Tim Cook spotted at Valve HQ, rumour mill implodes
Apple's CEO has been spotted at Valve's HQ the week the game-maker advertised for hardware specialists.
This is the stuff geek dreams are made of. Apple's CEO Tim Cook was reportedly spotted at game company Valve's HQ in Washington State this week, CNET reports. Nothing too extraordinary about that, you might think. But this is the very same week that Valve advertised it was looking to hire people with hardware experience.
That sound you hear? It's the Internet falling over under the weight of conjecture.
Of course it could be nothing comes of this. The report is still yet to even be confirmed, so who knows, the Cookmeister may not even have dropped in on Valve. Or Apple and Valve could be working on a Kinect-style motion games console that'll come with the much-touted standalone Apple TV set. Well that's just one of the rumours currently doing the rounds.
What we do know for sure is that Valve is working on wearable computing gear, as we reported yesterday. Could Tim Cook have gotten wind of this, and -- keen to cut off Google's Project Glass -- have swung by to see how Apple could get involved? Perhaps.
This week Valve also advertised it was "developing hardware to enhance those [gameplay] experiences... We're not talking about me-too mice and gamepads here -- help us invent whole new gaming experiences."
One factor to keep in mind is that Valve co-founder Gabe Newell has previously gone on-record as not being a big fan of Apple, so these should all be filed in the section labelled Hearsay.
Yesterday we reported a developer at Valve had revealed he was working on wearable computing, though he was at pains to make clear any hardware was a long way off. Indeed, Michael Abrash said it might never involve a product at all, so I'm not expecting an announcement any time soon.
But still, the idea of a hook-up with Apple is too tantalising a prospect to ignore. Both companies are wildly successful, and while they have very different approaches (with "no formal management or hierarchy at all" at Valve), it's impossible to deny that both yield results.
What do you think old Cook is cooking up? Let me know in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.