Regardless of what marketing dude Phil Schiller may have said in a public moment of weakness, is there anyone out there who seriously believes that Apple is totally focused on the personal computer space? Jobs and his intrepid band of Cupertino magicmakers would have to be nuts not to have at least a few other irons in the fire-- and while Crazy Steve's sanity level is wide open to interpretation, we've never felt he was "let's cede vast explosive-growth markets to the competition just for the heck of it" crazy, his early anti-clone sentiment aside. So even though an Apple-branded post-Newton PDA may never see the light of day, we highly doubt that Apple wasn't (isn't?) actively working on one. Apple could crank out all sorts of wild consumer-oriented gadgets if it wanted to.

Enter the iPhone. Rumors of a collaboration between Apple and one or more mobile phone companies (Nokia and Ericsson are the two we hear mentioned most frequently) have been bouncing around for months now, but as always, actual facts about this supposed project are few and far between. In fact, one could fit the hard details of what's going on into an eight-ounce water glass-- and still have room left over for eight ounces of yummy Tang. As far as we know, Apple and Nokia are just setting up a bowling league. But then Mac OS Rumors goes and throws us all a few more scraps, claiming that there's more to these frequent meetings than gutter balls and rented shoes: Apple may be working on its own digital cell phone.

Now, if you're thinking that "Apple + Nokia = Apple-branded phone" sounds an awful lot like "Apple + Palm = Apple-branded PDA," well, you're not alone. Meetings do not a product make. Still, it's an intriguing possibility; the idea, apparently, is that Apple's phone would grant users of next-generation PowerBooks and iBooks "wireless telephony and Internet voice communications capabilities." (Interpret that however you please.) Personally, we'd be more than thrilled with an "iPhone" that connects to a USB port and allows a mobile Mac to dial in to a standard Internet provider for go-anywhere connectivity. In any case, if you believe Phil, the iPhone is just another rumormonger pipe dream-- but then, you'd be putting your trust in Marketing, and we all know how dangerous that can be.