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News July 3, 2009
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The iPhone Is a…

Gear Diary The iPhone Is a... photo

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?

Gear Diary The iPhone Is a... photo

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?

Gear Diary The iPhone Is a... photo

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…

Gear Diary The iPhone Is a... photo

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About Dan Cohen

View all posts by Dan Cohen
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.

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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’ …