iPhone 5

Two excellent pieces to read on yesterday's Apple event:Wired's "The iPhone 5 Is Completely Amazing and Utterly Boring" and MG Siegler's "Apple's Magic Is In The Turn, Not The Prestige" Similar themes. Different styles and routes to get the the takeaways. Both full of technical admiration.

Also, I encourage you to watch Apple's iPhone 5 video - if you haven't already. It's beautifully produced, rather simple, encapsulates the above articles / view points, and leaves you asking, "when can I preorder?"

Assistant at Core of iPhone 5

I sometimes share an article on Facebook and Twitter ... and despite not having a ton of commentary to add - think it's worth 're-blogging' (a short snipet and link back). Here is a note from 9to5Mac's "The New iPhone":

"Expect Assistant, 1GB of RAM, the dual-core A5 processor, Nuance speech-to-text, and an 8 megapixel camera to make an incredible iPhone upgrade on October 4th."

Is that enough to get buyers to re-up their contracts?

For me: it's a no brainer if Assistant and speech-to-text work well. Conceptually, they make the phone a more complete, more efficient mobile office... and that's how I use it.

Increased speed. Better camera. Improved form factor (I assume). Those are all nice additions. But Assistant is the big, compelling idea. And it makes the Siri acquisition price-tag well worth it to Apple.