When is news too old to write about on your blog? Well, if AdJab can post about this amazing Diet Coke and Mentos video, I can mention Gizmodo's shaggy dog story of mid-December.

The gadget blog posted on December 14th that the iPhone would be announced on Monday. If you follow gadget blogs, "iPhone" has always meant, "whatever integrated iPod/mobile communications device Apple will undoubtedly produce, probably sooner than later." A lot of people got really excited.

Until the actual announcement. It turns out that Apple doesn't own the rights to the name iPhone. Cisco does, and Gizmodo's cryptic announcement actually referred to the Linksys iPhone. That link, by the way, goes to engadget--the gadget blog that a lot of people added to their RSS feeds when they discovered that Gizmodo was toying with its readers.

In the post about the real announcement that Monday, the author wrote an apology of sorts: "Macheads--including those from Macrumors, Think Secret, TUAW, and Cult of Mac--know Apple likes to release gear on Tuesdays. So they didn't expect an Apple iPhone Monday. If you did read into my original post and feel like I misled you, sincere apologies for the discomfort."

As a Gizmodo reader and a Mac user, this actually irritates me more than the original post did. Yeah, what's wrong with me that I don't know the day of the week on which Apple likes to announce new products? Why don't I know that Apple would never deviate from this practice? Clearly Gizmodo is operating at a much deeper level than I am, conveying information through subtle hints and wordplay rather than straightforward reporting.