Convincing Myself

There is a lot of chatter in the blind community about the new iPhone which is supposed to be accessible. People have already decided if it is a good thing, if they can use it, if they want one. Folks have rushed out to preorder one. I have just purchased a new smart phone and re-upped my cell phone contract. iPhones only work on AT&T and I have VZ for a lot of reasons I won't go into here. The price of the iPHone is more than half the retail price with an AT&T contract. Much of the chatter is around using a smooth screen. Some will be able to do this. Some will not. It's probably true of sighted people, too. I, of course, always want the latest technological gadget so I felt really angry that this announcement came so quickly after purchasing my Samsung Saga. Then I thought about why I was on the VZ network, that the phones aren't even out yet, that even the preorder queue is full and I thought, "wait." The first phones may be buggy anyway. I remember getting my iPod Shuffle when they were all the rage--I'm talking first gen here. Mine had to be sent back because it wouldn't work. People talked a lot about them just going dead after little use. Release 1.0 is always exciting and difficult. I also suspect, if i follow the conversation, I will learn about the pros and cons. Entering text will be the big thing. What interests me most in the iPhone, anyway, are the apps for it, like stitcher. Being able to stream podcasts is very, very handy. I basically do this with Klango on my netbook. For the house, this is fine. Audio content can also be put on my Saga so I can carry audio easily. It's just thinking ahead. Maybe that's what all the hype is about--synching your iPhone, streaming content, txt msgs, email, etc.: it can just happen magically without any forethought. It's instint; it's on-demand. I don't think this is a bad thing. I don't think there is any morral imperative to not have content readily available. What I'm just saying here is that I can live with what I've got until circumstances change.