Jumped on the iPhone Bandwagon
So last week, as I was shaking off the last vestiges of whatever ridiculous illness I was suffering from, I did something I’d been meaning to do for a while now: I bought a 16 GB Apple iPhone.
Love it or hate it, I find that the iPhone is another example of Apple’s exemplary user interface design. Since UI design is often part of my own profession, I appreciate the benefit that a well-made UI can bring to the user experience. Compared to the other phones I’ve used, the iPhone’s user interface is a real treat.
I’ve never owned a “smart phone” before, or anything close to it. Every cell phone I’ve had until now has been just that: a cell phone, and very little else. Sure, I send a text message once in a while. But I’ve never paid for a data plan, never done any mobile browsing or email on my phone. It just seemed…unnecessary, somehow. Like, why would I need all that stuff in my phone?
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that simply having that capability would create useful scenarios in which I could take advantage of it. Like today, I was in the auto parts store looking for an air filter. What’s the AC Delco part number for the filter I need? Well, the ubiquitous reference book doesn’t cover Delco parts — so let me just grab the iPhone and do a query online. In a few moments, I had the part number I needed. (The store didn’t actually have the part, but that’s a failure of reality, not technology.)
