eyePhone musings

I've been putting off starting a new post for quite a while, because, and I believe this is a reasonable enough reason, I wanted to put through my thoughts on the just-announced Apple iPhone. This took time for two main reasons: first of all, the hype around the iPhone has been unbelievable and I wanted it to subside a bit. Also, it seems (after more than a couple of weeks) the first polls are in, and both journalists and fan-boys have cast their votes. Since I don't really have a chance in hell to get my hands on an iPhone, that's all I have to base my opinions on, to get to any substantial conclusions.

Well, let's do some pro and cons: beginning with the pro is easy – like most Apple products, the iPhone is gorgeous, and above all else fun and easy to use. Its underlying hardware, albeit still very much a mystery, is very powerful. That enables it to have both high resolution visual eye-candy, and some very impressive embedded apps (like Google Earth). Have a look at the phone's official site, click around, watch the demos, you'll see what I mean.

The con, on the other hand, takes a bit more imagination, and isn't a very clear-cut conclusion. Let’s start with this: I'm afraid of Apple - I've haven't had much experience with them, but I have noticed a few company policies that give me a reason to be concerned. The most obvious one, which has been the Apple guiding line since forever, is that they put out a lot of upgraded models, in a very short span of time. I just know that the moment I receive my iPhone, Apple will announce the next model, which will make my new gadget obsolete in every conceivable way. Not only that – it's obvious they will also stop making software upgrades for my "old" iCrap, to entice new users to upgrade to the new model. Already there's talks of a second generation iPhone, which will have more applications and will be a lot less of a phone, and a lot more of a PDA.
Another troubling Apple-policy, is to "lock" their users in: once you purchase your Apple gadget you will "have to" buy a whole bunch of proprietary add-ons, you will have to purchase music through iTunes, and you will obviously have to purchase software from only the official Apple retailers. The problem is that not only it will all cost about twice as it should, at the end of the day you will be stuck with all of what you've acquired since it will all be proprietary to Apple and to your gadget. Not only you won't be able to use any of it on any another competing player (I can understand that), chances are you won't be able to use half of it on another Apple gadget if you decide to upgrade! In case you need an example, just check the clip below – albeit it's a parody, it magnificently depicts the abysmal state of affairs surrounding all Apple products.

These are the two most compelling cons I can think of, but there are more minute ones, like the fact that a touch screen doesn't give you tactile feedback, or that I'm afraid it won't be very easy to use with one hand (which I currently do a lot with my phone), or that already there are other options for purchasing a phone with that form-factor.

I guess it's pretty early to get to a final decision, and only time will tell what the final price and/or availability of the thing will be outside of the US. I'm gonna leave you with a few links, in case you might want to read more about it…

1. This is an article from the NYTimes, about Apple's "iHandcuffs" policies.
2. This is a C|Net article, which lists 13 reasons to doubt the iPhone hype (I kinda disagree with at least half of them).
3. This is an article about "skins" for palmOS devices, which try to mimic the new iPhone OS.
4. This is an article from the LATimes, about how Japan will welcome the iPhone.
5. This is yet another article about reasons NOT to love the iPhone.

There must be more, but not as weird, well maybe

I really like reading the BBC's "Magazine Monitor" because, as they put it, the site "...chronicles interesting and sometimes downright unexpected facts from the news".
To celebrate the end of another year, they comprised a list of "100 things we didn't know last year". It's definitely long and it really takes a few sittings to browse through the whole thing, so, after having done so myself, I give you the shorter list of things I read there and deemed worthy of a post:

a. Dogs with harelips can end up with two noses: If you follow the link you will be able to read about a dog with a severe case of harelip, which gave him, what looks like, two noses. You can have a look at the picture above, and skip the link - it doesn't say that much anyway.
b. Cows also 'have regional accents': This is actually a link worth checking out, since they even have a recording of live mooooing being compared. Personally, I think the cow from Essex has a real problem - it don't sound to healthy to me - but the expert deems it "a stiletto-wearing, card carrying, Essex cow". Hmm.
c. Barbie has a whole name: her full name is "Barbie Millicent Roberts". Other famous Millicents in history: Dame Millicent Fawcett and Millicent Martin.
d. The lion costume in the film Wizard of Oz was made from real lions: I know it sounds horrible, but relax, it's not like they ground up live lions to make the tail-stuffing. All they did was take lion pelts and sow them together. That doesn't sound too cruel.
...On second thought, it is horrible. screw them.
e. Donald Rumsfeld was both the youngest and the oldest defense secretary in US history: I didn't know about him being defense secretary during the Ford administration, so at first I didn't really understand how the guy could be both the youngest and the oldest. I ended up reading the article, which is both fairly interesting and not too long, and it speaks about his career, in light of its end.
f. There are people who fear the number 666: Enough at least to deserve a proper name - hexakosioihexekontahexaphobiacs. The issue received a bit of publicity, since this year we had a 6th of June 2006 (aka 06.06.06.). You know what, I wouldn't mind having that as a birth date, but I guess some people do have problems with it.
g. Nelson Mandela stole pigs as a teenager: So sue me, it's not really news, and frankly, who the hell cares, but still, what would his rabbi say? I mean, what's worse - stealing, eating pork, or maybe waisting beer just to lure animals?
h. The egg came first: I thought they solved it ages ago, but it seems there's an issue i didn't think about: If a kangaroo lays an egg and a chicken hatches out of it, would you call the egg a chicken egg or a kangaroo egg? According to the article, experts would call it a chicken egg, because what counts is what's inside.