A rumor took flight last week about Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) building an Android tablet computer when someone listening to a CNET podcast sent in an email with alleged details of the alleged device. If Cisco is really getting into the tablet business, it may be interesting, but what is even more interesting is the way in which news of electronic devices is spreading these days.

Several tech blogs, including SlashGear and Electronista, picked up the Cisco/tablet rumor, while Cisco steadfastly refused to comment.

For a fascinating perspective on how the blogosphere has become prime real estate for previewing upcoming gadgets based on leaks, read Richard Waters' latest Financial Times article. Waters does not mention the Cisco/tablet rumor, which may not have occurred before he wrote his article. He focuses on last week's shenanigans surrounding the rival blogs Gizmodo and Engadget, and a "lost" copy of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) next iPhone model.  (After an Apple employee reportedly left at a prototype of the next iPhone at a bar by accident, Gizmodo paid $5000 for it, gleefully wrote a review of it and then sent it back to Apple. Engadget quickly followed suit by writing about a series of Dell smartphones soon to be released, based solely on leaks.) 

The race for leaks and the "over-heated speculation" about new devices in the blogosphere may say more about how industry is going about generating attention for product launches these days than it says about competitiveness among news outlets, Waters suggests.

"It is all part of a calculated campaign that has seen Apple's rivals--led by Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft--working overtime to win the limelight," he writes.

The already crowded smartphone and tablet market is slated to get a lot more crowded later this year as several companies plan to launch new devices that use Microsoft's Windows 7 or Google's Android operating systems. As Waters reports, few companies are as good at generating buzz as Apple, and the "one-two punch" of the iPad launch in April and the anticipated updated iPhone in June is making it pretty tough for rivals to get headlines.

In a new twist in the Internet-fueled product leak frenzy, Seth Weintraub wrote on the 9to5Mac blog Saturday that "semi-working iPod touches WITH cameras" were listed for sale on eBay. Shortly thereafter, they were removed.  An Engadget blogger quickly weighed in with a post that began: "Another day, another Apple leak." Meanwhile a Gizmodo blogger wrote that it's a pretty good bet that the next iPod Touch will come with a camera.

The anonymity of the Internet means that rumors must be taken with a full shaker of salt. But who knows, maybe an email sent during a CNET podcast could turn out to be Cisco's equivalent of an iPhone left at a bar or mysterious iPod photos temporarily appearing on eBay.

For more:
- see this CNET podcast transcript
- check out this SlashGear post
- read Richard Waters' article at Financial Times

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