MANILA, Philippines -- If anybody ever needs a sign to convince himself that Steve Jobs has indeed relinquished day-to-day control of Apple, then he should stop looking.

Last week, there were reports by some media outlets, most of them incredulous needless to say,  that yet again an Apple employee lost in a California bar what some quarters described as an iPhone 5 (or later) prototype. For those among you who have short-term memory loss, something exactly the same happened last year with the iPhone 4 prototype.

Last year, Apple even had to resort to some bad-for-the-press lawsuits to recover the lost prototype and keep everything quiet and orderly. You know, like the way Steve Jobs have always wanted things to be.

So, what does the whole brouhaha mean for Apple, certainly the world's coolest company right now? What does it mean for us, ordinary consumers who individually think the world revolves around them?

Does Apple, contrary to all definitions of being a cool company, employ people so inept they would always bring some cool prototypes to some of California's more seedy establishments? And just as easily forget about them and leave those toys behind? Or have the company's marketing guys run out of ideas they had to recycle last year's storyboard?

Either way, Apple is badly in need of those Jobsian marketing inspirations.

U.S. Fights T-Mobile-AT&T Merger

The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit opposing AT&T's planned takeover of T-Mobile, saying the huge merger would harm competition and ultimately American consumers. According to Justice officials, the deal is fundamentally disadvantageous for both the mobile phone market and subscribers.

AT&T said it was surprised by the Justice Department's move. It plans to challenge the government's position in court.

This corner applauds the U.S. government for looking after the interest and welfare of American subscribers. Definitely, too much market consolidation can only work against competition and consumer welfare. History tells us that when companies become too big, large enough to dictate what happens in the market, consumers are the first to suffer from increased prices and poorer quality of products and services.

I guess, it would do a lot of good for the Philippine government to look closely at the AT&T and T-Mobile merger story. The local mobile phone industry is currently facing something similar with Smart's planned acquisition of rival Sun.

Our suggestion, you might call it unsolicited advice, Mr. President, if it smells in anyway similar to its American counterpart, Malacanang should also oppose the local deal. After all, local consumers and their welfare could also use that kind of government protection.