Generic Name for a Device?

[BushmasterM4]

How about "Hoochie Flopper"

[blue2blue]

Originally Posted by MikeRivers

Yes, that's what I was thinking about. "iOS and Android devices" isn't too bad, but I wanted to avoid an awkward list, particularly when it's repeated a few times in the article. I suppose I could write "iOS and Android devices, hereafter referred to as iJunk for brevity."

Hereafter referred to as supported devices, if iJunk doesn't fly.


Problem with iJunk, as I see it, is that Apple has sunk a lot of time, money, and other people's ink into establishing the i prefix as 'theirs' -- even though, of course, a number of other products had used it before Apple adopted it and began building much of their branding around it.

I don't think, for most folks, iAnything is going sound like anything but an Apple product.

[Anderton]

Originally Posted by CTStump

iGadget, mobile device, electronic devices, Smart devices, Mobile touchscreen devices, Portable touchscreen devices, tablet devices, iThingie, iDevices, iOS Devices, iJunk

Being a "Groupthink"(at least accused of being) Forum what have we decided the term is(I've emphasized my preference).

I'm with you on iJunk.

[blue2blue]

Speaking of prior use of the i---- name form...

From the Huffington Post...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2332510.html

SAO PAULO

[Ernest Buckley]

I refer to them as "digital devices".

[philbo]

Ah yes.... What cylindrical digits you have my dear... - W.C. Fields

[Zooey]

Apple will actually tell you what the generic terms are (see chart). Using a generic term in connection with a trademark is an important part of proper trademark usage (though you commonly see trademarks used as nouns). These policies are generally drafted by the legal department with input from marketing. All big corporations have a chart like this, but not all of them make it public.

http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html

You can see they are trying to redefine some terms here. A Cinema Display is a "computer monitor," but Applevision is a "computer display?" I'm sure there's a method to this madness (probably they're trying to claim "Display" as part of the trademark, so they break out the word "monitor" for the generic term).

[MikeRivers]

 

Originally Posted by Zooey

Apple will actually tell you what the generic terms are (see chart).

 

Well, I guess "mobile digital device" it is, then. Who am I to argue with Apple's lawyers? Sure makes it hard to tell my pocket calculator from my handheld recorder though. But then I guess they expect that they both should be the same device, presumably made by Apple.

[blue2blue]

Originally Posted by MikeRivers

Well, I guess "mobile digital device" it is, then. Who am I to argue with Apple's lawyers? Sure makes it hard to tell my pocket calculator from my handheld recorder though. But then I guess they expect that they both should be the same device, presumably made by Apple.

It's really going to depend on what your purposes are.

Do you really want a classification that could be applied to an iPad or a wristwatch?


Now, of course, if you carefully define the specific class/classes of gear you're talking about at the beginning of your write-up, then referring generically to mobile digital device (or even mobile device or just device) should be fine through the course of the article as long as a particular use applies to the whole class..

[MikeRivers]

I'm just being grumpy. The fact that I have to think about them at all in my various lines of business pisses me off a little.

[blue2blue]

 

Originally Posted by MikeRivers

I'm just being grumpy. The fact that I have to think about them at all in my various lines of business pisses me off a little.

 

[Miko Man]

"Portable electronic device" is the term I most commonly use when making a pre-show announcement requesting that folks turn the damn things off at a live performance. (Thank you, Don Pardo!) Mark C.

[Zooey]

 

Originally Posted by MikeRivers

Well, I guess "mobile digital device" it is, then. Who am I to argue with Apple's lawyers? Sure makes it hard to tell my pocket calculator from my handheld recorder though. But then I guess they expect that they both should be the same device, presumably made by Apple.

 

The generic terms are just suggestions from Apple so you don't have an excuse for using trademarks improperly. I don't see the confusion in your example. The generic term for a calculator is "calculator." And to me, a mobile device has some kind of wireless connectivity. Small electronic devices without connectivity are usually called portable, personal, miniature, etc.