I actually think that His Steveness made the same argument some years ago (but searching for “Steve Jobs” iPod phone right now will yield 3 billion hits).

One thing which Microsoft – at least in theory – got right with the Zune player is that music (and games and video) also has a social element – you create a sense of community by sharing music or videos or games with your friends. In this way music becomes a means to reach a social goal.

This probably also plays a certain role in filesharing and copying.

So what the iPhone/ApplePhone ought to have is the ability to phone one of your friends who owns a similar device and play something from your music collection on her/his gizmo.

This thing strikes me as a really bad (i.e. useless) idea and I’ve been pondering why for a while, and I think I’ve come up with it. Yes, it combines two devices, but you have to consider the social position of those two things before thinking about whether or not people will use them in combination.

Let’s start with a phone. It lies as an intermediary between two people; it connects distant people (in a relation of equality). An iPod gives one user access to his music. With headphones, the iPod is about shutting out the world, distracting you from a mundane task, entertaining the listener (individually). Hooked up to speakers, it’s about providing music for people who are physically together to enjoy something (and in all cases it’s a one-way medium).

The only possible way that an iPod and a cellphone occupy the same social space is if people think of their friends as entertainment. Maybe that’s the case; maybe people won’t think it odd to talk back to their iPod, or perhaps simple convenience will bridge the gap (but the UI has be damn-near perfect).

The market can decide whether it’s useful for someone, but I’m going to continue my search for a phone that I can dial with gloves on (no other functionality needed).

It will be expensive
It will be closed off from the mainstream of similar devices in some maddening way
It will be underpowered or “underspeced” in some maddening way
It won’t work quite as well as Steve said ( the RDF)
It will still be better designed and easier to use than similar devices in the same field.

I’m gray and I’ve been a mac fanboy for 20 years. Owner for 16.

I never had an issue with my Mac or with the service and support in 5 European countries. With a Nokia 9210i the service under warrany turned out as 8 months agony, in 4 Nokia authorised service centers, both in the UK and Germany.

For that reason alone I may shell out 500 Euros for an iPhone but never again for device of this sophistication made by the traditional phone manufacturers.

Surely people will hold it with two hands and use their thumbs to type, like other mobile phones?

it’s a Macintosh handheld computer

According to Macintouch it’s going to be a closed platform, so you won’t be able to run your own applications. If that’s right, then it’s not a handheld Mac, but a piece of consumer electronics running some of the same software as a Mac.

Me wants one.

As to Eszter’s question: I think you have your description right (of the overview/zoom mode). But if you’re asking, in all seriousness, what the big deal is about running Safari on OSX in a handheld when you can already run, ahem, IE for Windows Mobile, then you’re very, very seriously missing the point here.

I’ll have whatever William Rehnquist had.

Does anyone here know of scientific tests of the effects of being exposed to Steveness (or should that be Jobsidyl?)

As to the Treo upgrade, I’ve been looking at the 680. For some reason (I have to do more research on this to be clear) that one seems more appealing than the 700p. Definitely do not go for the 700w, because it turns out that the Treo doesn’t have the screen size/dimension of the usual Windows Mobile gadgets so most applications won’t work on it.

But why Bang&Olufsen hasn’t come up with a device like this yet beats me. After all, B&O thinks people are willing to pay 600 EUR for a device which can only make and receive phone calls.

“Luddite geek.” I like the sound of that. I’m not sure exactly what it means, but I think it must describe something important.

And I’m sorry Barry, but I’ve never owned an 8-track. I do own a stack of old 45s—they’re in a box somewhere—but I know longer have a way to play them. I guess I’m not complete.

I’m sorry, but I’ve overheard one side of too many rather loud conversations today to be pleased by the proliferation of the tools with which we are eliminating the perception, practice and perhaps even the premise of privacy. Pah.