Handheld Internet

A week ago I got an iPhone. I’m using it to write this entry. It’s an interesting device, since it shows, once again, an old lesson: the more a tool does for you, the more you notice its deficiencies.

I say this not to dis the phone, which is actually quite nice. The interface in particular is well thought out and generally easy to use. But my old phone did one thing: it made phone calls. Well, it also had a contacts list. But no camera, no net access, etc. I was quite happy with it. (So why did I get an iPhone? Long story.) With the new phone I can write a blog entry. Pretty cool. The typing is kind of awkward, though, and the page display is just a bit slower than I would like. More to the point, I’ve got net access, but I can’t ssh to my server to run a program. I’ve got a small real computer, but it’s neither highly specialized nor fully general.

Still, it does let me read my mail (slowly!) on the train. I guess it’s a step forward, even if it makes me think more about the next step than the one which was just taken.