IPhooey!

Apple released it's IPhone in Brisbane on Friday just past. Shed loads of 'gadget geeks' apparently want one of these things, which from all accounts, isn't quite what it's been hyped to be. In the United States, there's clearly a similar hype. Evidence the following from one of my Vox neighbours, who shall remain nameless.

I'd like to buy an iPhone today. I'd be happy to hand over too much money (I'm not eligible for an equipment upgrade at the moment) for a device that in many ways is inferior. Sure, the overall usability overcomes the shortcomings, but just barely. That said, I'm not going to wait in line for hours and hours to do it.

I'm bemused as to why a piece of seemingly inferior technology, has so many people wanting to get a hold of it. Over-priced, over-hyped, inferior, although no-one seems to be able to specify just what this thing is inferior to. From what my 'neighbour' writes, in America anyway, the thing needs to be activated in-store before you can use it. The lines are hundreds of people long.

I'm not what you'd call a 'gadget geek' although I do tend to accumulate technology as and when the need arises, or I find I have a need for certain pieces of it. Example: I obtained a relatively outdated IPAQ 3850 a few months ago, and am still finding uses for it other than the portable music, games, email and database device I bought it for. I doubt I'll ever really use it to it's optimum, but it does serve efficient purposes.

I have a mobile phone - actually, these devices are UHF radios, so why marketers persist in calling them 'telephones' is beyond me - which also plays music, takes photos and nice shots too, stores contact data, etcetera. Why would I need an IPhone? What's so all powerfully overwhelming about the IPhone? As a combination communications device and personal data assistant, surely even the most average cell phone would suffice? Digital photos? I have a Kodak V610 which out performs any mobile phone in a blink. As a communications device, all that's needed is for whatever device is acquired to answer the selcal signal by 'ringing', and allowing the user to access the nearest broadcast frequency cell to call out, as and when required. Whether or not the device has a touch sensitive, bright, colourful screen is irrelevant to it's function.

Personally, I think the inhabitants of the developed world have become so much like the genus Ptilonorhynchus as to be virtually indistinguishable, save for the fact that Homo sapiens sapiens can't fly unaided.