Apple changes the world again

Steve Jobs, in today's keynote speech, alluded to Apple's ability to change the way we do things. They certainly did it with the Mac in 1984. They did it with the iPod. And will this next endeavor, did they do it again?

It's an iPod, it's a phone, it's a web browser... but is it revolutionary? I hope so, because everyone has been talking it up so much... without ever knowing what it really was. With touch screen technology, it seems versatile enough to grow and be copied and be wanted... badly. Seems like all the ingredients that helped the last two revolutionary devices.

The really nice thing was making the technology work with something we already have... fingers. No need to keep track of your stylus or key in with tiny buttons. No, instead use fingers and gestures.

When I was at school at the University of Delaware, there was a Computer Engineering professor who was working on exactly this technology. He wanted to make a keyboard without keys. One where cutting and pasting was like gesturing a grab and a drop. The coolest part was how he had figured out how to identify each finger, so that an index + middle finger touch was different than a index and pinky finger touch.

I'm not sure if this professor's work ties in at all with the Apple iPhone, but it sure seems like it's similar.

As I hear more and more about this phone I am stoked! It's running OS X! It's got a 2 megapixel camera! It's really so much more... a new way to call people.

Holy shit... it's just getting cooler.