And there lies the (Apple) iPhone's similarity with the cruddy smartphones already on the market: you don't have as much control as with a conventional computer?

Yes, I'm one of the tablet folk who'd prefer to buy one of these and use it for wifi Safari and Mail instead of making calls. And that I'll be able to do of course, only with Cingular getting their cut too (or whoever it turns out to be compatible with over here, Vodafone?).

Dang it, this thing is so sweet but I'm all confused. I want a Tablet Mac MacBook Nano etc. etc. but this thing's so damn cool!

Despite a trademark conflict with Cisco, Apple is in negotiations to keep the iPhone name for its newly-announcd communications device, according to to a published report.

Following the introduction of the Apple iPhone on Tuesday, Cisco today was quick to dispel worries that its recently launched VoIP phone of the same name would trigger a prolonged trademark dispute.

Speaking to the financial news outlet MarketWatch, the networking giant said on Tuesday that it had conducted "extensive discussions" with Apple to come to a mutual agreement on the use of the iPhone moniker. Progress is reportedly swift and the deal may be completed as of today.

"We expect to receive a signed agreement [Tuesday]," a Cisco representative said.

Terms of the agreement were not revealed in the statement, which confirms Apple's awareness of the now ten year old trademark property in advance of today's Macworld San Francisco keynote by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.

Differences in the nature of the devices may play a part in the settlement. While Cisco's Linksys-branded iPhone taps into online voice services such as Skype or Yahoo! Messenger for Internet-based calling, the Apple handset is more conventional and provides voice calling only through cellular networks, reserving its EDGE and Wi-Fi connections for visual tasks such as e-mail and web browsing.

Apple had not returned a request for comments on the negotiations as of Tuesday afternoon, MarketWatch said.

What sucks is Cisco probably only trademarked it once they saw the original imac and thought it sounded cool.

Oh well if falls through it can just be called "Apple phone."

This might even get cisco some accidental sales of somepeople who may think it's an apple product.

"Oh wow apple made a cell phone and a skype phone!"

Well if the Apple Computer Inc dispute with Apple Core is anything to go by this probably means they made an agreement never to step into the IM side of things

Speaking of trademarks, I was sure Steve would have a 'one more thing' today and announce that the Beatles are now on iTunes. I mean there were so many Beatles references throughout the keynote and then the company name changed to Apple Inc. Perhaps something still to be announced shortly>

So the iTV is renamed appleTV (with the cool apple logo insterted instead of "i"). I don't understand why they didn't do the same thing with the iPhone -- applePhone anyone? It makes no sense to me that they would drop the "i" from one product and keep it for the other. Perhaps it's only the computer side that is going to lose "i" (I'm looking at you iMac!).

I was actually wondering how long it would take for a Skype type app to be developed to run on the Apple iPhone, since it already has Wi-Fi and it runs OSX. I would be VERY interested in something like that. Would certainly be better than running up airtime while on a Wi-Fi hotspot or home network.

Maybe that would then step on the Cisco Trademark.

That would work for me, its great for a college guy thats allways on the campus wireless network