more news about that gizmo

Yeah so it’s been a few days with the iPhone, it’s still quite incredible. This is usually the time when I say I’ve gotten used to a new device/computer but I was used to it within seconds, so nothing to report about adjustments.

I finally got the wifi working last night. There were two problems: One, I was entering the wep password as a passcode, not as hex (which it required I guess. This could be a little clearer in the UI) and also there’s a tremendous lack of wifi in this city (Ottawa). Maybe it’s like that in most big cities, and it’s probably because I’m pampered in my hometown of Fredericton. For those of you who don’t know, Fredericton was the first city in North America to have FREE city-wide wifi. Yep, about 2 or 3 years ago we got it. Itty bitty Fredericton. Anyway, it’s all downtown, in the malls, etc. It’s everywhere, and it’s free. It’s really nice for taking your laptop to a coffeeshop or whatnot. Back to my point, Ottawa is lacking in that department. So the only place I can reliably get wifi is in my house. It’s not really too big of a deal, but still it would be nice to get it anywhere. Or to use Edge.

Speaking of that, I never elaborated on my phone’s locked status. I’m sure most of you know, but many people have been asking me: can I use it as a phone? No, I can not get phone service on it yet. It is currently locked to AT&T. The iPhone Dev Wiki is hard at work trying to get it unlocked, so hopefully that will be soon. When they do, I’ll be able to sign up with Rogers. But still, data is going to be a BITCH. Canada has the worst data rates in the world (we’re behind Rawanda). But that’s for another post some other time.

Using my iPhone with the internet however has shown me that the future of computing is mobile. Think of what most users use there computers for..Music, watching movies, chat, emails, and general surfing. I can do ALL of that on my iPhone. And it works beautifully. I even have a tabbed browser. I don’t feel at all crippled, and I’m a POWER user. Typing is pretty excellent actually. Typing on msn, I’m actually better on it than I am a computer (because it autocorrects my spelling and I can type pretty damn fast on the thing). Browsing the web is a treat, as is email. All in all, if Jason the power user can fill 80% of his needs with a mobile device, you better bet yer ass that “normal” people can as well. That leaves laptops as an intermediary, and deskptops as the driving [serving] force behind the scenes. Maybe I’ll elaborate on that later.

Namaste