Being detached from your iPhone

I am a little worried.  I'm off to a hot, hostile and sandy place soon.  Its not the place that's worrying me though, Its stemming my boredom that is worrying me.  If I'm bored at the moment I will whip out the iPhone and have a read of a few passages of Sherlock Holmes, throw a few long ones in Madden 10, destroy a few structures in Crush The Castle, or just simply catch up with the latest news, stocks and reports with the fantastic Financial Times app.  But when I reach this hot, hostile and sandy place I will be iPhone-less as all mobile communications are banned. An option would be to buy an iPod touch, but then when would I ever use that back in the UK?  The big question is, what did I do before iPhones?

Now I can take my MacBook, but there is only a certain amount of Civilization 4 you can play before you go mad.  There are only a certain amount of 'diaries' you can write before you go mad.  There are only a certain amount of scathing email/forum posts/books you can write before someone in the chain of command looks at it and says 'Stop that'.  So I need some creativity ideas to keep me going for around 10 weeks.  The gym will be used fully during that time but I would like to do something to help pass the slow moments, the moments away form the aircraft when it's all nice and calm.

All else fails, smuggle the phone out and leave it on airplane mode.

Excitement building, but who will buy?

As the excitement builds for the big 27th Jan announcement, most if not all are expecting to see the first real images/video/Jobs holding of the (Name hasn't grown on me yet) iSlate.  The (unknown) spec of the (potential) iSlate means you will be able to watch videos, play music, iPhone/Touch games/apps, play mac games...the list seems endless.  But the big question is, who will use it over a laptop? Or as well as a laptop?

I don't want to piss on the big Apple fire (as if they are bothered anyway), but I'm just not convinced this will change the way we use our laptops or computers.  I cannot imagine what type of person will use the iSlate in the current rumour form, unless we're looking at rich business chaps who just find that an iPhone just isn't big enough.  I expect to see an abundance of people using them on trains in the next few months but I also expect to see the police issuing statements saying 'Take care of your iSlates'.  I expect to see people making all sorts of apps that utilise its amazing features,  but I expect to initially be fairly 'Meh' about it all.

Then again I was exactly the same about the iPhone, I couldn't see how Apple could change something that had been working so well for so long and revolutionise something.  Well, they did it and my god they did it well.  Maybe I will change my views on the potential iSlate, but for the time being, I'm not convinced.