Rumors of Steve Jobs' death greatly exaggerated

You have to figure that major news outlets keep obituaries on hand for all kinds of public figures and celebrities -- still, you can't help feeling a bit of a chill upon learning that notice of Steve Jobs' death mistakingly hit the wires yesterday afternoon. A slip-up at news outlet Bloomberg caused the lengthy obituary to roll across a number of screens before being pulled -- but not before a Gawker tipster was able to send off a copy to the gossip site. Under normal circumstances, this would probably come off as a random gaffe with minimal impact, but given recent reactions / over reactions concerning Jobs' health (thanks in no small part to his appearance at WWDC, pictured above), this comes off as a rotten-timed moment in journalistic and technical butterfingerism. We can only hope this didn't send too many investors into a tailspin -- we'd hate to see any War of the Worlds moments caused by something so silly.

[Via CNET]