Kobe Bryant and Paris Hilton are Probably Really Mad at Steve Jobs Right Now

Today is iPhone day, which pretty much pushes Kobe's and Paris' traumas off of our collective plates. Meanwhile, Harry McCracken at PCWorld explores the comparison of the iPhone to the original Macintosh, for better and worse.

When Jobs compares the iPhone to the Mac, of course, he's talking innovation. The original "128K Mac" had a user interface that DOS PCs didn't even sort of catch up with for six years; the iPhone has one that's spectacular enough that Jobs's claims that its software is five years ahead of the rest of the industry may not be pure reality distortion.

But that first Mac, for all its revolutionary goodness, had some fundamental flaws--most notably its parsimonious 128KB of memory. (Ever used an original Mac? The floppy-swapping shuffle you had to go through to perform the most mundane tasks remains one of the most mind-numbing exercises in the history of computing.) And while Apple and AT&T are defending the iPhone's use of a relatively slow EDGE data connection rather than the faster UTMS/HSDPA technologies--for one thing, it permits better battery life--it's possible that the phone's pokey data will turn out to be a comparable compromise to the Mac's skimpy memory.

Too bad Jobs didn't tie this launch to a TV event such as a Super Bowl (I'm not gonna say "Big Game"). But this is, indeed, a launch:

Apple announced today that its "revolutionary" iPhone will go on sale today across the US at 6:00 p.m. local time at Apple retail stores nationwide. All 164 Apple retail stores in the US will stay open until midnight, and customers can purchase up to two iPhones on a first come, first served basis.

“Apple retail stores were created for this moment—to let customers touch and experience a revolutionary new product,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail. “With our legendary Genius Bar support, free workshops and our One to One personal training, we’re here to help customers get the most from their new iPhone.”

But not everyone's completely crazy about this - some are just mildly crazy:

So here we are, less than 8 hours away from the iPhone madness that will descend upon AT&T and Apple Retail stores across the country. No, I’m not standing in line posting this blog entry, nor do I anticipate going to a store until at least 5:00 pm.

iphone

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