E-Media Tidbits

YouTube.com The iPhone does a lot of cool things, but it doesn't work so well in a blender. (Click for video)

Now, instead of crawling to the computer when I wake up, I reach for my iPhone. I check the weather forecast, read my e-mail, and scan the day's headlines -- in bed. So the phone has already begun to change my life.

The iPhone implementation of the Web browser Safari is much more impressive in real life than in the commercials. A few days ago I showed a Web design client changes I had made to her page on the iPhone. No need to lug around the laptop.

I have not yet done much with Google Maps, nor have I loaded any podcasts, but both are in the offing. Were I a business type, I'd certainly be tracking my stocks.

Many of my pre-release objections are fading -- though I still see the iPhone as a device for news junkies rather than content creators.

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I'm quickly learning my way around the interface. My friend Dan Hamilton, former editor of the Cape Cod Voice, taught me to press the keys of the virtual keyboard like a criminal leaving fingerprints rather than jabbing at the thing.

I'm switching some computer-based applications to the Web. For example, I've exported my list of RSS feeds into OPML so I can suck it into the new Google Reader. I'm also experimenting with other online news aggregators such as NewsIsFree and MyYahoo!.

The AT&T EDGE data network is not as bad as some reviewers have lamented, particularly for pages that are largely text. The wifi, of course, is snappy.

And the developer world has not been idle. Rumors about a plug-in for Adobe Flash abound. And other applications are arriving at a furious pace.

There are still questions for journalists contemplating a buy. Already a good research device, will the iPhone morph into a better content creation tool?

And how quickly will the iPhone -- and its successors -- become the media consumer's accessory of choice in coffee shops and commuter trains around the world?