Militant Geek Custom Shirts

On Rapid Fire the retired circus monkeys and I take a shot at all the news from the past week that we just didn’t get to. So, without further ado, let’s take aim and fire at will:

• Two weeks ago we mentioned that Cisco was suing Apple over iPhone trademark violations. Gizmodo now has word that Cisco created their version of the iPhone from GPL licensed without correctly following those rules. Lawyers everywhere are nursing blistered hands from all the hi-fiving they’ve been doing.
• Tech commentators and talking heads alike declare Sony’s Blu-Ray next gen video media dead. The reason? Sony has mandated that pr0n is too red light for the blue light technology. The best title from all coverage goes to Gizmodo and their post “Blu-ray Porn Update: Not Getting It On“
• Slamdance’s Guerrilla Games Competition is all but dead. The organizers pulled Super Columbine Massacre RPG! from competing which caused an avalanche of withdrawals from sponsors and competitors alike. Game boys shrug and go back to playing with their Wiis.
• Novell urges people to skip Vista and use Linux. In a similar announcement Royal Crown tells users to skip Coke and drink RC.
• Motorola announces 3,500 jobs will be cut.
• Bill Gates says Sony “didn’t know what they were doing” when it came to the PS3. Given that I can still find piles of the $599 “supercomputers” and not a Wii in sight I’d say he’s right.
• We’ve clearly stated the reason that the Microsoft Zune comes in brown (for the Cliff Notes devotees, it’s because its crap). Despite its many foibles a largely touted feature was that users would be able to ’squirt’ songs to other users. It turns out that only works slightly better than half the time. From the great Om:
  

  There are now reports that nearly 40% of the songs purchased or acquired through the ZunePass cannot be shared.

  Most of the songs that that fall in the cannot be shared category are from a company that thinks all its customers are thieves - Universal Music Group. UMG had cut a special deal with Microsoft, and is getting at least a $1 a Zune. (Insert: marry to the mob joke here!) Sony Music is the other label with some sharing restrictions.

  Welcome to the social, indeed. With all the restrictions its like being back in high school.

Add another bullet to my list of reasons the iPhone is iHype: Cisco is going to make them change the name. Via Pual Kedrosky:

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) today announced that it has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Apple, Inc., seeking to prevent Apple from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco’s registered iPhone trademark.

Cisco obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after completing the acquisition of Infogear, which previously owned the mark and sold iPhone products for several years. Infogear’s original filing for the trademark dates to March 20, 1996. Linksys, a division of Cisco, has been shipping a new family of iPhone products since early last year. On Dec. 18, Linksys expanded the iPhone family with additional products.

“Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco’s iPhone name,” said Mark Chandler, senior vice president and general counsel, Cisco. “There is no doubt that Apple’s new phone is very exciting, but they should not be using our trademark without our permission.

“Today’s iPhone is not tomorrow’s iPhone. The potential for convergence of the home phone, cell phone, work phone and PC is limitless, which is why it is so important for us to protect our brand,” Chandler concluded.

With its lawsuit, Cisco is seeking injunctive relief to prevent Apple from copying Cisco’s iPhone trademark.

Surely, Apple knew this was coming but went ahead with their publicity extravaganza anyway. Arrogance or ignorance?