It doesn’t really seem like its been three months that I’ve had the little guy but I guess the calendar doesn’t really lie now, does it. I’d had a BlackBerry for a very long time before we picked up the iPhones (um, yeah… that’s plural!) and I can tell you that this device has had a much greater impact on how I do things day to day than any of it’s predecessors. After the jump… the two most important observations from my vantage point.

Compromising Function for Form

I know, you’re not supposed to lead with a negative… so sorry… but its true. The single most shocking thing for me was that I made the decision to switch from an AWESOME network (Verizon) to a pretty ok network (AT&T). Even with all the traveling I did, driving all over the South, I didn’t have dead spots or dropped calls with Verizon, it just didn’t happen. Now, I can’t get out of the city limits before I’m dropping service!

And if that’s not bad enough… I knew it would be that way BEFORE we made the switch! Why make the switch then? Simple, to get the phone. It is simply a matter of pretty wins out over works almost all the time. (Now before you castigate me over the “pretty” comment, read on!) We sacrificed function over form. And don’t even get me started on me owning an Apple product!

Function Over Fight

My second observation about the iPhone is that it is not just a pretty toy, the dog-gone thing work pretty dog-gone well! See, its kind of like my relationship with Microsoft. I’ve never been a big Microsoft fan (in spite of the fact they kept food on our table for a very long time) but I am a HUGE fan of how well their apps work together. Learn how to use one office product and you know how to use them all kind of thing. The iPhone and most of the apps designed for it seem to fall into the same category. They just work, and in most cases work pretty well. The interface is intuitive and integration is simple to setup. It literally took me less than two minutes to integrate my iPhone calendar with my Exchange AND Google calendars… I couldn’t even do that with my BlackBerries.

The New PC?

Speaking totally in the metaphorical sense of course! Try this argument on for size though. With the majority of what we used home PCs to do now contained in this nifty little form factor, doesn’t that take a great big bite out of the role of the PC in the home? Is there enough left for it to do for it to survive? Is multi-touch going to be the demise of the keyboard and mouse? Check out this theory from my earlier post, Repent! Repent! The End of the Personal Computer is Near… and I wan’t even talking about the iPhone at the time!


A move away from the dedicated, sitting in the corner, all-purpose personal computer to more task specific appliances. Case in point, Tivo. I quite accidentally stumbled over Tivo’s cool integration with Netflix. Movies viewed on demand from Netflix via my Tivo. Or if I can’t find anything good there, I can watch YouTube videos or rent a download from Amazon…all through the Tivo. Great example of a task specific appliance. Oh sure, the interface is pretty weak, but hey, its still young.

Are there problems with this theory, only one I can see. The interface!!! The keyboard & mouse have worked well for the dedicated use computer, but as anyone who has tried to compose an email on their cell phone / PDA can attest, it doesn’t work nearly as well away from the desktop. Will it be speech to text, gestures, sub-cutaneous implant behind the ear? Don’t know but I do know, sooner or later, it has to change.

The simple fact is that the iPhone and iPhone apps have changed the way I go about my daily routine. I have instant access to information about movies without having to drag over the laptop or get up and head to the computer. Vickie can email a link to a recipe to Casey while she’s at the grocery store. Facebook and Twitter no longer require me to sit behind their screens to get my daily fix of what everyone else is doing.

But its only been three months. What is going to happen in the next three months that might change my opinion? Right now, I’m thinking not much… but who knows. And while this might not fit the definition of unconnected I’ve talked about in the past, being able to slip such a powerful little device in your pocket and head out to the beach…. well that’s just cool!

What has your experience been with the iPhone? Like it? Wish you hadn’t switched? or Don’t have one and don’t see what all the fuss is about. Leave a comment and get in the conversation!

- Thom

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