Upstaged!

Last Monday, Sprint unveiled its answer to Apple’s much-talked-about iPhone, a cell phone that doubles as an iPod. The iPhone has a sleek design, an LCD touch screen and a steep price tag: $500. Sprint’s version vaguely resembles a black remote control, flips manually from phone to music database, and will retail for $150. It’s called the UpStage.

Just after the announcement, the Department of Burnt Ends stopped at a Starbucks near the Sprint campus. There, in a trash can, we discovered this list of music-phone names that Sprint marketers had rejected before deciding on UpStage — which sounds pretty boring, now that we know what it coulda been called.

UpSkirt

Vibratr

Sprint-Nextelly

Phone+Music=TotesKewl!

SpRing

CellULite

Dialdo

LoveAngelMusicBabyFone

ChargeU

WiiBother