And we’re back! My apologies for the delay in updates. Over the course of the holidays my PowerBook decided she was tired of having two RAM slots and kicked the bottom one to the curb. This, apparently, is known issue with the 15 inch PowerBooks. Repair is out of the question due to financial considerations, even if I suspect my RAM failure is a direct result of the replacement logic board Apple installed in March. I’m currently trying to decide if I should buy a new 1GB DIMM card. 512MB of RAM is just not nearly enough to run Tiger as hard as I like.

This has tempered my interest in computing and thus my interest in posting. My apologies, dear reader, it’s just a painful experience to use a computer with too little brainpower.

Soldier on I must. Uncle Sam might just be able to buy me (and my wife while I’m at it) some new RAM once I get my W-2. I told myself I’d start seriously considering upgrading to a MacBook once the Leopard release is imminent and a 1GB DIMM might just carry me through.

It’s hard to keep the priorities straight after yesterday’s keynote though. I’m talking, of course, about the iPhone (not to say the AppleTV is not an attractive device for those of you with fancier televisions than I). My slavering desire for the iPhone is something terrible already. I’ve been excited at the prospect of a phone, any phone, with some smartphone capabilities that will effortlessly sync with my Mac for some time now. That the execution is as elegant as it is only makes the iPhone that much more exciting.

A funny thing I’ve noticed already is that most of the folks I talk to think of it as the new version of the iPod. One of the local “new rock” stations mentioned the iPhone this morning. Something to the effect of “If you got an iPod for xmas this year Steve Jobs has one thing to say to you, ‘Sucker!’” I suppose, from a money perspective it might be difficult to swallow the price of this iPhone had you just put down the money for an iPod. Hell, it might be difficult to swallow the price any way you look at it. It probably does signal a fundamental shift in iPod design. I’m curious to see if this “Multi-Touch” interface overtakes the iPod’s “Clickwheel” or if both can exist simultaneously.

As good as the new iPod interface might be it doesn’t really affect how I feel about the iPhone. I’d be just as excited about the iPhone if it played nary a single track and were just a phone/Internet device that synced with my Address Book and iCal.