Some things you'll never get

A followup to my previous post about getting an iPhone.

I didn't actually get an iPhone for me. I got one for my dad, who's been wanting to do email and web on the go for a while. Sure, there's Blackberry and Treos, Qs, HTCs, etc. But none of these are suitable for my dad. He needs something intuitive, something easy. Something that behaves the way you expect it to. Something you can use right away without reading a manual. And so far, it works for him.

Of course there are some annoyances that I hope will be fixed soon, such as:

No voice dialing

No integration with Exchange servers to get Outlook mail*

No way to use international SIM cards

No way to edit documents or serve presentations externally

No Flash support

Despite these and other features lacking, I still think the iPhone is a great device. Why? Because it's got my father using cutting edge technology to improve his life and because I know Apple will fix most of these issues in short order. Steve Jobs wouldn't allow his baby to be anything other than perfect.

But there are tons of people out there who keep complaining that they don't get what the fuss is about the iPhone, how it's lacking such and such feature, that this or that device did what the iPhone does and more three years ago.

These are also the same types of people that will never understand why people choose to use Macs instead of PCs, why VHS beat Betamax and why the Wii is a breakaway hit. It's about ease of use, about human-centered technology not machine-centered technology. I can't wait for the day that I don't have to do research just to operate these types of devices. The iPhone is getting there.

iPhone at last

I waited in line today at an AT&T store to get an iPhone. I was #11 in line at this particular store. By the time the doors opened, there were at least 50 people in line. I'm pretty sure the store sold out.

One funny thing I saw was there was a Verizon Wireless tech waiting in line with us, with his truck parked right in front. Here's a picture of when his truck was still in the parking lot.





Some people were camped out since early in the morning. I only waited about 3 hours, but boy I should have brought a chair or something. My ass, despite its cushiony structure, hurt like hell.

Just as the line started moving, the guy next to me starts chatting me up. He's a little shorter than me, Indian, and looks slightly more nerdy than I do. He starts asking me questions like, "So are you excited to get the iPhone?" "Which one are you going to get, the 4GB or the 8GB?" and saying things like, "I heard that the AT&T network isn't 3G."

Now, being a nerd myself, I knew exactly what he was talking about. However, I felt this overwhelming urge to keep my nerdiness to myself. So I played dumb. "3G? What's that?" (3G? Hell yes I want 3G!) "I saw the commercials and thought the phone looked pretty cool." (I've been following Apple and iPhone news for the past six months)

It was very strange. Even though I was probably a bigger geek than he was when it comes to Apple, I felt a need to hide it. The guys in front of me were even worse, discussing things like the future of Apple notebooks and how cool David Pogue's iPhone video was.

Even though I love nerdy things, I feel this need to hide it as much as possible. I guess I just don't want to be the stereotype. Which is why I chose engineering, but not computer or electrical engineering. Which is why I chose biomedical engineering, but did not want to be a doctor. Which is why I decided to teach instead of consult. I asked my friend what I look like to her. She said that I look like an ABC. But that's exactly what I don't want to look like. At the same time, I don't want to look like a FOB either. So where does that leave me?