This is a weird time of year. Here in Berkeley it's a gorgeous day, sunny, though chilly. The magnolias are already blooming. It's not spring yet, not even winter. The looming New Year makes a guy think about transitions, the passage of time, new stuff—the usual. The numeral 2005 sounds new—shiny and pristine, just out of the box, wheareas 2004 sounds (already), old, scratched, a little battered, like my camera cellphone (which I bought in 2004).
This blog is one of the transitions for the new year. I've started it This is a weird time of year. Here in Berkeley it's a gorgeous day, sunny, though chilly. The magnolias are already blooming. It's not spring yet, not even winter. The looming New Year makes a guy think about transitions, the passage of time, new stuff—the usual. The numeral 2005 sounds new—shiny and pristine, just out of the box, wheareas 2004 sounds (already), old, scratched, a little battered, like my camera cellphone (which I bought in 2004).
This blog is one This is a weird time of year. Here in Berkeley it's a gorgeous day, sunny, though chilly. The magnolias are already blooming. It's not spring yet, not even winter. The looming New Year makes a guy think about transitions, the passage of time, new stuff—the usual. The numeral 2005 sounds new—shiny and pristine, just out of the box, wheareas 2004 sounds (already), old, scratched, a little battered, like my camera This is a weird time of year. Here in Berkeley it's a gorgeous day, sunny, though chilly. The magnolias are already blooming. It's not spring yet, not even winter. The looming New Year makes a guy think about transitions, the passage of time, new stuff—the usual. The numeral 2005 sounds new—shiny and pristine, just out of the box, wheareas 2004
It's not even a month since I shelled out 600 smackers and an obscene amount of tax for my iPhone, and it's already changed my life. Could it change yours? If you avoid computers, email, and mobile phones, probably not. But then, you wouldn't be reading this. For me, however, things have already changed. I'm no longer tethered to Wi-Fi. I can access websites, send and receive email, check in with my Twitter buddies, and do text messages anywhere where my old cellphone worked. Since the iPhone has a speaker, I can play podcasts in the car while driving, then walk off at my destination without interrupting the program. (Audio podcasts, dammit! Watching videos while driving could change your life by ending it. It's more tempting than you think.) The iPhone camera is easier to use and captures better images that my old cameraphone, so I'm taking more photos than ever (here are some).
As a kid I was called a "walking encyclopedia." Somehow I never took it as an insult, though it was meant as such. Now, the walking encyclopedia can walk with an encyclopedia in his pocket. I'm referring to Wikipedia, of course. And if Wikipedia lacks the information, there is the whole fershlugginer Internet at my disposal. Whereas Superman once dashed into a phone booth to change, Superbrain can now dash into his iPhone booth (it's called a car) for rapid enlightenment, on, say, the full bio of an artist whose work I have just seen in a museum or gallery, or the filmography of a director whose movie I am about to see. (Of course, Superbrain, if he is really smart, will not show off this instantly gained knowledge in conversation, especially with women, if he wants to keep the few friends he has left.)
Given some of the iPhone's current technical limitations, I've changed my use of the Internet somewhat. I bookmark a lot more RSS feeds than I used to, and use them on the iPhone instead of overly complicated websites. (Sadly, this is essential with Flickr. Trees grow faster than a Flickr page downloading on an iPhone over AT&T's Edge network.) Apple has created a great feed reader at http://reader.mac.com/mobile, viewable only on iPhones. I've also created a bookmarks folder called iPhonics where I keep my favorite iPhone links.
Since I am an amateur website designer, who never got a penny for creating a website, i have always preferred the "less-is-more" approach (no need for a zillion links in the front page, although I admit that the Coffeeblog has too many already.) All of a sudden, some of my old creations like this one are lookin' real good on the iPhone. I was at a gallery opening last Friday evening and, to my surprise, a crowd gathered around to look at my iPhone. The gallery's own site was, er, hard to navigate (to be kind), so I switched to the above-referenced site and knocked a few socks off among my iPhone's admirers.
The iPhone's calendar currently lacks to-do items, but I frankly don't use iCal to-dos very often because they stay there, undone. However, I found some new ways to do to-do's with much ado (am I making too big a to-do about doing to-do's?) I use email. The iPhone touchscreen keyboard makes it very easy to write a one-line subject which can then be mailed, and deleted when the to-do is done. My emailed to-do list is never farther then my pocket, because I carry my iPhone everywhere.
But it gets even better. I use paper for to-do lists. Paper? Paper. This is for when I want to brainstorm a topic and list all the incomplete tasks hanging over my head, and being a putzer and an ornery cuss, i have many. I can get them all down on one sheet of paper (usually the back side of a spam fax I have received), fax it to myself c/o an old computer, whence it is automatically emailed to me as a pdf. The iPhone displays pdf's magnificently, and once can enlarge the contents for readability.
And finally, there's video. The boob tube is fighting back. I once though I was rid of it forever. How naive. I should have seen the handwriting (giant LCD screen?) on the wall when I wrote this. But, you know what? There is so much to write about how iPhone video has changed my life that I will postpone it for another post to Jonathan's Coffeeblog.
Every page now has Seesmic/Disqus video commenting. Scroll to the bottom to see or post video comments. There are also Haloscan comments at the end of each separate blogpost article. To read a text-only version of Jonathan's Coffeeblog on your iPhone or other mobile phone, click here. Or to see the graphics with less text, click here.
