On the iPhone

So, Apple announced the iPhone 2 days ago. It's a buttonless masterpiece. I won't go into the details of what it has and hasn't because that's not the sort of crap I write about. You can hit up the website if you want to see the features.

This post is more an observation about what Apple does to me (and lots of people like me).

First, I dislike Apple. I disliked them for most of my life, and then worked 2 years writing Linux software for Apple hardware and had to deal with Apple quite a bit. I like them even less now. I don't like the way they treat their customers, I don't like that no product of theirs has a model number (try telling someone which revision of a PowerBook you have). I don't like their cockiness. I don't like the user base. I just don't like the Apple experience.

But I also love Apple. Steve Jobs' "reality distortion field" definitely works. I love the beauty of their products, the simplicity in performing the basic tasks. The fact that new machines don't come filled to the brim with useless junk (my mom's new HP desktop had so much in the start menu that the menu wrapped 4 times, filling the screen, and the last column wasn't even visible on screen).

So here's the iPhone. It's an iPod. It's a Phone. It's Revolutionary. It costs $600, *after* signing a 2 year contract with Cingular. It has a full fledged web browser.

But I don't want it. I like my phones and phone services stripped down. No data plans. I pay for 300 min/month and use half of that. Why would I want this beast?

because now that I have seen it, any other phone will make me cringe from it's hideous design.

It's not that I want *this* phone. I want the future that this phone represents.