the internet in your pocket
Once upon a time I decried camera phones as instances of feature creep. Give me several products that fill their niches adeptly, I said, instead of one bloated product that performs every function mediocrely. Perhaps I simply didn't believe that one design could fulfill so many disparate promises. Perhaps I simply lack the imagination to anticipate the possible synergies. After all, on Monday at the Apple store, when I hefted my cell phone in one hand and my iPod in the other, I envisioned only a life in which both devices fit in the same pocket. It never occurred to me that I would never miss another phone call just because I couldn't hear the ringing over my iPod, or that the earbuds could double as a headset. I certainly never imagined that the iPhone's user interface and networking would leave me wondering whether I need a laptop at all. I abandoned owning a desktop years ago, but now an iMac or Mac mini seems an economical alternative, given that a laptop's only advantage, portability, pales compared to the mobility of the iPhone. I can now perform on the bus to campus some of the morning rituals which once delayed my leaving the house. Without any eye strain or hassle, I can check my e-mail and read the NY Times coverage of the Mets. I might not even bring my laptop the next time I fly home.
And the video quality is amazing. It renews my conviction that both HD-DVD and Blu-ray will lose in the end. The future of home theater is not in managing a library of pieces of plastic. The future is in watching the content you want on the screen you want, on demand, whether streamed from the internet or played from some local filesystem. We have two complete sets of Firefly on our shelf, and just for a moment I contemplated downloading the show from iTunes so I can watch it wherever I want. Two dozen people have watched my copy, but how many more could I have reached with Joss Whedon in my pocket at all times? It kills me that there's no technological reason why I can't rip DVDs to iTunes the same way I rip CDs.
And the video quality is amazing. It renews my conviction that both HD-DVD and Blu-ray will lose in the end. The future of home theater is not in managing a library of pieces of plastic. The future is in watching the content you want on the screen you want, on demand, whether streamed from the internet or played from some local filesystem. We have two complete sets of Firefly on our shelf, and just for a moment I contemplated downloading the show from iTunes so I can watch it wherever I want. Two dozen people have watched my copy, but how many more could I have reached with Joss Whedon in my pocket at all times? It kills me that there's no technological reason why I can't rip DVDs to iTunes the same way I rip CDs.