Bad for Palm, Good for Typography

070110_iphone_ui.pngThank goodness for Subtraction.com, right? Because without it, there would be only a gaping maw where there might otherwise sit a surfeit of news coverage and analysis of Apple product announcements. And certainly without Subtraction.com, there would be no possible way of learning what I’m telling you right now: that Apple has, just yesterday, fulfilled years’ worth of wishes made while snuffing out birthday candles, crossing fingers behind backs, and tossing pennies into water fountains. Stop the presses, you heard it here first: there is an iPhone, and it’s magnificent.

Almost as if just to spite me, it does everything I could’ve dreamt of asking of it just last week: it’s a phone, it’s a camera, it’s a personal digital assistant, and it’s a platform, too. An honest to goodness computing platform, from what we can tell at this early date; an Apple-authored operating system that fits in the palm of your hand. We’ve waited a decade for Apple to redress all the shortcomings and unfulfilled promises of the Newton, and that patience looks finally rewarded.

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Down with iTunes

iTunesOne more thing before we get started with today’s Macworld Expo craziness. Regarding whatever Apple’s going to announce at Steve Jobs’ much-anticipated keynote address in just a few hours: if it’s a new device of some kind, whether an Apple-branded mobile phone, a set-top box, a P.D.A. or a space age massage chair, then I hope it doesn’t sync with iTunes.

That is, I want it to sync with my Mac, of course, but I just don’t want that process to be handled through iTunes.

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