Insanely Great

As I write this there is no Macintosh computer on my desk - there hasn't been for ten years - and the "crazy" in my URL is merely a result of Russians having staked out the other few trillion decent- sounding URL names, but my fascination with this iPhone device is reaching a critical stage.

Take last night, for example. I demonstrated to my hairdresser a "fully loaded" contact, using her and the salon as the example. I had the name, address, and phone number already entered (from my old Outlook contacts), but to this I added the salon website; a note with her name and the store hours; and finally added her photo that I snapped and cropped as we stood there. Then I showed her that virtually everything about the content screen was "actionable." This is to say that Apple has re-invented the concept of hyperlinks so that they now turn address lines into maps (with live traffic reports) and numbers into dial tones.

Most if not all of these features have been around previously, but the incredibly simple interface makes the device a delight to use long after the initial "wow" factor is gone. This is why I have been running the batteries down, leaving the PC off, and going nearly blind reading and writing on a 3.5" screen since my phone was activated six days ago. Even the advanced configurations of this Squarespace site I have been able to do using the iPhone.

I've read some of the early reviews and I think they focus a bit too much on the details to just state the bare facts: this is the most advanced, exciting computing device ever built. It is a major coup that Apple has delivered so many tightly integrated features in a version 1.0 product. There really isn't any competition in the tit-for- tat sense. Apple has instead delivered a crushing blow to the stagnation and apathy that has plagued the computer industry for the past decade. And this is only the beginning.

With that, I'm going to relieve my fingers of "touch" typing (yes, it is true you can get a lot faster with faith), and sign off for now.