The Macalope was at this big mythical creatures get-together over the weekend (and, no, that’s not some clever euphemism for C4). He doesn’t usually join those kinds of things but his friend the Minotaur talked him into it. The Minotaur, of course, takes the Macalope to a couple events and then stops showing up. Claims he was going to go but got lost in the maze, blah, blah, blah.
Jackass.
Anyway, the Macalope was mingling and started talking to some fauns.
Now, fauns are a pain in the ass. They’re highly unpredictable drunks who are always bumming a ride at 2 AM because they’re too blasted to drive themselves. And these fauns were no different. They were drunk as the proverbial skunk (who, incidentally, was also there).
But these particular fauns insisted they knew some leprechauns who knew a priest who knew someone at Apple. And they were saying that they heard through this channel that the iPhone is not a phone in the physical sense. It’s a technology – like VOIP – and that what Apple is going to do is put this into all Macs so each Mac ships as a computer and a phone.
The drunkest one also claimed that there would also be handsets that made use of open Airport connections to make calls.
But he was the one who threw up all over the back of the Macalope’s car. So, you know, take it for what it’s worth.
I proposed something like this pre-WWDC:
http://www.aaronadams.net/2006/08/02/ichat-mobile-what-if-its-real/
I also talked about the concept somewhat extensively during the August 9 edition of Your Mac Life. I really do think a VoIP service / phone / iChat integration makes much more sense for Apple than yet another cell phone.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be right for a change.
Must have been quite a party.
A VOIP iPhone would of course make some sense in that it would screw the phone networks so Apple won’t have to talk with them … something which is well on the way to happening anyway. But that said, it is a bit too soon. There’d be no chance of me getting an iPhone like that anytime soon where I am (Scotland) because my city hasn’t a free wifi hotspot I’ve located yet.
When Nessie says its coming, I’ll believe it. But those Leprechauns have burned me before!
Wait a minute. I said that too!
Well, almost: http://www.macalope.com/?p=77#comment-582
Don’t believe what the leprechauns tell you, they are always trying to distract people so you can’t get a hold of your lucky charms. Incidentally, I talked with a banshee (they can be quite ornery in their own right) who related a story involving a dyrad, whose sister was dating the traveling gnome. Well the gnome was quite annoying from what I heard but recently met Kevin Bacon at a press junkit. Bacon was talking about how they might actually create a social networking application based on friendster that incorporated his game “the six degrees of kevin bacon” into it. Anyhow one thing led to another and one of the developers of this new system were the three fates who apparently also have a side job consulting with Steve Jobs. Well, as you can imagine, Bacon wanted to know what the next big product for Apple was going to be. Jobs made mention to these fates that he was thinking about something called the iToaster. It was the missing link in the digital hub, he stated.
I just think that one of the fates put something on her waffles besides maple syrup.
My burdensome task is to reply with this link: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/72A2033E-F9A5-4EDA-991D-E1F0178C6AF5.html
Also, there’s this series of articles:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/695B640C-410D-4E8D-B0A9-94ACA5C78BE1.html
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/8AE9425E-A5FE-4C84-8BE4-49F64270BC80.html
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/B95B4AB4-D8AB-4F3A-8B37-6CD497DDD32F.html
If that’s all sounding a bit too reasonable, he does have an article wherein he suggests an internet-appliance-XServe (linked in the intro to the telephony article, or here: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/3FE506E2-FD6D-4FC6-BC9C-055F27279DF4.html). That should balance things out as far as the crazy/fox-crazy scale is concerned.
>It’s a technology – like VOIP – and that what
>Apple is going to do is put this into all Macs
>so each Mac ships as a computer and a phone.
So, the iPhone is… iChat?
I hate to ‘me too’ but I’ve made this observation to my colleagues a while back also.
The Media Center is Passee. Apple has the opportunity to take over EVERYTHING. With an iSite equipped Mac and the proper software support Apple can provide one device that would allow them to become your local and long distance phone company, your music store, your Video rental service, your ISP (of sorts), your phone and video conferencing solution. Tie it to a nice high-def TV and support game developers and it could even pass as a game console (not bleeding edge but it come with the package).
Apple can and should tie this into .Mac. Get a .Mac account and you get your email, web space, your telephone service.. it ties in with your music and your video. Bundle in TV show deals with .Mac service. They could and probably should Tier .Mac service too.. add features to a base account like you do with .Mac.
They could even take a more serious stab at providing backups with TimeMachine.
It’d be a single fee, single account for all of your digital and phone needs short of Apple getting into the Broadband market. That I don’t ever see happening. 🙂
iPhone mastered by 2008 now that the new ipod w/vid has that exact nifty search that acts like Quicksilver/Spotlight. iphone and ivhone Scott Breen is droooooooooling for 2007.
you’re on MacBreak Weekly Episode 12: Smokin’
very cool. I enjoy the opinions and possibilities.