Gizmodo bought an iPhone last week.  Rumor has it they paid between $5000 to $10,000 for this iPhone, which is a bit much, even by Apple’s pricey standards, but evidently the reason for this outrageous price was that this device is a pre-release version of Apple’s new fourth-generation iPhone that is to be released this June.

The internet went wild.

Gizmodo's shots of the device

Sitemeter reports that Gizmodo tucked in a nice 10 million page views on April 19th when this story broke plus an additional 13 million views the following day as more articles on the story were released.  Since then there have been enumerable discussions and articles on the legality and ethics of Gizmodo’s actions as well as factual critiques of whether the story was even true. Gizmodo, in true tabloid-journalastic fashion has drawn out it into an insufferably long list of posts detailing every aspect of their story.

One post stands out in particular in a way that characterizes the entire fiasco most appropriately.  Go ahead and read that link.  I’ll wait (and don’t worry about encouraging them with more page views – they already have millions and yours will hardly make a difference).

Done?

Without hyperbole, I think I can say that this is the most hilarious, pitiful and maddening article that I have read on the internet. After clinching what should be the story to end all stories, Gizmodo realizes that in fact there is hardly any story here at all, and then proceeds to wax eloquently about this existential realization.

It’s always just been Apple. And now that we’ve garnered a peek inside, the once secret society of magicians, assassins and melancholy artists looks like any another tech company.

Apple will continue to do business—great business—following the leak of their most prized commodity, the next iPhone. But as Steve Jobs prepares for his next magic show, we’ll never forget seeing the strings. An unparalleled era of surprises has come to an end.

We’ve just lost one of our few self-indulgences of wonder. Christmas morning will never, ever be the same.

Really?!

Are you admitting that you really have fully taken Apple’s bait, hook, line and sinker? Many of us have suspected this all along.

The iPhone has been refreshed every June since it came out four years ago.  Each time there were some design changes and some hardware upgrades.  We have learned basically nothing about this device that could not be easily inferred from reading the Wikipedia article on the iPhone.  The far bigger story would have been if Apple were not going to refresh the iPhone this year.

iPods over the Years

The real story here, I think is what this news cycle reveals about  tech journalism, Apple, and particularly Gizmodo.  There is something about Apple that causes tech journalists to lose all credible grips on their sanity as they wildly speculate about how this Steve Jobs’s next gadget could ‘revolutionize life as we know it’ and talk about every new Apple product as though it is in fact a revolution.  Without a doubt Apple does occaisionally make revolutionary products.  The original Mac was revolutionary, the iPod was revolutionary (although at its inception, that was by no means clear) and the iPhone was as well.  The iPad looks to follow in this tradition.  However, Apple works incrementally.  Every refresh is slightly better, slightly shinier and slightly more refined. Indeed one of the genius aspects of Apple’s PR is that they leave out obvious features in their devices (camera, multitasking, etc) and then get even more hype when they finally get around to delivering those features.

Yet the tech world acts as if every step Jobs takes is a step of genius and magic.  Certainly this is what Apple wants them to think and yet why is it that otherwise hardened journalists who can so easily see through PR stunts and marketing-speak, completely lose their heads when the topic of Apple comes up?

Gizmodo is particularly guilty of this and in this article I think they are finally beginning to realize that Apple is just Apple and that there are usually better things to talk about.  One thing that particularly irks me about Apple coverage is how any bit of Apple news (no matter how mundane) completely blocks out anything else going on at the same time.  For a perfect example, look no further than Verizon’s Monday announcement  of the HTC Droid Incredible, which is unquestionably the best Android phone available on the market and a compelling iPhone competitor.  It got its news story, but was completely drowned out by this leak because Apple takes priority in the tech news cycle.

I hope (though my cynicism says not to) that this is a wake up call to Gizmodo and other tech journalists that the echo chamber needs to be broken.  Are we really excited about technology? Or are we simply pawns manipulated by Apple’s PR and marketing teams?