CJD's brush with the iPhone

I think the captured it very well:My has a crude browser -- it works relatively well. Many sites now have 'mobile' sites, which make the information more accessible for the smaller screen. FCW's sister publication, , has a mobile version on its Web site. If you go to on your BlackBerry or mobile device, it will automatically take you to the mobile version, which is streamlined.And I have a number of mobile programs on my BlackBerry. Google has an whole mobile suite of applications -- mail, search, Google news, and, the CJD-fav, mobile Google maps. You can find them and download them on your mobile device by visiting on your device's browser. (Microsoft has apparently added a map program for many decices as well, I'm told. I haven't tried it out.) Google Maps mobile version is nothing short of wonderful. Yes, I have GPS in my little Prius, but my Prius is now almost six years old and there are some streets that aren't in there. There are also businesses that aren't in there. Google Maps mobile edition has essentially replaced me ever having to dial "4-1-1." I can search for a business and it provides me with phone number, address... and shows it to me on a map. It's quite delicious.But there are business reasons to think about this too. As an editor, I think about this quite a bit, to be honest. I know when I'm out and about these days -- and that is more and more often -- I am often reading various publications on my mobile device.There are other business applications. In February, on another trip to Santa Barbara -- this one to celebrate our anniversary -- we went to see the FBI spy movie Breach and we found the movie theater using theBlackBerry browser and Google Maps -- all on the go.What are the government business applications? We already know that Census workers are going to have handheld devices for the 2010 Census. There are many others.So I think the iPhone taps into this growing movement of mobile, mobile, mobile. And that is the real power of the iPhone. You're not looking at a mobile version of a Web site. (FCW.com, for example, is horrible on the BlackBerry browser. Sorry about that! We're migrating the Web site soon, and we hope to have the GCN.com mobile version on FCW.com soon after that migration takes place.) With the iPhone, you're looking at the real Web site. Yes, the page comes up on the iPhone screen, but you can literally 'pinch' the screen to zoom in on certain parts of a Web site -- say, a specific story you want to read. Then you take your fingers and 'push' it back to get the full view again. Remarkably simple -- and very powerful.Some other nice features of the iPhone... The iPhone's text messaging comes across like instant messaging -- a big improvement. And I can have my iPod songs there as well? (Well, at least some of the more than 12,000 songs I have downloaded -- all legally, I might add.) One real disappointment: I don't get why you can't use your downloaded songs as ring tones, so when my sister calls, it can play a Madonna song. People would love that.So, if I get one in the next few days, then I can tell you more, but for right now -- and even if I do get an iPhone -- I'm keeping my belovedBlackBerry. That being said, I think this device could be an important step in the development of true mobileness, if that is a word. -- start getting ready!