Damn you Steve Jobs, damn you, damn you, damn you
My wife needed something from the Apple store yesterday. I didn’t want to go because I know how I am about new technology. I told myself, “I will only look” and went so far as to leave my wallet in the car. I told my wife, “I just got that new Blackberry and it’s really good” and “I bet the iPhone is more hype than reality” and “I will only look.”
She just laughed at me.
While my daughter hunkered down at the kid’s playstation to play Dora the Explorer and my wife and son did their business, I casually picked up the iPhone. “Hmmm” I thought, “It’s smaller and lighter than I thought it would be.”
I switched it on and poked around. I tried some typing, since that was my most obvious “out” based on the complaints people had. Pretty easy, really, and not hard to imagine a software patch that would make it even easier.
Then I tried the web browser, opening up my own web site using iPhone’s Safari. When I managed to close my mouth (my jaw had gone slack from the complete paradigm shift Apple has created in the mobile computing market with Safari on iPhone) I heard myself say to the nearest Apple store employee “I will take one of these, the really expensive one please.”
Damn you, Steve Jobs. Damn you, damn you, damn you.
I didn’t need a new phone. I didn’t need a new carrier. I didn’t need to cancel a brand-new contract with Sprint. I didn’t need a new iPod. I didn’t need a new digital camera. And I was completely helpless to do anything but pull out my credit card and pay the man.
My wife was laughing, openly. “You are such a geek” she said. Then I showed her how it works. Now she wants an iPhone too.
Damn you, Apple.
If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t look. Because if you’re like me, you will immediately recognize that for all the faults it might have, the iPhone is at least as revolutionary as everyone has said, perhaps more so. The device itself is incredibly cool, it passes drop tests and scratch tests that I would never have tried with my Blackberry. But it is the software, and just knowing that the entire thing is powered by code, that makes it disruptive.
As in disrupted my pocketbook to the tune of over $1,000 in about 5 minutes. Damn you Steve Jobs.
I’m gonna go and place calls now, but I’ll leave you with this:
Apple iPhone, 8GB version: $599.00
Cancelled Sprint contract: $200.00
New AT&T contract: $119.00 (per month, plus taxes)
Not having to envy someone else’s iPhone every time I fly: PRICELESS
Damn you Steve Jobs. Damn you for being such a visionary and for understanding the relationship between utility and uber-cool. Damn you, damn you, damn you.
Lars added the following ...
I’ve been wondering what’s so special with the iPhone.
I’ve used phone PDA’s for years (Sony Ericsson P800, Sony Ericsson P910, Sony Ericsson P990i, HTC Qtek 9100 etc.)
It’ll be interesting to see the European version of iPhone that will have high-speed Internet and be available on multiple networks.
Question is, do I dare to have a look at it?
My girlfriend just got a Turbo 3G subscription for her laptop 3.6 MBit/s Internet and no dependence on WiFi. Sweet.
I have a 100 Mbit LAN connection at home and we have cable Internet as well. And dial-up (ew!) as backup.
Etc. Etc.
I probably shouldn’t look at the iPhone… ;-)
University Update - Steve Jobs - Damn you Steve Jobs, damn you, damn you, damn you added the following ...
[…] YouTube Link to Article steve jobs Damn you Steve Jobs, damn you, damn you, damn you » Posted at Web Analytics Demystified on Monday, July 02, 2007 My wife needed something from the Apple store yesterday. I didn’t want to go because I know how I am about new technology … store employee “I will take one of these, the really expensive one please.” Damn you, Steve Jobs View Entire Article » […]
University Update - Apple iPhone - Damn you Steve Jobs, damn you, damn you, damn you added the following ...
[…] YouTube Link to Article apple iphone Damn you Steve Jobs, damn you, damn you, damn you » Posted at Web Analytics Demystified on Monday, July 02, 2007 My wife needed something from the Apple store yesterday. I didn’t want to go because I know how I am about new technology … has created in the mobile computing market with Safari on iPhone) I heard myself say to the nearest Apple … . Now she wants an iPhone too. Damn you, Apple. If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t look. Because View Entire Article » […]
Jacques Warren added the following ...
And damn you for not making it available in Canada before ages!!!
benry added the following ...
I’m really not all that surprised to hear you got one. Surprised you weren’t waiting in line. Don’t worry, you’ll offset the expense with all those consulting gigs and speaking engagements.
Have you pulled up any web analytics tools on the iPhone in Safari?
eric added the following ...
I found a weakness. The AT&T Edge network for data transfer is HORRIBLE! In fact, unless I’m doing something wrong, the iPhone depends entirely on being connected via Wi-Fi for any kind of Internet experience.
Perhaps the load is just crushing AT&T right now, or perhaps I’m doing something wrong, but I’m looking across the room at my Blackberry and wondering …
Thanks everyone for their comments! Did any of my readers get the iPhone and are you having the same problems with Edge connectivity?
Michael Whitaker added the following ...
Sounds like you are infatuated, but will the love last? Apple may have their reasons for having an exclusive deal with AT&T, but I wish it wasn’t so. AT&T is a little spotty in my neck of the woods.
eric added the following ...
Heh, only time will tell Michael, only time will tell. AT&T’s Edge network was down on the West Coast today so that was not good. People complain about the reception but I’ve been using Sprint (”Can you hear me now? Huh, what? NO!”) so it could hardly be worse.
Plus, when Clint asked me about Bluetooth and I paired my Jabra BT125 in 5 seconds w/o even trying that was encouraging.
Trust me, don’t even look at the thing if you’re not ready to spend the $$$.
Maigari added the following ...
Well, it appears you can now get rid yourself of the phone functionality and still retain everything else :)
(it’s an internal link in the post)
eric added the following ...
Maigari: Too funny! People will hack anything … altho I cannot imagine using the iPhone as an iPod, etc. since that 8 GB filled up pretty quick.
It appears that the EDGE connection issues were resolved and the phone is no slower than my Blackberry was but the Internet browsing experience is much better.
Hopefully today I can cull through my User Agent logs and see what the iPhone looks like.
Steve added the following ...
Hopefully today I can cull through my User Agent logs and see what the iPhone looks like.
I thought you’d thrown away that perl manual?
;-)
Cheers!
eric added the following ...
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2007/06/18/Visit-From-iPhone
Tim Bray at Sun has the logfile entry for an iPhone. You can search for “iPhone” in the user agent string which will make it nice and easy to count.
I don’t have much traffic from iPhone at my site yet (it’s probably just geeky old me …)
John B added the following ...
Eric - you’ve failed me! I thought we had our “don’t look, don’t touch” iPhone strategy all sorted. Now what am I supposed to do? :-)
eric added the following ...
John: Be weak-willed like me and get the phone. I’m still kinda frustrated by AT&T EDGE (which is slow) but am hopefully that millions of iPhone owners will help AT&T see the light and get their act together ASAP on that one.
I’m actually considering just getting a Starbucks T-Mobile WiFi account so I can use the high-speed features of the phone when I’m getting my latte fix (which you’ll recall I’m sure.)
I can’t wait to see the Tealeaf replay from the iPhone ;-)
Bryan Eisenberg added the following ...
Eric and others with the iPhone. Could you do me a quick favor? My WordPress developers made my site the beta site for a WordPress plugin to better format the blog for iPhones. Could you check out http://www.grokdotcom.com and http://www.futurenowinc.com and tell me the difference? From what I understand, is that on Grok you won’t have to zoom in at all. You can find more about the plugin here http://www.contentrobot.com/can-iphone-visitors-easily-view-your-wordpress-blog-with-contentrobots-iwphone-wordpress-plugin-and-theme-they-can
cory added the following ...
I too gave in to temptation last weekend after promising myself that I’d wait until the second generation. While I’m admittedly a Mac fanboy, I haven’t been this excited about something since…since…I don’t know its just freakin cool!! I’m able to run Omniture on it, though I doubt I’ll be doing that much. Only complaint, besides the slow AT&T network, is a few Safari crashes. Omniture IDs iPhone users on the browsers report. Is anyone seeing significant iPhone traffic on their sites?
John Bresee added the following ...
Yep, the iPhone is as important to mobile internet as the iPod was to portable music. Or perhaps more so. Before the mobile internet was like some bad geek joke where the punch line was, “WAP!”
eric added the following ...
Cory: I wonder how long it will take Omniture and the other WA vendors to put up modified interfaces to take advantage of Safari 3 on the iPhone. I keep imagining big dashboards that you slide around on and expand/contract, don’t you?
John: Agreed! But how is the reception up in Park City? As I recall you were forced to use XM because radio was so bad up in the hills. Can you even use EDGE? It’s bad enough here in L.A.
Thanks to both of you for your comments!
John Skelly added the following ...
Holy crap, Jobs got me too. I managed to hold off for about two weeks post release, but like yourself, I could no longer resist once I’d seen one in person. I LOVE IT!
Brenda Bell added the following ...
I managed to avoid the iPhone craze because AT&T doesn’t provide service in my area. But then I went to the Apple Store… and picked up an iPod Touch… and for a month, I lusted as my husband kept telling me I had a perfectly good 80Gb iPod. Then he saw it… and played with it… and he whipped out the plastic without any encouragement.
I know exactly how you feel.
Patrick added the following ...
I hope your post will not be my déjà vu, when the iPhone launches in europe. I’m really satisfied with my blackberry right now.