Looking for breaking news? Facts without the fluff? Twitter’s the place to be! But make sure you only follow verified accounts, otherwise you might be led astray.

Every September, on iPhone Christmas — the day Apple announces new computers for your pants — Twitter is awash with desperation. There are journalists and news outlets desperate to pump up the page views, politicians desperate to seem technologically savvy, Apple aficionados desperate to give Apple their money, and neck-bearded haters desperate to maintain an erection.

With so much desperation, it becomes difficult to separate feelings from facts. So let us rely on the Blue Tick of Truth and see how Twitter’s Chosen guided us.

In the lead-up to the launch, former New South Wales premier and bargain hunter Barry O’Farrell marvelled at how inexpensive iPhones are in the United States.

 

 … as did Channel 9 journo Tom Steinfort …

Somewhere, Ed Husic stirred, mumbled “Australia tax”, then went back to sleep. But the Americans are not handing out iPhones in the streets. Baz and Tom were looking at the prices of iPhones on two-year contracts in the United States, then comparing them to the outright and contract-free price in Australia. They both deleted their tweets.

How does a news outlet get in on the iPhone frenzy without risking looking like a goose? Ten News Adelaide played it safe and stuck to what they knew to be true:

Seasoned newspaper technology journos have been practising Apple Kremlinology for years, so they’d seem the go when it comes to insight. The Sydney Morning Herald, fans that it is of Samsung-funded hospitality, wasn’t quite sure what to make of it all, so it posted and deleted the following not once, but twice.

Apple sold 4 million of the new shinies in the first 24 hours.