iPhone 5 and the Golden Age of Computing

I found the reactions after the iPhone 5 announcement last week really interesting. Everyone knew the iPhone 5 was coming, and all the rumour blogs had announced almost everything presented. Before it started we knew many of the announcements. So why was the outcome so negative?

The iPhone 5 pre-orders sold out within some sort of crazy record (24 hours or something), yet there was a lot of negativity. People had set their expectations too high (despite the fact we knew what was going to be announced). The iPhone 5 is the natural evolution of the 4S – there’s nothing ground breaking, but it still looks like a very solid phone. And not to forget – if you don’t like it – you can always get an Android phone instead (the Galaxy S3 is also awesome)!

I think a lot of people forget that actually we’re alive during a golden age of computing. We’re incredibly fortunate to be seeing the changes and evolution in technology that we have. Obviously technology will keep improving but I am loving where things are heading so I thought I would explain why I feel so fortunate.

All in one

The biggest change is the cloud – the fact that on all my devices (Mac, iPhone, PC etc) I have my contacts automatically synced. The fact that using Dropbox I have all my files on every machine. The fact that using Chrome I have my passwords, bookmarks, tabs, and even browser history synced between devices. The fact that with Google apps like Gmail and Google Drive I have all my documents and emails accessible from any location (even computers that aren’t my own). All these things add up.

Communication and Community

We’ve had email for ages now, but with social websites like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter we are being drawn closer still. The world is shrinking. I communicate on Facebook with people I haven’t seen in years. I communicate on Twitter with people I have never met. To be honest I don’t do much on Google+ but the potential is there for it to grow and I know others use it (if only they had a decent API).

iPhone 5

So are people right to be upset about the iPhone 5? I think they only have themselves to blame. The phone itself will no doubt be a fantastic piece of kit – sure it doesn’t feature the innovations you might expect from Apple, but it has everything people were asking for and I for one am looking forward to the upgrade.