I couldn't resist... and bought an iPhone!...

 I couldn’t resist – after my first night’s gig with Ahmed Abdullah Friday June 29th, still on a high from the performances, I took the subway up to Apple’s self-described “flagship store” on 58th street and 5th avenue, to witness first hand the whole Iphone phenomenon. As a self-professed tech-addict (not only for music-related applications but beyond), I must say that when I first watched Steve Jobs presentation of this device last January, I was immediately hooked, though lamented it’s understandably high price for a first generation product. As my birthday was nearing, however, my family stepped in and offered to buy me one 6 months later when the product finally arrived. In between, there was the usual critiques by macheads about what the machine lacked, but what nobody could 100% report in the end was just how fantastic the machine actually worked, and how it felt, in one’s hands. I had to see for myself.

Despite the incredible anticipation, I was amazed that a few days earlier, on Tues. of this past week, people had already started lining up outside the 5th Avenue Apple Store here in New York. At things turned out, when I finally arrived at 2 am Friday on the so-called “iDay”, the initial, frantic exuberant lines surrounding the 6 pm opening had long since thinned out, and the only lines I now encountered inside the store weren’t for buying the device but for simply trying it out, with crowds several bodies deep clamoring around display tables to get a glimpse of what until then had only existed through other’s words and on t.v. and the internet. 

Finally, my turn “up” arrived and I had one. Again, I was still trying to convince myself that I was merely there to “witness” the cultural occasion rather than to actually “purchase” – surely I would be inclined to wait for the iPhone version 2.0 with it’s (no doubt) soon-to-come built in GPS, 3G, and on and on…But when I actually held the damn thing in my hands and tried a simply scrolling motion with my fingers, I was instantly, almost primitively “hooked” in a way I had never experienced before with any previous consumer product. It was the most intuitively designed piece of machinery I have ever encountered, so simple and poetic as to truly be a work of art. And I had to buy one.

When I got it home, I (again) was already completely enthralled just with the finger navigation functionality, so much so that I literally forgot for a moment then it was also a fantastic web browser. Once I’d finished exploring this feature, it dawned on me that – I forgot! - it was also a widescreen video Ipod. And most amusingly, it was over an hour later and I was about to finally turn it off that I suddenly remembered that – oh ya – it’s a PHONE as well J…

It’s a genre-changing product and yes, it lacks certain things which I’m sure will be added later (most notably, a plan allowing for cheaper calls when traveling in Canada!), and will only get cheaper and more feature-laden..But considering this is iPhone 1.0, Apple is off to a breathtaking start…