A reason to get (a bit) excited about the iPhone

Sure, I tuned into live blogging coverage of MacWorld last week. I didn’t however get that excited about the iPhone. See, in my mind I already have a better MP3 player and a better camera phone (the brilliant Nokia N73) and if I really wanted to watch movies on a device more portable than my 12 inch laptop I’d buy a PSP.

What I do find really cool about the iPhone is the touch screen interface. The idea of pinching a photo to make it smaller feels like something new and something very natural. The guys at 37 signals have picked up on another cool touch screen feature – creating your own shortcuts.

The general idea is that you’ll be able to program certain movements on the screen to do things. For example you could draw an O with your finger to start an IM session with someone. Or an = to call your wife. Pretty cool.