I think I’ve made it pretty clear how sick I am of hearing about the iPhone. iPhone this, iPhone that. It’s like the most annoying bratty little brother ever. So I’m just as glad that the name turns out to have been owned for quite some time by Cisco—maybe that’ll take some of the steam out of the made up news.
Meanwhile, if you’re dying to own an iPhone, you can go out and buy one of the Linksys iPhones that have been announced today (shown above). And if you’re dying for an Apple iPhone, well, that’s what your sheet of Apple decals are for.
Of course, I imagine that as the unstoppable juggernaut they are, iPhone rumors will merely transmogrify into stories about what Apple will call their forthcoming handset. The iCell? The iMobile? The iCan’tHearYouNow? Given that the iPhone mark has been registered for seven years, originally to a company called InfoGear that was acquired by Cisco in 2000, Apple has had a bit of heads up on this. I’m guessing they’ve got a name up their sleeve (dare I suggest—the Stevedialer 3000??).
Finally, Gizmodo editor Brian Lam should expect a big chunk of coal in his stocking for preying on the pure, innocent minds of his readership. The Giz used to have some class—it used to mean something. *Sob*. If you need me, I’ll be starting up the Bring-Back-Joel-Johnson campaign.
Brian's a friend of mine, so obvs I'll stick up for him but seriously -- at what point was Lam being dishonest or untrustworthy? Not only was he entirely truthful -- he was the only one out there smart enough to find the patent and tell the story.
I'd hate to think Mac users are sheep, and I'd hope readers of both Gizmodo and your site have a bit more of a clue than you're giving them credit for.
I never said he was being dishonest-I do think he was being disingenuous. The post was worded in a deliberately vague manner, and as editor of Gizmodo, Brian's certainly no idiot-he's smart enough to understand what people were going to take away from it.
As far as being the only one to dig up the secret, I don't see how finding the trademark application would relate to knowing that Cisco was going to release the iPhones on Monday. If he was merely handed embargoed press materials, there was no reason he had to write that first post except to drum up attention. It's yellow journalism.
That said, I've read Gizmodo for a couple years now, and I'm probably not about to stop reading it because of this. I do, however, find myself less impressed by the writing than I had been under the tenures of Joel Johnson and John Biggs (with the exception of Adam Frucci, who is excellent). I don't know what that says about Brian's leadership, but this incident leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Accusing Brian Lam of yellow journalism is pure unadulterated racism.
Nah, just kidding. But seriously, I'm a rabid Apple fan, and I look forward to the day they release some phone-type thing. But I want to say for the record that it was clear to me that the iPhone post was not kosher. Mainly from the mischeivous tone. When it turned out to be some LinkSys crap I thought it was hilarious. Not because Brian Punk'd his readers, but because LinkSys punked us all, and Apple.
That said, I'm looking forward to the Stevedialer 3000....