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
Yep. I bought one. An iPhone. Although I said I wouldn't. Am I sorry now? Quoting Frank Sinatra, "Regrets? I've had a few, But then again, too few to mention. I did what I had to do And saw it through without exemption." How, you might ask, did this sudden major reversal of declared intent come to pass?
My eldest daughter was visiting. She wanted to look at the new MacBooks. I suggested that we go to the Apple Store. In retrospect, I was sabotaging my resolve. I rationalized it by telling myself that they would have no iPhones for actual sale, only for display. I was wrong. They had them. And there was no line at the counter. I strolled right up and heard myself saying, "I want to buy an iPhone." It gets worse. The sales girl asked, which one do you want?" Translation: do you want to drop five hundred bucks plus an obscene amount of tax, or six hundred bucks, ditto? I had to think fast. I could double the memory for only 20% more. Not a bad deal. And forthwith I forked over my credit card and blew a hole in my bank balance to the tune of $651.44. Obscene indeed.
Do I like my iPhone? Yup. Now I'm watching much more YouTube than ever before. In bed. Hey, there's some cool stuff on YouTube. Did you know that? I thought it was all crap. I'm checking my email constantly. I'm writing notes with the iPhone notes widget and sending them to myself so I check them with the rest of the email. I'm looking up stuff on Wikipedia in the art museum. (No, I don't take photos or make phone calls there; that would be rude.) I'm looking at video podcasts now. I'm even making phone calls. And enjoying it. I usually hate to make phone calls.
I said it gets worse and it even gets worse than that. I now have two AT&T phone accounts. I kept my Sony-Ericsson account so I could compare the functioning of the two phones. With the iPhone, I can't do cut-and-paste, I can't transfer files to my laptop via Bluetooth, and can't shoot video, albeit crappy video. I will close one of the two accounts in due course. Meanwhile I will be constantly comparing the world of pre-iPhone wireless with the New World Order. It's sort or like playing both characters in the Mac vs. PC ads. Have I retired my rolling bag which holds my electronics and other stuff? Nope. I now carry my iPhone gear in it.
In the Coffeeblog I wrote about Apple's strategy to bring full-power computing to the huge screens and tiny screens that are not available. As Steve jobs said in his January 2007 keynote, Apple has designed a whole new interface. But do I think that the new iPhone is cool? Yup. Is that worth $651.44? Yup. Is that of no importance? My erstwhile Zen master Keisuke to the contrary notwithstanding, it is not of no importance.
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.
