“The iSlate.com domain was originally registered in October 2004 by a company called Eurobox Ltd. It later changed hands to Data Docket, Inc. in 2006. In 2007, however, the domain was transferred to registrar MarkMonitor.com. MarkMonitor handles domain name registrations and trademark protections for many companies, including Apple. As is typical, however, the name of the actual registrant was initially hidden to obscure the identify of the actual owner. Up until this point, one could still easily dismiss all this as a simple coincidence,” Kim reports. “However, after further investigation of the domain name registrant history, it seems Apple’s name was temporarily exposed as the actual owner of ‘iSlate.com’ for several weeks in late 2007.”
Kim reports, “iSlate.com currently points to no website.”
More info in the full article here.
In a followup article, Kim reports, “We have discovered evidence that Apple is indeed behind Slate Computing, LLC and the iSlate trademark. The trademark application documents for the iSlate reveal the signatory being one Regina Porter.”
“Regina Porter happens to also be Apple’s Senior Trademark Specialist as shown in her Linkedin profile. While we can’t definitely pinpoint this to be the exact same Regina Porter, it seems beyond the realm of coincidence,” Kim reports. “So, not only did Apple obtain the iSlate.com domain in late 2006/early 2007, it also seems likely that Apple also filed for an iSlate trademark under a dummy corporation.”
Kim reports, “Another interesting tidbit, as first noted by Fscklog, iSlate is not the only trademark that Slate Computing, LLC has filed for in the United States. The company also filed for a trademark for “Magic Slate”. The term was categorized broadly to cover Computers, computer peripherals, computer hardware and much more.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iSlate. IsLate. Sounds more like a Microsoft product to us.
Maybe it is late. Better than never.com.
Yeah, or ‘asm.org’.
Oops, there actually is an http://asm.org. Perverts.
A former employer used to have grail.com.
However, we did not have a holy.grail.com.
The company changed its name, right before the dot com boom. I believe they didn’t know what they owned, and just let it expire. Someone else picked it up.
ASM – American Society for Microbiology. Perverts? Hardly.
They’ve been around for decades; long before the Internet.
So asm.org was a natural for them
iSlate sounds a bit odd.
Apple already owns “iBook.” It’s been dormant for a few years. Apple should revive that popular (and nice sounding) product name for this new “slate” computer. If this thing has a 7-inch screen, it is the size and shape of a book. iBook would be very appropriate, more so than for a Mac laptop.
“ASM – American Society for Microbiology”
They celebrate small victories.
Too bad they didn’t trap anism.org.
Or the trapeze artists that missed withouta.net.
Or a weather service that could have reined in stormbeforethe.com.
And the poultry industry could have netted chicken.coop.
iSlate? That’s nothing.
I’m waiting for whatever Apple has planned for http://www.mammals.org!
I hope not! The name is iLAME!!!!
Re: mammals.org
Whatever they do, I hope they milk it for all it’s worth.
@ Ampar–
They be milking alright.
I believe they’ve had that domain for for over ten years!
I wonder if Fred Flintstone is the Apple authorized resell for the iSlate in Bedrock.
reseller-drat!
@ Ampar,
“I hope they milk it for all it’s worth.”
In that case they should have gone with ‘mammaries.com’.
Well, there you go, then.
It’s done.
I hear someone in the Whitehouse has registered munism.com.
There’s a White House in China? Huh. How about that. You’d think it would be red.
“mammaries.com”
Then there’s that biker strip bar, titfortat.com
iSlate can also just be a core software component to the tablet.
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Burning Bush could bed another one
How bout that “all you can handle” porn site at sm.org/ass-bored?
Nicecall mdn.
Now you’ve just turned the boss off from calling it islate. I could imagine Jobs going to the marketing department.
Ok kids, very funny. Why didn’t anyone say iSlate is isLate?
Back to work, I don’t care if thats your annual. Jokes on you…
I learned to draw in a beastly manner at hoof-art.edu
(beauty that will bring a tear to your eyes…)
I like the sound of iSlate. IBook has been used before, is something totally different, and is unimaginative in this context (well, so is iPhone, but still).
But what’s up with that mammals.org weirdness, huh, Apple?
iSlate sounds a bit old world and heavy to me it would need time to have a chance of changing perceptions, mind you Macbook sounded wrong at first but then it did not have those negative connotations too to go with it. I agree with ken ibook seems to be the natural name for it with the only slight snag being the fear it files it as a book reader rather than a multi media device. But then we have Macbook and they are less a book reader than this device. Also we now have a separation between the computer range and the ‘device’ range with the later using the ‘i’. One can’t but think taking the ibook name away from the computer side was part of a future plan that was something more than that simple refinement. This device will be the final cog that connects the device category to seamlessly the computer category (or at least will as it is developed) so what more natural name than iBook, making it still an ‘i’ device but equally linking it to the Macbooks too. Surely the perfect overlap.
Since the whole tablet idea is not going to happen in the first place what difference does it make what they name a decoy?
Oh yeah, and just wait till the date of the expected tablet announcement. AAPL will drop like a rock.
How about the iSLAB …? …. no … that would be the MicrosSoft version …
I think iSlate sounds cool.
@Eric No, Micro$ will probably call theirs a “Zine” short for magazine. Goes with the Zune family doesn’t it?
Intriguing, but I can’t see the “iSlate” as being a device name for an Apple product. It’s too reminiscent of Slate.com, a former Microsoft property, and has double meaning with the color slate. “iPad” would be cool and builds off of “iPod.” There’s also the natural connection between a pad of paper and the device, which, if the media speculation is to be believed, is aimed at being (among other things) a device for reading e-books and other media content.
It was first christened iSlate on MDN in February 2006.
Check it out.
Clever trickery from Apple insiders to A. Test *ONE* of the proposed names, & B. To send the stock soaring.
Let’s get a list of high level Apple Peeps selling off during this uptick. Nice Christmas Bonus indeed…
MDN Word: Likely
Just because Apple picked up some domains back in 06 or 07 around the time of the iPhone’s launch does not mean they will ever use it. They must have tons of domain names that they are keeping for possible use.
@ron
“I hear someone in the Whitehouse has registered munism.com.”
Yes ron, but not before you registered pleteidiot.com.
“pleteidiot.com.”
Aaaahaaaaahahahah-cough-choke-cough!
Uh-hum. That was not funny ‘DD’.
I second the revival of the iBook name.
But only if it runs Mac apps.
I prefer iBook as well. It’s such a wonderful name, why let it go to waste if you own it?
Amazon would’ve killed someone for the chance to call the Kindle an “iBook.”
Blah, blah, blah.
I think Apple will follow Sony’s lead and call it the NC2007B-n.
Kind of rolls off the tong, don’t you think?
“Kind of rolls off the tong, don’t you think?”
Yes, but it sticks to the spatula.
Sorry, couldn’t help it.
New Englanders already have an iPad…
How about…
iBookWithoutACover
i-Tablet. Like that better. What’s the vote.
I-Tablet/I-slate.
Didn’t Fred Flintstone use an i-slate. Oh no, that was Mr. slate.
Fools. They don’t call it the name all the bored Internet people will or won’t like. They call it by the name that they want people to think of it.
So, not iBook, so people won’t thin it’s a notebook, netbook, or book.
Not iTablet so people won’t think it’s a tablet.
Not iPad so people don’t think it’s a piece of paper (or device) to scribble on.
iSlate is a brand new name for a flat device, with no prior connotations besides “blank slate” as in innocence or creativity, and sturdiness.
Get a brian.
I hate the word “iSlate”. If it’s not going to be called the “MacTouch” then it should be called the “iPad”. Despite references to feminine products by some which I think is stupid, “iPad” is a very good name choice.
Personally, I would go with MacTouch. But if Apple intends on continuing using the “i” moniker then iPad is the way to go.
Again, iSlate SUCKS!!!
In fact, Apple whatever amount of money it will take to buy the name “iPad” to whatever company owns it.
Better slate than never!
“Better slate than never!”
Well, you sure said the same thing I did but so much better! (Never threatens tablet.)
“Get a brian.”
I know it’s just a typo but the irony is still pretty funny. Or it’s inoric, maybe. Help me, Piccolo.
What is iSlate all about … … … well it’s quit simple, it all about being late = is late = iSlate
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It’s the iBook, stupid. But a friend mentioned iLit. Hmmm. The plot thickens. Still, I cannot wait.
@ron
You’re a cynical lad. Comes from being brought up in a socialist country.
@ Ampar,
Pertaining to “Get a brian”, it’s possible that is exactly what he meant. Per Wikipedia:
“Brian is an open source Python package for developing simulations of networks of spiking neurons.”
and
“The surname Brian can also sometimes be a French surname; derived from the Old Occitan word brian, meaning “maggot” …”
Ergo, the effect of maggots on the brian’s neurons result in a blank slate. Elementary.
islate is better than Microsoft “iPoop”!
How about Small Ass Table?
It’s a knockoff name
Better late than pregnant!
I can see the launch headlines now…
“iSlate takes the roof off Apple share price; M$ staff miserate.com”
What?! iSlave?!?!?… Why? lol
I think this is a protectionist/preemptive move on Apple’s part to frustrate the feeble minded drongos in competitors marketing departments.
It’s “i”everything now. Look at how many “i”products sprang up after the launch of the iMac. There are even vans and cars with the “i” prefix when they clearly have nothing to do with the internet.
Earlier this year, Apple reconfigured the iBook, MacBook and MacBook Pro line-up. I suspect the tablet will have a name that sits well somewhere within that line up. Unlikely for it to sit in the iPod line up…
Isn’t it fun trying to predict what the ‘black swan’ will be named from the wrong end of the timeline?