By: Hillel Fuld

Sometimes I wonder what the tech community would do if there was no such thing as Apple inc. There would be no spyshots, no speculations of what the next thing is going to be, and none of the other bizarre blog posts I have read over the past few days. First there is the whole iPhone 4.0/4G/HD story. Guy finds mysterious Apple device on the floor of a bar, guy shares pictures of device with Engadget. Engadget posts pictures and causes a huge uproar and millions of tweets from geeks like me.

Next thing we know, we are all reassured by Boy Genius Report, Mashable, and countless other sites that the dull and fairly ugly device in the pictures is actually just a cheap Japanese knockoff, and not the next generation iPhone. Boy, were we all relieved… Until… Engadget pulls out their spying glasses in a post entitled “iPhone 4G: Proof“, and points out the mysterious device, which was already deemed fake, is indeed real since it appears in the old iPad pictures we already confirmed are real. OK, so that is where it stands now, these pictures are legit, and as of today, this is what the next generation iPhone will look like. According to the pictures, the device will include a replaceable battery, 80gb of storage, a second camera, and some other goodies. Sounds pretty awesome.

True or not true, this whole story just cracks me up. It is a phone, and look how much noise it has already caused two months before it is even announced.

Then there is the whole iPad being banned in Israel story, which, maybe it is just me, but is one weird story from the get go. Why are these devices being outlawed in a country that has two mobile phones per person? A country with more tech startups than any other country in the world per capita, and Apple’s newest device is being confiscated upon entry? Yea, I heard the whole different Wifi technology thing, but sorry, I don’t buy it.

Are iPads any different than other devices that use wireless internet? How did I not hear about this before? If the iPad has a different Wifi chip in it than any other previous device, don’t you think that would have been mentioned somewhere? Seems a little strange to me. I am thinking someone in whatever Israeli office is responsible for this drama, has a brother or cousin who is a tech blogger and he wanted to make sure he had something to write about that day. Once again, you gotta laugh at this story, unless you are Israel, in which case you should be trying to figure out how to fix all the bad PR you are getting as a result of this ridiculous episode.

You gotta love the jokes about this story though. People have tweeted different variations of “Won’t  be the first time the Israelites rejected a tablet, they’ll come around”. Looking forward to reading more cute tweets about this story.

Finally, the picture circulating the Web over the past few days depicting a way to upgrade your iPhone/iPod Touch to an iPad for free is just some more humor based on Apple and its devices. Not to mention the joke about the upcoming iPad Mini, which shows a person holding an iPhone. OK guys, we get it, the iPad looks like a large iPhone…

So, all this leads me back to my original question… What would me and the rest of the geeky tech community do without Apple? There is only so much we can make fun of Microsoft and their repetitive failed product launches. So, I guess we should thank Apple for providing material that occupies our time.