Technology

There was a period, roughly 2004 to 2008, when phone manufacturers decided that phones could be fashion accessories. Not phones that looked like fashion accessories. Actual fashion accessories that happened to make phone calls. I collected a few of them, or at least got close enough to handle them, and I still think some of the best phones I’ve ever held had nothing to do with specs or benchmarks. Nokia 8800 Sirocco This was the one that started it for me. Stainless steel body, a sliding mechanism that felt like opening a luxury watch case, and a weight to it that told you it was built from something real. The Nokia 8800 Sirocco wasn’t trying to be a smartphone. It was trying to be a thing you pulled out of your pocket and knew, immediately, was expensive. It worked. ...

Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad yesterday. A tablet. Bigger than a phone, smaller than a laptop. No keyboard, no trackpad, no USB ports worth mentioning. The internet is already divided. Some call it a giant iPhone. Others call it a toy. A few are excited. I don’t have one yet, but the idea of a device that’s comfortable to hold for reading, browsing, and watching videos while on the couch appeals to me. It fills a gap that neither phones nor laptops really cover. ...