Monday, October 12, 2009

an iPhone future: 我有一个日期

It cracks me up when I see the iPhone commercial with the app for learning a new language. The finger presses the screen where it says,"Can you recommend a good restaurant?" in English and the iPhone speaks out the line translated into Mandarin.

I always imagine that like most people, that iPhone user isn't really going to learn to speak Chinese, but will use that application as a surrogate translator.

So I see the English-speaking user in China holding up his iPhone to ask for a good restaurant.

And it makes me think that there's a companion iPhone app for Chinese consumers that answers the questions posed by American iPhones.

And so the Chinese user holds up his iPhone which has this app for answering the questions from these American tourists.

And then because both phones have speech recognition and voice-control software, the two phones start a conversation while the American and the Chinese stand there holding up their iPhones to each other while blankly staring into space.

And when the American returns home, his friends will ask if he had a good trip. And he'll answer, "I don't know. But I think my iPhone hooked up."


I can see a future where each of us is a slave to our smartphones. Not because we need them, but because we fear them:

Your iPhone:
"Listen bitch, you best walk me down to the park right now or else I'm emailing everyone in your address book those photos I took of you last night. And hurry it up; I have a date."
Yeah, there's a app for that. Or at least, there will be.