a long time user of windows, windows tablet edition, and windows mobile (not to mention a subscriber to hal’s magazine) I had the same experience. Tried the iphone, fell for the iPhone and am now a huge fan. Moreover, it has led me to become a crossplatform techie, now using macs and windows tablets. It is a whole new world. I must disagree that the iphone is for non-tech people. Yes, if you use its basic features it is for the person who simply wants it to work but to really leverage its power requires seeing it and using it as the first real web 2.0 device…. Which is anything but non-techie.
dan cohen

Hey, Rabbi Dan. Long time, no see.

Excellent points, all of them.

I think what Hal was saying about non-techies was not so much that the iPhone is designed for a non-techy, but that it would be easier for a non-techy to use that WinMo.

Doug

hey doug
thanks. Love the new look.
true, very true, but by using some new web tools like google docs, highrise, jott and others it is a superb work tool. It is easier than windows mobile but really getting the most from it is not simple by any stretch of the imagination. My friend Jamie (who remains a devout windows user) and I started writing some of our experiences with tablets and the like over at tech-toc.blogspot (hope it is okay if I share that) As someone not only new to macs but also more shocked than anyone what I am no longer using windows mobile I want to share some of the ways I am finding the iPhone most useful in day to day situations, especially being in a traditionally non-tech field.

Hey Dan – I tried Highrise and Google Docs out a little on the iPhone a few weeks back and though Highrise was just too hard to get around its screens (not optimized at all for the iPhone) and Google Docs seemed similar. Have they changed / been updated recently? What is the URL for your experiences blog you mention above?

hi patrick
no, they have not changed in the past few weeks but, so long as I use the iPhone in landscape I do not find it to be much of a problem. Moreover, I find highrise, for example, so powerful and useful with the iPhone’s safari browser that any tradeoff with scrolling around is more than worth it.
A longtime wm user, I find the iPhone so useful that I tried the “latest and greatest” wm device last week and returned it.
The URL where I’ll be sharing some of the solutions that work best for me (among other things) is http://tech-toc.blogspot.com

Dan – I can’t get with landscape that much so far. but Highrise did seem quite powerful, but you needed to start paying to really go to town with it I think (only one ‘Case’ available I think for Notes with free version). I know the feeling on longtime WM use and now using and loving the iPhone. I feel the same, although I still have an 8525 as well. Like the blog site – subscribed just now – thanks …

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the reference to my post. For many reasons it certainly is interesting times for those of us who have hooked our wagon to Microsoft and Windows Mobile. (e.g. iPhone, Windows Mobile is now primarily about phones rather than PDAs, the new non-techy user (early majority vs early adopter), many more WM devices sold, etc)

Hal Goldstein
Publisher Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine
hal @ thaddeus.com

Hi Doug,

You’ve probably heard of John Dvorak, all-around pot-stirrer and Mac-hater. Here’s an interesting column he wrote about using Macs: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2162402,00.asp

In it, he has a quote sounding somewhat similar when recommending PCs or Macs to new or non-techy users: “As someone who does recommend gear to people, I have to think to myself, ‘Should I recommend something that will come back to haunt me, or recommend a Mac with its higher price but lower hassle factor?’ The answer is simple. I hate the idea of having to do customer service for people who cannot keep their systems clean, and that’s most people.”

~Dan (Ummm… a different one than above. )

Hey, Dannyka. I just wanted to say thanks for the memories. My brother and I used to read Dvorak when we were kids. I have been a big fan of his for years.

Great article.

Doug

Now that I’m receiving a Nokia N95 and, if it proves to be a good all-in-one phone & A2DP player & 3D-accelerated gaming machine, I may pass on my HTC Oxygen (s310) MS Smartphone to my wife. I certainly am very afraid of whether she’ll be able to understand (she’s not a techie, not in the least) how Windows Mobile works and how an SMS message can be read/written…

Should I get her an iPhone, after all?