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I believe the iPhone is the most revolutionary device and software platform brought to market in the past ten years.  It is just so usable.  My 21 month old son Aaron knows how to unlock it, navigate through multiple pages, and start the games he likes.  Rolando is a real hit with both the kids.  Perhaps the most telling impact this kind of early exposure will have on the future of computing is the fact that my notebook screen has been completely covered in smudge marks from the kids trying to use their fingers on the screen.

The iPhone is a major breakthrough toward solving the “blinking twelve problem”.   Neal Stephenson refers to this problem in his book, “In the Beginning was the Command Line”.  In the book he criticises the modern computer GUI as being clumsy and poorly suited for many tasks, a clumsy abstraction bolted onto a computer whose power is often limited by the GUI.  Ask any expert UNIX admin and they will attest to the fact that nothing beats the power of the command line (and Windows command promt doesn’t count).  But that is beside the point.  The iPhone returns the GUI to a state that is more about the user.  It remains the first computer Aaron could operate.

Turns out I share a birthday with the Apple Macintosh.  I was seven when it was introduced.

Happy birthday, Mac!

 http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/24/25-years-ago-apples-macintosh-says-hello/