The Apple lawyer Michael Spillner’s recent reprimand of the tech industry gossip site Valleywag - for initiating a $100,000 cash-prize-induced ‘scavenger hunt’ to substantiate the rumors about Apple’s supposedly forthcoming tablet device - has inadvertently confirmed the existence of the highly-rumored Apple tablet that has been kept under the wraps by the company.

In his letter addressed to Gabriel Snyder, editor-in-chief of Valleywag, as well as to its parent company Gawker Media, Spillner - of the Silicon Valley law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe – said that Valleywag’s $100,000 cash prize offer for anyone who sends photographs or videos of the Apple tablet “is illegal.”

Asking Valleywag to “immediately discontinue the Scavenger Hunt” pertaining to “an unannounced and highly confidential Apple product,” Spillner’s letter further said: “We believe you and your company crossed the line by offering a bounty for the theft of Apple's trade secrets.”

Meanwhile, noting that the Scavenger Hunt was initiated because there was “all the talk and talk and talk about the impending Apple Tablet,” without one iota of proof of its existence, Valleywag said that Spillner’s letter offers implicit evidence that the devise actually exists!

With the cash offer still on at Valleywag, the site has awarded the law firm a consolation prize comprising a $25 gift voucher for Microsoft's Zune Marketplace, a DVD of ‘Legally Blonde 2,’ and ‘a fabulous set of steak knives.’