The iPhone Is A…

Posted on 03 July 2009 by


The iPhone Is....jpg

As a quiet holiday weekend begins, it leaves more time than ever for random, mindless musings like this… what exactly IS the iPhone?

Sure it is usually lumped into the mix as a “smartphone” but it does so much more that I’m not sure the label actually fits.

I mean, think about it, what other smartphone can be used as a multi-track mixer?

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What smartphone can take, trim and post video in seconds?

What smartphone can take a series of images and, within seconds, create a panorama like this right on the device itself?

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What other smartphone can serve as your phone, GPS, video recorder/editor/viewer, mobile blogging platform, VOiP phone, internet radio, portable gaming device, mobile TV (via Slingplayer), email reader (via TalkMail Pro), DRV/Apple TV/keynote remote, photo editor, and the list goes on and on.

If the iPhone is a smartphone, then the entire category needs to be rethought.

OR, we can take the path of Pop Cap games and call the iPhone what it really is…

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This post was written by:

- who has written 2793 posts on Gear Diary.

Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. +Dan Cohen

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  • http://www.s-consult.com/index.php Wayne Schulz

    Dan it’s really weird that you wrote this post because I flew to San Diego on Sunday for a quick business meeting and while I couldn’t use my MacBook Pro on the plane due to some sweaty bald guy reclining his seat to my groin – I was able to use my iPhone. I wrote up a ton of notes in MindMaker, watched a movie in iTunes, played Missile Command and then listened to a PodCast before reading the news stored in my NY Times, WSJ and AP News.

    All the while I’m thinking to myself — we’re damned close to this phone being a desktop replacement.

    Ok – well not totally a replacement but close.

    And after really thinking that the iPhone OS 3 did nothing but slow down my 3G (it did) – I’m really glad I upgraded to the 3GS for no other reason than I love the video and the lack of lag time. The 3GS upgrade also sped up my news apps (NY Times, AP News) by about a factor of 3x.

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  • http://twitter.com/smartgadget/status/2470135136 smart phone

    The iPhone Is A… | Gear Diary: What other smartphone can serve as your phone, GPS, video recorder/editor/viewer,.. http://tinyurl.com/kk4ymr

  • http://digitalsinigang.blogspot.com/ egarayblas

    I agree with you guys. If I can only do programming on my iPhone/iPod Touch I would have sold my Macbook already. That’s the only thing I can’t do on these devices!

  • http://www.geardiary.com Michael Anderson

    I remember hoping for PDA’s such as the Psion EPOC-based systems and Windows CE handhelds like the HP Jornada 72x to beef up just a bit to be able to replace many laptop functions. I still think that there was an intentional limiting of functionality based on paranoia …

    I, too, love all of the non-music functionality of my iPod Touch and hope they make the next version even more robust. I love the thought of the Touch as a ‘non-phone iPhone’ …