…and boy have we patented it!
…we filed for over 200 patents for all the inventions in iPhone and we intend to protect them.
Steve Jobs about the new iPhone™, @Macworld 2007
UPDATE 20070119
Well, everybody and their little sisters are blabbering about the iPhone, so I feel obliged to take my turn to say something at least as earth-shattering.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of things have been said about the little that’s been shown. Of course I drool over the technical side of it, as much as the next geek, and maybe a little more. But I couldn’t help but find the patent reference at least worrisome.
I won’t say Apple doesn’t look like they’ve come up with yet another revolutionary piece of tech, or that they don’t deserve credit and reward for doing that. It’s a shame they think they have to rely on patents to get them, but I won’t say this is their fault, rather than a fault in the System (well… let’s put it this way). But what I think is their fault, and incredibly lame, is that they’re stressing on the patents issue like that.
Anyway, I’ve already been asked if I intend to buy the phone. The full answer is probably quite complex, for a change, and I think I’ll elaborate here sooner or later. For now, suffice to say that I’m stuck between desperately wanting a device like that and hoping that they choke themselves to oblivion with their two hundred patents shoved down their throat (and yes, I had to resist the temptation to rephrase).
Moreover, anybody remember this? Now, who’s claiming what again?
All in all, I think I can live without this ultra-cool device, playing music and videos on its (almost) widescreen display, surfing the web on WiFi, running OS X widgets, all through a touch screen interface, that also happens to be a phone…
…or can I? 
By the way, iPhone™ is a trademark of… your guess is as good as mine
UPDATE 20070119:
Looks like I’m not the only one to notice: here’s some juice and Jeff’s (very bland) remarks.
External links:
The first iPhone demos were the icing on the cake. Now, news of Microsoft involvement are the final seal; when they get to attach their name to it (as in Microsoft™ Surface®), it’s bound to be big.
There are times when you read something so well laid out and to the point that it’s difficult to add something to it.
cat >/dev/null is 
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