In acknowledgment of the iPhone's release to the frenzied public, and since I am waiting until I can afford one the bugs get worked out, I decided to fire up my good old Newton before hooking up with Mario Armstrong for lunch the other day. I got some fresh AAA batteries and a new 2032 coin cell battery and resurrected the thing.

When we met up, I could tell he had that iPhone owner glow about him with his white earbuds cascading from his ears with pride. I said "Alright, let me see the thing." Then I reached into my backpack and unsheathed my relic of retro technology, and exclaimed "I can't get any calls on this thing at all!"

The funny thing is that I don't know which one of us was more impressed. As I toyed around with Google Maps, pinched photos, flipped through album art, and practiced the new art of typing on glass, Mario ooohhhed and ahhhhed over my Newton's grayscale display, rainbow logo, silly adding machine sound effects, and complete and total lack of connectivity ability to "beam" to another device.

While his little 8 gigabyte chunk of technolust was dwarfed by my circa 1992 8 megabyte behemoth, I couldn't help but wonder what the iPhone will look like 15 years from now, even if it is 5 years ahead of the rest of the phone industry.

Next up, I think I'm going to go searching for accessories for my first generation iPod at the Apple Store. Should be fun.

Labels: Apple, iPhone, Newton