Oops, I predicted the iPhone

I've been going over some of my old blog posts (removing embarrassing typos, failing to remove others) and discovered I had accidentally predicted the iPhone in July 2006 (note that Apple had probably been building the iPhone for a couple of years or more at that point, there were plenty of rumors/patents of touch screen technology, and it was part of my ongoing "datastick" hobby horse).

My Newton iPhone would probably have easily replaceable batteries, an SD card slot, and the camera would point at the user (as an option at least) to allow video conferencing, but that's about it.

The fact is, it's not the feature set that is impressive, it's the UI. And it's the UI which will give Apple a multi-year lead on its competitors (just consider that the virtual keyboard can have a proper shift key).