So apparently it wasn't just a year-end legal blowout after all-- but you could hardly blame us for thinking that, right? After all, Apple's lawyers did go on a wild trade secret suing spree right at the end of 2004; in mid-December the company sued a John Doe for leaking info about its upcoming Asteroid audio interface, and mere days later Apple smacked down a trio of developers for allegedly leaking prerelease Tiger builds to the 'net. Honestly, it was like Apple had a slew of use-'em-or-lose-'em Frequent Litigator miles that were going to expire at the end of the calendar year and the company was just trying to redeem them all before the big ball dropped.

Of course, we now know that that wasn't the case, because as we mentioned briefly yesterday and as reported by CNET, Apple has filed yet another quit-leaking-our-secret-stuff lawsuit (in 2005, mind you), this time against heavy-hitting rumor site Think Secret. And just like the first lawsuit had to mention specifics about the Asteroid rumors, thus essentially confirming that it was all true enough to sue over, this latest suit reportedly contains explicit references to Think Secret's recent articles on Apple's imminent sub-$500 displayless cheapMac and the someday-it'll-grow-up-and-crush-Microsoft-Office-into-dust productivity suite supposedly called iWork. So if you didn't believe the rumors before, folks, now's the time to gear up to start crankin' out memos in iWork's Pages app on your soon-to-be-new, costs-less-than-some-iPods thriftyMac.

Ironically enough, if Apple had just kept its lawyers holstered, the Asteroid, headless-iMac, and iWork rumors would most likely have been totally ignored by the media at large-- and even by the vast majority of Apple's customers, most of whom, we're told, are not obsessive drooling freaks who reload every dodgy rumors site in existence until their clicking fingers bleed so much they pass out from the blood loss. (Sounds crazy, we know, but we're assured that most people don't do that. Sickos.) But legally speaking, we suppose Apple's hands were tied, since if the company doesn't file to protect its trade secrets now, it loses all legal protection for said secrets in the future.

Besides, suing people is fun. We hope to do a lot of it ourselves, someday-- maybe when the kid's off to college and we're looking for stuff to do. We're already studying a very informative pamphlet called How To Get Hit By Cars for Fun and Profit (Mostly Profit).

And anyway, it's not like Apple's lawsuit has changed anything over at Think Secret, right? Faithful viewer Juho Kaivosoja informed us that the site is still up to business as usual, having posted details confirming next week's intro of the long-rumored flash-based iPod. Reportedly they'll come in 1 GB and 2 GB versions for $149 and $199 respectively-- so forget about the whole "screenless" rumor, because no one's going to flip through 500 songs with only "previous" and "next" buttons. While the details of the human interface on this thing remain shrouded in mystery (dang that's a fun phrase to say!), apparently it will have a screen-- one just like the iPod mini's, but "two lines shorter."

Oh, but wait; we don't know if any of this stuff is true! Guess we'll just have to wait and see whether Apple files another lawsuit or not. Or, uh, we could also just wait until the Stevenote on Tuesday. But where's the fun in that?