David Pogue’s video tributes to iPhone include a musical number and some jabs at Apple product release paranoia.

Steve Jobs’ keynote address announcing iPhone.

Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal’s musical analysis of the iPhone’s prospects.

NBC News reports on iPhone in this video newscast.

Wired’s story about Cisco suing Apple over the “iPhone” name, which it trademarked in 2000.

Wired’s Pete Mortensen sees the iPhone as a shift in Apple’s center of gravity, away from Macintosh.

Wikipedia’s article on the origins, evolution, and eventual demise of Newton.

Gizmodo provides a PDF download link to this iPhone papercraft model that you can print, cut out, and tape together until the real phone comes out in June.

If you’re wondering what this new product has to do with a PDA from a decade ago, perhaps I should explain. Apple created and marketed Newton in the early 1990s, before Blackberry or Palm or Windows CE were a glimmer in their respective fathers’ eye. Newton was special, being the only pen-based organizer that didn’t suck. In announcing it, Apple’s then-CEO John Sculley coined a new term: “personal digital assistant.” In fact, Newton was quite a capable assistant, it inspired third-party software development, and it sold lots of units. Plus, they were indisputably cool. The iPhone bears a not-so obvious resemblance to Newton, one that begs comparison. I think Newton is the obvious progenitor of iPhone, from its clever form factor, to the touch screen interface, to the integrated applications and robust operating system.

In corporate branding, as in mythology, names have ineffable power. Apple fans will recognize this interplay in the company’s product names. When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started selling computers in that famous garage, their logo was Sir Isaac Newton sitting under a tree, an apple falling from above. “Macintosh” is a variety of apple and the name of its most successful product. And “Newton” pays homage to Sir Isaac. Given the importance of names, the moniker Apple has chosen for this new device seems woefully inadequate.

When I finally do buy an iPhone, I can’t imagine using it without recalling a product that arrived well before its time, to a market that wasn’t quite ready for the connectivity, communication, and collaboration it would bring. So when I do get one, I think I’ll simply call it Newton.