My Brain Hurts

Time Magazine has just awarded the iPhone this honour made more special by the list of inventions that were beaten into second place. I was lucky enough to be in Miami when the iPhone was released and hogged the use of one in an Apple store for an hour exploring the iPhone’s features (it won’t be seen in Australia until sometime in 2008). It really is quite an amazing piece of technology. As I left the store I realised that I had been so engrossed in its many features that I had not tried to make a phone call on it!

Time liked the look and feel of it, the fact that it will set a standard for other phones, that it is far more than a phone and that it can only get better (think about how the iPod has developed).

The iPhone sets new ground in digital convergence by packing so any features in such a small device and could really become a seriously useful educational tool. Based on the This Day in History widget, the good folk at MacKiev have created a version that runs on your iPhone. This is a step from running World Book on the iPhone which is a step away from using it as a powerful reference tool apart from its wen browsing capability. It has the potential to become the first truly educationally useful handheld computer.

In another development the article also mentions that last month Apple opened up the iPhone to anyone who wants to develop apps for it. Watch the iPhone take off like podcasting.