I sold my MiFi via eBay this week and shipped it out today to its new owner. I had the MiFi for about a year and really enjoyed it but it was usurped by my iPhone 4 and the Personal Hotspot feature that debuted earlier this year in iOS 4.3.
So far, my iPhone has replaced several other things, both digital and analog, in my life. For example, I no longer own a separate iPod (I used to own a 5th-generation iPod video, a 1st-generation nano and an old Shuffle) since my iPhone is my dedicated music player – I have it with me everywhere I go (even at the gym thanks to the Armpocket armband holder).
I no longer need to go to an ATM or my bank to deposit checks since I can now take pictures of checks and submit them via my bank’s iPhone app (Fidelity Investments). I no longer use my old Sony digital point-and-shoot camera since my iPhone 4 takes pictures well enough for most of my needs. I no longer have a separate PDA or ebook reader (I had an Amazon Kindle a few years ago) to keep track of my contacts and calendar and read ebooks since my iPhone 4 handles all of these things easily.
I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point.
Several years ago, I was so excited when the Palm Treo 600 was released. It combined my favorite PDA platform with a cell phone and made a compelling (at the time) package. I remember tech bloggers then talking about device convergence and wondering whether or not that was a good thing. I was in favor of this in general – the fewer devices to carry around, the better, right? Fast forward a few years and no one is wondering about this at all anymore. In fact, with smartphone use on the rise nearly everywhere, it seems to be what most people were waiting for.
Of course, I know a device that can do everything is not for everyone (I talked about my sister-in-law and her gloriously dumb phone in one of my favorite blog posts a couple of years ago) but I admit now a bit of childish wonder at exactly how much my trusty iPhone can actually do for me these days. While I’m guessing I won’t live long enough to see mass-produced flying cars and nourishing food in pill form, I’m still happy that I’ve been able to witness the leaps in technology we’ve experienced in many areas in the past 20 years and look forward to the next 20+.
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