This post is not about the iPhone.

Sun 1 Jul 07 00:59 | Tags: Hardware

The weekend has come, so I spent some time today catching up on the 500-plus unread articles in my feed reader. It seems that at least two thirds of these articles have something to do with the iPhone, which was released to the public on Friday; for the Apple-centric feeds, that count rises to a good 90%. It's a twenty-first century media circus.

Well, I don't have one. I'm not writing this post with an on-screen keyboard. I didn't wait in line at the Apple Store for three days; the nearest Apple Store is nearly 200 miles away, actually. And I didn't hire anyone to wait in line for me either. This post will not be full of my zero-day impressions of the device; that's what sites like Daring Fireball (whose logo is currently sporting the subtitle "iPhone iPhone iPhone") is for.

If the iPhone is a "smart phone," then I guess I will continue to content myself with my dumb phone, a Nokia 6265. It doesn't have a touch screen or support WiFi or have a web browser of any notable substance; its internal memory limitations preclude its use as a serious portable media player. However, I use the phone only to make calls, take the occasional impromptu digital picture and rarely send a text message or two, and it does these jobs acceptably. At this point in my life, the $500 or $600 cost for the iPhone would be better spent on rent.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not a hater. If someone else bought one of these for me (and also bought out of my current cell phone contract), I would use it, and probably enjoy it. However, at this point in time, I think I'm starting to get a little bit sick about hearing about this thing from the press, mainstream, trade and otherwise. In fact, I almost wish they'd just shut up and go back to talking about Paris Hilton again.

Almost.

(image source)

Check out these people waiting in line at the Apple Store in New York City. What are they waiting in line for? To see the President? To meet a celebrity? No; to plunk down at least half a grand plus sixty bucks a month for two years to purchase and use a cellular phone. The difference is that the phone in question was made by Apple. Having been dragged along with my old roomie to wait in line for hours at the premiere of one of the Star Wars movies, I understand that the act of waiting in line like this is just as much about socializing with like-minded people as it is about actually waiting in line; still, I think photos like this prove that the phenomenon of Apple fanaticism is not only alive and well, but experiencing a renaissance right alongside Apple itself.

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