Today is a day that will go down in history — or is it infamy? At 6 p.m. you’ll be able to buy the Apple iPhone, the cellphone and computer and music player and more that will change the world! (At least that’s what Apple wants you to believe.)

The marketing engines have been working overtime at Apple. I first heard about the iPhone more than a year ago. Sure, it looks good; that’s a given. But what makes the darn thing so cool is the “look Ma, no buttons” factor. You do everything by touch.

My prediction is that we are about five to 10 years away from a time of no more keyboards or mice. Everything will use touch screens or touch pads. We’ll be like people in the movie Minority Report; they wired up their fingers and moved through computerized interactive environments with fluidity and grace. Like them, we ‘ll put on some classical music and be conducting on our computers.

I’m looking forward to it. Think of all the people saved from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Between the iPhone and Microsoft Surface, the days of keystrokes and mouse clicks are fading fast. I only have two questions now: What will we call the new “syndrome” caused by touch screen usage? And will it be covered by workman’s comp?

El jefe is a beta tester for Brightcove, a company that helps producers publish, syndicate, and maybe even earn revenue from their video content. I’m guessing that’s how he came across MomMetv.com, whose owner is a Brightcove customer. MomMetv is, as you might guess, a site with video geared for mommies or, well, MomMes I guess. And apparently MomMes are well dressed white women in the suburbs of Denver, all of whom have gaudy TV lighting splashing the wall behind them. OK, so that was just a poke, here’s an actual thought about the site.

I think Missy DePew, the MomMe behind the site (and a TV producer, which is no surprise when you see the lighting), may have stumbled on a great plan for launching a social networking site, which is what MomMetv now is–she started it as an online TV channel to get the conversations started. Whether or not it was a plan, I think the result has two great outcomes:

1. By creating several videos herself, with her friends, she predetermined the tone and the type of content she wants on the social networking site. As a visitor I (ahem, well not me, but maybe my wife, right?) can see how it all works, how I should use the site, and even how to behave in that network, in a sense.
2. There’s already content to react to, and reply to; and not just a couple videos. As she explained during her visit to daytime news (clip available from the press page) she gathered about 50 friends and rolled with four cameras in one day to generate what seems to me must be a hundred or so videos.

So as it stands now the site is sort of a two-parter. Visitors land on MomMetv’s homepage where they can watch any number of videos, but then they can create a profile for themselves and start blogging or vlogging and doing all the social networking stuff networkers love to do.

So what? (At M&M we like to ask that question on behalf of our clients’ audiences, but we phrase it a little more nicely: “what’s in it for me?”).

This site? What’s in it for me? Nothing actually. But that’s where demographics come in. I would not be surprised if this site is bombarded with visitors. As a father of two, one thing I know for sure is that many moms L-O-V-E to talk about anything having to do with kids and mommy-hood. And that could mean significant traffic and advertising revenue, which I imagine is the ultimate goal.

My only advice would be to back off the lighting effects.

I walked into a 7-11 looking to indulge my health food habit, and was sidetracked by a bag of Doritos sparsely decorated with white lettering against a white background: X-13D. The potential eater is invited to taste test, figure out the flavor, and enter a product naming contest online.

A brilliant marketing ploy that I couldn’t resist. After the first chip I felt like the proverbial Violet Beauregarde: is that mustard I taste? Ketchup? Onion? Yes — and pickle, beef, and bun. A cheeseburger!

An interesting experience — not exactly pleasant, but interesting. And the contest website, like the product branding is intriguing, and a great example of the power of participatory marketing. Users can generate clues, advertisements, and enter the contest. Is “Cheeseburger Paradise” too obvious?

Movable Type is going back to open source in its next version, succumbing to pressure from WordPress. According to Technosailor, the damage has already been done, Lord of the Rings style.