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Comment by SamAtt | Hacker News Reader

They probably do need to lighten up but I can see their point here. Ellen's poking fun at herself but Apple's afraid it will translate into "the iPhone is hard to use". Apple's now looking to target the Computer Illiterate folks and the fake commercial could be seen as a sign that it's hard to use. Which is why Colbert and Stewart (who mocked the company and not a specific product) didn't get calls.

It's reactionary but not illogical.

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It's a classic Streisand blunder.

Not really. The Streisand effect would be if Apple's reaction caused the joke ad to be viewed more, and those views hurt them. The ad's harmless though; they just look stupid because they overreacted.

What was the Streisand blunder?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

Well, looking at the spot, I wonder myself about Ellen's "thick fingers" compared to the size of the buttons at the bottom of the screen. It looks like it requires a control pen (like the one from the Nintendo DS) to properly operate. And I bet my fingers are actually easily 50% thicker than hers.

It's not Ellen's jokes that makes me wonder, it's just the video itself. Ellen's text just highlights what I was wondering.

And judging by the applause at the end of the spot, it looks like she hit a nerve.

They use capacitive touch screens (so you would need a special stylus) and there is in emphasis on multi-touch which is awkward to do with a stylus.

didn't both colbert and stewart mock specific products as well as the company as a whole?

Yes, and SNL mocked it for (potentially having) poor battery life the week the first 2G was announced.

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