iPad name draws feminine hygiene jokes
San Francisco, California (CNN) – Punch lines about hygiene products flooded the blogosphere on Wednesday only moments after Apple Inc. announced it would call its new touch-screen computer the “iPad.”
“The mocking goes along the lines of: Yes, the iPad is small, lightweight and slim. But can you swim with it?” wrote the Los Angeles Times’ tech blog.
The term iTampon — a riff on the fact that the iPad can be taken to sound more like a maxipad than a slick new computer — was the third most-talked about trend on Twitter on Wednesday evening.
Do you think the iPad name is a flop?
Some female bloggers wrote that Apple seemed not to have any women on its marketing team.
“With “iTampon” quickly emerging as a trending Twitter topic, it’s probably safe to say that many women found themselves cringing as they asked, ‘Do any women work at Apple?’ ” wrote Annie Colbert on the blog “Holy Kaw!”
The tech community has discussed the name for Apple’s new keyboard-less computer for months if not years. Rumor had it that the device might be called the iSlate, but one reporter at Apple’s San Francisco event joked that the term “slate” might sound too ancient or heavy for a lightweight lap computer.
“Slate is a little bit ‘Flintstones,’ ” said Stephen Hutcheon, an editor at The Sydney Morning Herald, a newspaper in Australia.
It’s also unclear what people should call the category of computers that now includes the iPad. Some refer to computers without keyboards and with touch-screens as “slate computers.”
Others call them tablets, a term that also can refer to ’90s devices with keyboards and pens attached.
After Apple unveiled the iPad at an invitation-only event, some tech journalists said they thought the jokes about feminine hygiene would dissipate soon.
The name “iPod” sounded strange at first, for example, and now is a part of the standard vocabulary, said Hutcheon.
“If you think of iPods in 2001, we probably got the same smirks,” he said. “I think the jokes will disappear.”
He added that one could take “pad” to mean “home,” which is where Apple CEO Steve Jobs hopes many people will use the iPad to read books, watch movies and the like.
Andy Ihnatko, a tech columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times, said Apple could call its new gadget a “mangled baby duck” and people would still buy it, both because Apple has sex appeal and because the iPad is a good product.
“With the right device, marketing doesn’t really matter,” he said.
The name iPad sticks with Apple’s “i” line of branding and is therefore a smart move, said Jacqui Cheng, a senior writer at the tech site Ars Technica.
“I don’t hate it,” she said of the name. “I don’t know if I love it, but it’s OK.”
Share iReport reaction of the iPad
Still, the torrent of online jokes about the iPad could stick in consumers’ minds. It seems particularly damaging that MADtv was making fun of the iPad name long before Apple ever introduced its new product.
A years-old comedy skit from the show circulated the Internet on Wednesday. It shows two women discussing an Apple period-maintenance device called the iPad.
As Twitter user @DontStealMyPen notes snarkily, the botched iPad name has the potential to alter shopping habits:
“Will women send their husbands to the Apple store to buy iPads?” the user wrote.
Small test…
This site has NOTHING to do with porn, but several search hits with the word “porn” have brought people to this page.
Does adding the word “porn” three times in one listing greatly increase the hits on a page.
And if so, that’s sort of sad. :/
Here’s eight REAL ways to make money in your spare time in the upcoming year. Many of these I have done myself and have made extra money doing. And NO surveys! What a scam! Good luck!
- Be a census taker – “The U.S. Census Bureau is recruiting temporary, part-time census takers for the 2010 Census. These short-term jobs offer good pay, flexible hours, paid training, and reimbursement for authorized work-related expenses, such as mileage incurred while conducting census work. Best of all, census takers work right in their own communities. Census taker jobs are excellent for people who want to work part-time, those who are between jobs, or just about anyone who wants to earn extra money while performing an important service for their community.” Salary is based on your location, but it’s easy extra money that can be made in the evenings and on the weekends. $10.00 – $20.00 /hr. http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs/
- Mystery shopping – buy stuff and report on your experiences. I’ve actually done this before and if you can find a good company, it can work well. Just expect a long turn-around – it takes awhile to get that first check… Here’s an article from MSN money: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveMoney/how-to-become-a-mystery-shopper.aspx
- Selling digital photos – There are a couple of different approaches to this. You can post your pictures on free sites, and have advertisers find your photos and contact you directly, or post your photos on stock photography sites where users pay for your photo. Here a few to check out: http://www.flickr.com/, http://www.shutterfly.com/, http://www.shutterstock.com/, http://www.dreamstime.com/, http://www.bigstockphoto.com/, http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php
- Sell things on ebay/amazon/craigslist – old books, movies, clothes. Raid that overflowing closet downstairs, and make some money selling your old things. You can sell pretty much EVERYTHING these days.
- Become a pet-sitter – make a flier and advertise in your neighborhood. Most families would much rather leave their pets at home with a daily visit from a neighbor than put them up in a kennel. And, you can charge quite a bit for this!
- Avon/Pampered Chef – Host Avon or Pampered Chef parties. They’re lots of fun and you can make a sizeable extra income! https://www.youravon.com/REPSuite/login.page, http://www.pamperedchef.com/index.jsp?localeString=en_us
- Clinical Studies – The U.S. National Institutes of Health are always looking for volunteers for clinical studies. I’ve done this before and have made money in the hundreds for a few hours of my time (and some blood draws). It’s easy, you’re helping the medical field, and may be able to receive new/experimental treatments. http://clinicaltrials.gov/
- Ehow articles – write articles for ehow.com. Based on the number of hits you get, you get paid! If you have a special expertise, that can be especially profitable to write about…but you can really write about anything! http://www.ehow.com/
Have a great Christmas everyone…and find out where Santa Claus is too!!
http://www.noradsanta.org/
So, this company took pictures of all the faces of their employees (15 in total I think), threw them together in one database, and allowed for 750,000 facial combinations. It’s fun to play with…seriously, take a look: http://www.mono-1.com/monoface/main.html
…to hopefully make someone out there smile. 
Here are my favorites:
- www.redenvelope.com
- Click on the radio logo in the top right corner and type in “wash” for extra deals and free shipping!
- www.retailmenot.com
- TONS of coupons – online or to print out for pretty much every store you could think of.
- www.uncommongoods.com
- Unique and funky gifts – something different!
- http://www.cloud9living.com/
- Give the gift of experiences – stock car racing, sky diving, hot air balloon rides, bi-plane rides, everything you could think of!
- http://www.google.com/prdhp?hl=en&tab=wf
- Before you buy ANYTHING online, search Google shopping first. I’ve been able to find much cheaper prices on most things through this service.
- www.gifts.com
- Do the personality profile (http://www.gifts.com/finder) and they’ll tell you what to buy for that person who is difficult to shop for.It works really well!
- http://www.surprise.com/
- Cute, novelty gifts.
- http://www.thinkgeek.com/
- Popular among the geeks of the world – but they definitely have some VERY unique gifts
i’m just getting setup. but thanks for swinging by. more to come soon!!
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