“When she whipped out her iPhone, Erica Sadum could feel her husband’s eyes roll. But she had a point to prove. And in less than a minute, she was able to report to the skeptics around the dinner table that Menno Simons, whose followers are known as Mennonites, was in fact born in 1496,” Michelle Quinn reports for The Los Angeles Times.
Quinn reports, “Apple Inc.’s iPhone, which went on sale nine months ago, isn’t the only so-called smart phone that provides itinerant access to the Web. But its wide screen and top-quality browser make it easy to use and read, which means it can in seconds change a lighthearted conversation into the Pursuit of Truth.”
Quinn reports, “‘It’s turned me from a really annoying know-it-all into an incredibly annoying know-it-all, with the Internet to back me up,’ said Sadum, a technology writer in Denver. ‘”It’s not a social advantage.'”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Jedicid,” “ChicagoPhotoGuy,” and “MacVicta” for the heads up.]
I disagree. What a negative view on the subject. How about “The iPhone helps us to further connect with the information we think we know, but wish to confirm”?
lol.
OK
Non-iPhone users prefer to remain incredibly ignorant know-nothings
There, fixed it.
Looks like these writers are trolling for hits by being controversial. In my experience just about everyone was glad I can get the info I need or they need on the spot with the iPhone. NO one was jealous. NO one was feeling small. All were pretty impressed and wanted to have one themselves. This is just another idiotic piece of journalism.
I don’t care what any one of them say. I love my Apple products and that’s the way it’s gonna stay.
Scheduler and Afib are incredibly annoying know-it-alls. I wonder if the iPhone is the secret to their douchebaggery?
Sadum? Doubt it. Erica Sadun, more likely.
I can see this as a real issue. Telephones were just fine when we had nothing but land lines, but now everybody has cell phones, and it really has changed society. There so so many rude people talking in places where they shouldn’t (cars, grocery stores, etc..) not to mention that we are on call for work 24/7.
The internet is maybe the best invention ever, but taking that instant knowledge from the desktop to the palm of your hand will create it own set of annoyances.
This was on the LA Times front page yesterday. If she’s quoting Will Shipley, then she’s a mac dork, too.
Whipping out your iPhone to fact check over dinner conversation is indeed somewhat douchey, yet, it’s no more douchey than whipping out your Blackberry or whatever else you might have had on and.
But more to the point, if you whipped out your iPhone at dinner and your husband rolled his eyes (you could feel that?), you didn’t choose the wrong smartphone. You chose the wrong husband.
This happened recently.
Shortly after turning into my subdivision on Saturday morning, I found a young man in the road ahead frantically waving his arms in distress. I stopped to see what concerns he had and rolled down my car window.
With high anxiety showing, he begged, “Mister, I need to get to a telephone! My car broke down about a half mile back and I need to get some help! I’ve tried six or seven of these houses and nobody will allow me to use their telephones! Will you help me?”
The young mad looked decent enough, certainly frantic enough.
Rain threatened, a drizzle already upon us. I suggested he get in my car, that perhaps I could find a way to be helpful.
The young man seemed mission-oriented. “Immediately, once seated, he asked, “My cellphone lost its charge. Can you take me to a service station, some place where I might use a public telephone? I have a friend who will come get me.”
I asked, “Can you tell your friend where to find you?”
“Well, yeah… Uh, where am I?” Suddenly, he seemed even more lost.
I asked again, “Where is your friend located now? What’s his address?”
He told me enough about his friend. I pulled out my iPhone and found where his friend was located. Then I showed him where he was located, even the route his friend might take to find him. Then I asked, “Now are you ready to talk to your friend?”
With a somewhat dumbfounded look about him, he nodded his head in agreement. I fingered my iPhone’s dialing panel for him and then handed the iPhone to him while suggesting, “Just punch in his number and listen in.”
Within moments, he had his pal en route to pick him up. Then he sat there looking at the iPhone for seconds, until I put my hand out for it. He didn’t want to give it up but he did, asking, “What the heck is that thing?”
I explained enough and asked, “Any one else you need to call?”
“Can I call my boss? I need to tell him I’ll be a few minutes late.”
Twenty minutes later, that young man stepped smartly into his pal’s car and they left. I’d managed to keep him dry enough so that he didn’t need a change of clothes before going on to his workplace.
Could that young man I helped now consider me to be a know-it-all?
Cool, doubletrouble. Iphone samaritanism.
To doubletrouble:
He probably thinks you were an alien transported here with 23rd century technology. Nice story. And great karma.
“Scheduler and Afib are incredibly annoying know-it-alls. I wonder if the iPhone is the secret to their douchebaggery?”
Wow, Ampar, I really made an impression on you, huh? I hope that I haunt your thoughts and subconscious of every minute of every day.
Afib: I accept your apology. Thanks for that.
Ampar, explain this ‘karma” thing to me. How does it work? Where did you gain such profuound enlightenment?
Can understand this article from firsthand experience….
One day two weeks ago, a group of us are at lunch. One in the group seems to have a story for every subject. That day someone mentioned Warren Buffet, and this guy pops up saying that Warren and Jimmy are brothers!!
Well, I called foul, and before a second past had my iPhone out googling Warren Buffet. Within five minutes we were giving this guy a hard time about how DNA testing had shown the two were no way related….
Now the real funny part is that I am a consultant and all the other members of this lunch crowd are all higher ups with a phone company. They are now preparing to switch to iPhones!!!!
I didn’t apologize to you, Ampar. Maybe you can upgrade than karma thing for some bona fide reading comprehension.
How about:
“iPhone users become Google-Jedi”
Sarcasm can be difficult to pick up when it’s in writing, but this shouldn’t have been one of those times.
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A true “incredibly annoying know-it-all” would be able to quote those facts without accessing the Internet. What’s the point of being able to be incredibly annoying with obscure facts if any moron with an iPhone can do it…?
Does this mean more writers can buy iPhone and fact check subject matter for their articles BEFORE the people with IPHONES fact check it for them?
Does this mean more truth in papers, magazines, and less bias or factually erred articles?
Does this mean the world is once again changed?
Does this mean I can leave out “Does this mean?”
Change is good…. for us! Maybe not for tech columnist.
It’s a problem. I do it and I think it annoys people.
This is totally true — it’s happened to me. I try to be much more careful now, and actually have had to just learn to let stuff go, rather than risk being an “incredibly annoying know-it-all.”
On the other hand, sometimes iPhone-less people say, “Hey, get out your iPhone and looks something up for me.” The other night, we spent a couple of hours at a family gathering looking up film trivia on IMDb. Now on my list of must-see films: The Monster and the Stripper.
Whenever I try to look something up on my iPhone I find myself having to return to the conversation that was 10 minutes ago since it takes that much time using ATT’s horrid EDGE network to load any webpage.
No doubt the Zune phone will be a huge social advantage. How much more advantage could you possibly get than a phone combined with own music player that just welcomes you to the social? Just wait until 2012 and you too will be able to buy one. It even comes loaded with every Star Wars soundtrack, the Star Wars movies and your own Dungeons & Dragons Dungeonmaster rulebook in .pdf format. If you want, you can even download software from the Zune Store using points including: Solitaire, Minesweeper, Hearts, Pinball and a 12-sided or 20-sided dice random number generator. Welcome to the social, indeed. Suck it, Apple.*
*sarcasm free of charge.