Rumor Roundup: Crescentgate-gate

UBS survey finds 10% of consumers want a smartwatch, expects 24M Apple Watch sales in fiscal 2015 (AppleInsider)

Source: Some analyst

Chance it's true: 30 percent

Yet another analyst throws his hat into the "this is how many of (unreleased Apple product) will be sold" ring. Is this worth paying attention to? Nope. Did all the rumor blogs pass it on anyway? Yep. Is answering your own questions annoying? Yep. Do I care? Nope.

Here's one more iPhone 6 problem you should be aware of (BGR)

Source: The latest overblown iPhone 6 "scandal"

Chance it's true: Who knows

Saved you a BGR: the tech tabloid's latest attempt to smear the iPhone 6's reputation comes in the form of "Crescentgate." This apparently involves the iPhone 6 FaceTime camera shifting around inside the handset far enough for it to affect image quality.

"It's not clear how widespread this 'Crescentgate' issue is at this point," BGR notes. This, of course, didn't stop them from announcing this with the sort of doom and gloom tone they also used for "Bendgate" and "Memorygate" and several other completely overblown and overhyped "flaws" with the iPhone 6.

The ongoing voodoo-like attempts to call forth some kind of Antennagate-level scandal involving the iPhone 6 would be amusing if they weren't simultaneously so puerile.

Samsung declines to shake up management amidst shrinking smartphone profits (AppleInsider)

Source: Samsung

Chance it's true: ...Samsung

This seems to roundly contradict a rumor from last week suggesting a changing of the guard of Samsung executives. Swing and a miss on that one, Wall Street Journal. Better luck next never.

Video Shows Size of 12.2-Inch 'iPad Air Plus' Mockup Next to iPhones, iPads, and MacBook (MacRumors)

Source: Mockup

Chance it's true: Who knows

So apparently we have reached the "bored/underemployed graphic designers produce mockups of rumored Apple products" phase of the rumor cycle. Hooray. Look for approximately 1358 similar stories to surface over the coming months.

New products, "innovative services" lead Barclays to hike Apple price target by 17% to $140 (AppleInsider)

Source: Some analyst

Chance it's true: 30 percent

More analyst tea leaf reading over Apple's purported future performance. These guys are usually all over the place; they're basically playing a game of financial Battleship, throwing out random numbers in the hopes of getting a hit.