We tend not to make a lot of predictions around here, but we've totally got odds on TIME magazine's pick for 2007 Person of the Year (and not just because we're owned by the same parent-company). Since TIME already named the iPhone both Invention of the Year and, more recently, Gadget of the Year (along with devoting a fawning cover story to it), it seems to us that the obvious path of least resistance for jaded journalists eager to start their holiday vacations is to screw over Gore and go for another easy-bake geek pleaser. Plus, what better symbol to convey the restrictions on political freedoms still so prevalent in the 21st century than the current poster child for walled gardens? Granted, it hasn't been since 1982 that a piece of electronic equipment took home this prestigious honor (renamed Machine of the Year in deference to the PC), but after lowering its standards so drastically last year by choosing
you of all people, well, TIME has shown that almost anything has a shot.
posted Dec 12th 2007 3:31PM
I'm nominating the iPhone for "Asswhip of the Year." And I own one.
It's a nice device, but not THAT nice.
Dear Media,
Cool it.
Sincerely,
The Rest of the World
Hear Hear...
I'm not a hater, I think the phone is mad sexy and if it was $150 I'd probably buy it (when it has a few improvements). But I don't necessarily see it as a pioneer of anything. PDA phones have had touch screens forever and this was more an 'evolutionary' move than a 'new idea'. If I believed people could sell their soul to the devil for popularity and riches, Steve Jobs would be my prime suspect. So many Apple things have gotten the 'popular' vote and none of them have been particularly clever or 'good', apart from the Imac (/cheer!). Alas, that man is working some voodoo....
I think the Wii is the understated wonder of the year. Now THAT is revolutionary....an in home game system that you 'move' to play, yet it hasnt gotten even 1/4 of the attention of the Iphone.
I totally agree with you, the iPhone is THE single most amazing thing on the face of the planet. Jesus couldn't have done any better of a job. So you know what that means right? Steve Jobs is the new Jesus.
If the iPhone had a female reproductive system I would want it to bare my children, and have casual sex with it every hour, on the hour. I would name all subsequent human/iPhone children "iPhone" as well.
I feel that OLPC should become OiPC, I feel the UN should hand out iPhone's to promote world peace, and I feel we should elect iPhone as the new world leader.
Just WOW, I seriously get off every time I see that thin little glass/plastic/metal marvel!
Now will someone please ship me off to the loony bin as I fear that my head will soon explode with all the mass market media propaganda being shoved into my head.
May God smite those who created this monster!
~Elliott (Long time WinMo user)
Great post. Too bad you missed the joke...
But let's assume it wasn't a joke for a second...
If you're going to give a machine the "Man of the Year Award"... gotta be OLPC's XO, right?
@Elliott You want it to take your children's clothes off? *\:=
heh.
@Elliot
I agree with you 1000%. People talk about things like world peace and cures for cancer. Don't need it. What would happen to the arms dealers and cancer doctors. They wouldn't make a cent from those types of dreams.
The single most important device in this world is the iPhone. Everyone can use it. From Castro, to Bush, to an Iranian madman. It's a multinational, multiethnic device. Maybe poor people can buy it, but they don't matter anyway in the cosmic scheme of things.
I think the iPhone will go on to become the device of the year, device of the decade and device of the century.
Now it has become the person of the year. Sounds right to me, since the iPhone has a lot of human elements in it. It's more handsome than most guys and sexier than most women. Time Magazine knows it's stuff. Apple should become the religion of the year since it has more followers than Christianity. Go Apple. When I die I'll go to Cupertino instead of heaven.
Cupertino for all eternity. Wow!
Let's all head for the loony bin. I've always wanted to dribble from the side of my mouth. Insanity has it's good points. Free room and board and all the meds you can swallow.
@Constable Odo
Now what do you think would happen if they found out a terrorist involved in a huge bombing called in on his iPhone?
"The War on Terroror is become The War on iPhone" ~Possible quote from The Dubya
Maybe then we could form our coup d'etat on Apple during their bad PR confusion.
Hmm, that makes me wonder who out numbers who...Apple Fanboys aka Terrorists vs. US Government
@superfresh
It is not that I didn't get the joke. It's that I'm tired of the gratuitous coverage of the iPhone, even if it comes in the satirical form. Was there a reason for a blog post for the iPhone today? Not really. But let's plug the iPhone through a "funny story." If anything, I wish the tech media would spend more time ripping the iPhone for what it doesnt have than praising for it for what it does have (or making fun of the awards and accolades that have been bestowed upon it). Not until then will we get what all of us really want: a less restricted device with the iPhone UI.
Come on, people!! "The" iPhone doesn't exist, only iPhone.
iPhone is mother, iPhone is father, iPhone is the second coming of the apocalypse, like that.
I think the problem here is that it is "hip" to hate the iPhone. In truth, Apple has done a good job putting together a phone and a PDA in a pretty package. Sure, there are a few drawbacks, but each one has a specific reason for it. 2.5g: save power. screen buttons: no limit to how people can make new software.... the list goes on.
Frankly, just as some people are tired of hearing about the iPhone, I'm tired of hearing people griping and making idiots of themselves for so harshly criticizing (repeatedly) a pretty good attempt.
In summary, get a life, move on, and accept that some people will like some things, and others won't. However, "person" of the year this ain't. Try the people who actually do valuable work for society, the ones who find breakthroughs in treating cancer, helping the world with energy crises, and other such things.
The Wii? Seriously? I've played one for several hours and it's a freaking joke
LOL, i cant take engadget seriously when i think of how extremely biased it is in terms of iPod, iPhone and anything apple. The glorification is disguisting.
Will there ever be an objectionable stance or even constructive criticism from engadget towards apple?
IRONY!
OMG PEOPLE, don't you get funny anymore??? It's so tiring to see sarcasm taken literally...
I actually saw this as a shot at iPhone... "Plus, what better symbol to convey the restrictions on political freedoms still so prevalent in the 21st century than the current poster child for walled gardens?"
Whatever, the post was obviously made in good, clean fun...
Did you even look at the image? You know, the little bit about "But seriously..." I dislike the blasted thing, but even I'm not that daft.
Slavior, the sad thing is, Engadget isn't being sarcastic. They're just pretending to be.
We need a new BB code custom made for engadget:
[sarcasm] text goes here [/sarcasm]
The wallpaper should be a picture of Steve Jobs
Wow, that last line stung a little...
The royal, not the individual you. That you includes us too, you know!
... lowering its standards so drastically last year by choosing you of all people ...
Harsh. You're kind of insulting all of your readers.
i use the iPhone as toilet paper
Wow! It works as toilet paper too?
Well I just have to get one now, this phone really does everything!
I haven't trusted time after they named everyone person of the year. That was just...dumb.
And, invention of the year? Gadget of the year? So something is great if it has a great, inuitive UI, but nothing else? Oh yeah, it also has a closed OS on a crappy network (in the US) with bad call _and_ sound quality on a screen with an odd resolution! Wow, sign me right up!
It's a PHONE. Get over it. It isn't even a smartphone, let alone a pdaphone. It's just a phone that plays movies and music badly.
Really? Is there a phone that plans movies and music any better, at this price? Please.... please.... I would love to own it!!
Re: IT'S A PHONE - my sentiments exactly.
It has some nice features, some shortcomings. However, since 1984, we've been conditioned to think any new product release from Apple is akin to the second coming of Christ, and it's getting tiring.
8gig iPhone - $400 (Right?)
ATT Tilt - $150 on Newegg, 2x A-Data 4gig MicroSDHC cards - less than $100
And with the Tilt, you get an "open" OS, GPS, a real keyboard, etc.
I personally use an i760, but that is $400 without added discounts from VZW, so I guess it's disqualified.
Smartphone: A mobile phone offering advanced capabilities beyond a typical mobile phone, often with PC-like functionality.
PDA:Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are handheld computers, but have become much more versatile over the years. PDAs are also known as pocket computers or palmtop computers. PDAs have many uses: calculation, use as a clock and calendar, accessing the Internet, sending and receiving E-mails, typewriting and word processing...use as an address book.
I don't really care for unfounded opinions based on regurgitated insults towards an inanimate object. You should spend your time having a delicious red Apple instead.
The tilt does NOT have an open _OS_. It has windows mobile.
Certainly more open for app development than the iPhone, but that's different from an open operating system.
Oh, and I went to New Egg and the price is $549 for the Tilt. It's well worth the price, but be fair about what you're comparing. Also, you were giving a subsidized price that i'm sure New Egg had once, the iPhone is not subsidized, which means you can't compare those two prices.
The Tilt may be better than the iPhone, but I still prefer my iPhone over the tilt. Mainly because I'm not a fan of the sluggish Windows Mobile OS.
So you're saying that the fact that the Tilt is $150 with a 2-year plan is a bad thing?
I put open in quotation marks because I meant it was open to applications.
@DeathFromAbove
I would argue you can compare the prices using the subsidized Tilt price, you have to sign a 2 year contract for both of them.
It may not be a smartphone, but it is a smart phone.
Even with its flaws, you have to admit that it:
- Has an incredible UI for a cell phone
- Introduced capacitive touch panels to the masses
- Is changing the way manufacturers deal with carriers
It's a phone for the masses, and should not be portrayed as a business device. That's where Apple's marketing team went wrong. However, it is still a strong device on its own merits.
The point is the Tilt and other WinMo phones are intimidating to the average person. The iPhone has considerable effort put into integration and user experience. It's a multimedia phone for average consumers.
@ PeterF
No, because that price is subsidized with contract. We're talking about the unsubsidized price with contract. (I still haven't found the Tilt with the unsubsidized price) Just because you're paying full price for the phone, doesent mean you're not locked in with a contract. Otherwise, how else do you plan to use the phone's features?
Hmmmmm... my question in response to Jesse S' post generated seven **serious** responses (i.e., responses that actually provided additional information rather than insults) and yet, it was "low ranked."
Wow.
I wonder if Gresham's Law is at work in this forum!
Thank God! I was getting so sick of being person of the year...All the free sex, food, and Sony-related devices I could ask for was getting old. Thanks for everything, iPhone!
Time is a god damn joke, and anyone who pays attention to anything they have to say is stupid. I'm sorry but it's true.
I was so disgusted last year when "You" was the person of the year and frigging everyone and their grandma blogged about it. Talk about marketing at its finest. Ugh, it made me vomit on myself.
next time face down :)
TIME magazine is so irrelevant, it's barely even worth mentioning how irrelevant it is. Pharmaceutical ad-funded, biased, left-wing, agenda-driven, Bush-bashing garbage. A total joke.
What started as "Man of the Year" somehow unnecessarily transitioned into the pee cee 'person of the year', and then last year it was "website of the year". So now it's "phone of the year"? What next? Hedge trimmer of the year?
Yes... because it is perfectly logical to call a woman "Man of the Year."
TIME is pretty mediocre, but anything that caters to the lowest common denominator of news magazine readers has to be.
I'd hardly say any magazine with the likes of Mark Halpern and William Kristol as contributers is "left-wing" but whatever.
Ryan - Nice satire tho :)
I agree about Time being crap though it's pretty stupid to bandy about the term 'left wing' as an insult since that's a totally subjective term. All you seem to be saying by mentioning that is 'Hey Everyone! I'm Conservative! Woohoo!'.
I've become immune to iPhone hype at this point, but I am getting really tired of Time copping out and refusing to name a person of the year.
This is the epitome of Bulls**t
It's just a gadget for peat's sake.
I guess if the metric for evaluating the person of the year award was popularity, then the "girls next door" or "tila tequila" or even NewYork from "I love NewYork" should be awarded the person of the year.
However, since we're talking gadgets, what about the Wii? Now that's really innovation.
that is the nicest looking hand I've ever seen
That's the funniest comment I've read today! And you know what.... it's absolutley true!
it looks so...supple
No, TIME magazine will make Al Gore 'person of the year' because TIME's editors support Al Gore's "global warming" propaganda.
You retard.