

Alas, all is not lost. Macrumors, AppleInsider, and 9-to-5 Mac are all working similar angles. Get your fill where you please.