Scripting News: Why I love the iPhone

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Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution.

Why I love the iPhone

I do actually love this product.

And I'm grateful for it too.

Basically I like all Apple products. To me, it's a way to buy a BMW every month, without having to pay $60,000.

Have you ever driven a mid-to-high-end BMW? I have, recently, I test drove a 535i. The car feels as if it has a grip on the road, it's got a confidence, it's upright, and fast, and it maneuvers, but most important, it feels good to sit in one, and it feels even better to move one. Feels, feels, feels. We buy these things for the feeling. Same with Apple's products.

My MacBook Pro has the BMW feeling, with its Titanium everything, it's just got that solid, upright feel to it. But it's big. The iPhone has that feeling, in something small, that fits in your hand.

You don't want to give it to someone, you want to just hold it. I know it sounds silly and dorky, geez it's just a phone, after all, but it's not. It's a totem. A symbol. A charm. A fortune cookie. It's personal. It's mine.

Yes I know I sound like Gollum. ";->"

That explains the "love" part of the relationship. But what about the gratitude?

Well, we've needed to have a serious conversation about mobile devices for a very long time. I realized this when Scoble was starting to nudge people about how their sites looked on his cell phone. Then I got a Blackberry, and started playing, and all of a sudden I wanted to have serious conversations about where this stuff is going. Plenty of people showed up, with tons of knowledge and experience, but the conversation drifted to the background. Now it's back in the fore, and I don't think it can drift to the back, not after so many people waited in line, and they sold 500,000 in the first weekend, and they've got a software updating mechanism that as far as I know no cellphone manufacturer has ever had. There's going to be an update for the iPhone in July, and one in August, and in September, and on and on. Eventually you'll have to buy a new one, probably long before the battery wears out. That's how Apple works of course. ";->"

So while I list my wishes, and complain about their chutzpah, that's just to make sure these things get on the record, maybe finally Apple will have some competition, someday I'd like to buy a Mercedes or a Lexus, nothing wrong with that, right? You learn from your competition, and Apple hasn't had that benefit. I hope they do, so we can spread the love and gratitude.

Last update: Thursday, June 3, 2010; 4:01:05 PM

~About the Author~

Dave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

"The protoblogger." - NY Times.

"The father of modern-day content distribution." - PC World.

One of BusinessWeek's 25 Most Influential People on the Web.

"Helped popularize blogging, podcasting and RSS." - Time.

"The father of blogging and RSS." - BBC.

"RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's 'Really Simple Syndication' technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's 'Rich Site Summary', which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows." - Tim O'Reilly.

Mail: scriptingnews1mail at gmail dot com.

Jun Aug