Not the phone, but the trademark. Cisco no doubt held Jobs’ feet to the fire, perhaps (!) dragging the discussions out to the very last moment. (And what about Canada?)

The screenshots of Steve Jobs’ announcement of Apple TV feature some pretty lovely GUI notes, including what appear to be Cover Flow features. It actually looks like Front Row, modified. Is this a preview of the next version?

Eric Boehlert writes what strikes me as a stinging and fatal indictment of the behaviour of political bloggers in covering the Iraq War – in this case, the role of conservative so-called “warbloggers”. An undue fascination with saving face at the cost of accuracy and transparency is certainly not unique to blogging, but it is a problem that particularly bedevils poli-bloggers, and seems to me to be the main culprit – perhaps more important than even ignorance and incompetence – in creating a shrill and uncompromising forum for discussion.

As is no doubt obvious, I’m skeptical of efforts to computer-ize the media room, despite what I’m sure is massive consumer interest. The biggest difficulty is what I think will be consumer resistance to importing the complexity and unreliability of Windows-based systems into what for most is a home mission-critical system – the TV and stereo. Larry Dignan makes another point: “IT giants are trying to impose their will on the digital living room…. That may well also be true, but I think the bigger barrier is that for most, the technology simply isn’t ready yet.

Mathew picks up the thread today, started by Mike Arrington I think, on the unsurprising news that cash is running out and staff headed to the doors on a growing number of Web 2.0 companies. This is, of course, as it should be. The relief is that this time around precious few have made it to the point where the bankers, suppressing giggles behind closed doors, shovel the stock out to greed-addled investors in gravity-defying IPO’s. My 2007 prediction: business bloggers whose livelihoods depend on the continued feverish pitch of Web 2.0 will continue to insist that there is no bubble (whatever that means) and that Web 2.0 is healthy.