16 years ago today the original iPhone was released. Difficult to get and hyped beyond belief, I finally got mine on day three. It was probably more polarizing a device than you think...

My first 2 days with it felt incredibly empowering. AT&T was a nightmare--the phone would not activate all weekend. Their stench of empire was still lingering. Despite being house-bound it was hard to miss that Safari in my hand (powered by wifi) made me feel like a revolutionary. I suddenly had infinite access to infinite information (Google). Most telephone companies saw this phone as a threat. I saw it as a fight consumers were about to win handily.

Maps in my hand meant freedom. I could never get lost again. I felt this change so deeply I booked a trip to Shanghai, a city I knew absolutely nothing about, soon after.

And that was pretty much all it took for me to "get it."

No App store.
5-8 hours of battery life.
Horrible camera quality.
No video recording.
No iCloud.

Gmail was pretty much the only "cloud" product, but that was just email.

And you had to plug it into a computer to sync media, backup, and update software. Yet here we are today, where it's assumed everyone has a device in this form factor with access to the cloud at all times.

You can't get lost.
You can always find a ride.
You can always find shelter.
You can always find ______

Are you not entertained?

It's been a fun ride.
I hope one day I'll be able to add the Vision Pro to this reflection…