I usually elect to leave law tech issues to Rick Georges of Future Lawyer, and the Apple fanaticism to Grant Griffiths over at Home Office Lawyer. However, I cannot pass up a local article in the Houston Chronicle about the iPhone sensation not living up to its hype.
The problem with sensations is that they rarely live up to expectations. I equate it to Milk Duds at the movie theater. I do not know what it is about Milk Duds. Maybe the name. Maybe the yellow box. Maybe childhood memories. They sound so delicious and so cool you just have to buy them occasionally. In the area of movie concessions in which popcorn and Coke just might not be enough for a two hour movie marathon, Milk Duds have a WOW factor about them. You forget about your past experiences, think about how much more great the movie watching experience will be with a touch of that smooth chocolate and milky taste. But, it is not to be. What you get is the unpleasantly unexpected sensation of tooth extraction when you bite down on a Milk Dud and then try to reopen your mouth. You have unexpectantly bitten into crazy glue. That does not enhanced the movie experience. It distracts from it, as you worry about how to get that big glob of stuff unwelded from from your molars.
From what I have read, I tend to think that is true for the iPhone as well. It has the hype. It has the WOW factor. Why else would someone change cell phone services, pay an outrageous fortune for a piece of plastic and metal, and then sign two years of their life away by signing a contract with AT&T. But somehow, despite the expectations and the "cool" features, the iPhone becomes unbearable to use for the ordinary business folks. Because of the two year contract with AT&T the iPhone and the technology becomes a tar baby of sorts of which you cannot rid yourself of it.
Hype, wow, design and sensation should never ever be a substitute for innovation. Cool and innovation are not really synonymous terms.
In the Houston Chronicle article, Dwight Silverman, who review tech for the Chron, carried the "in-your-face", "cool" iPhone with him as well as his Blackjack PDA. After the newness of the iPhone wore off, what he found is that it just did not function as well as that which is already on the market. Apple's phone does not work well with Microsoft Exchange, it has no cut and paste capabilities, the email function is frustrating to use, and email is not of the push variety that comes to you in real time. The iPhone Safari browser is glitch ridden in the way it handles coding, and it does not work well with most blogging software such as Movable Type (read Typepad). Web pages need to be designed to work with Safari's zoom feature, but most do not. The Edge network to which it connects is slow. The iPhone can pair with no other Bluetooth devise except the headset. The virtual keyboard does not work well except in theory. And, the memory is unimpressive for such an expensive machine.
My solution?
Avoid the Milk Duds at the theater. Stick with the Junior Mints. You cannot go wrong with the Junior Mints.
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