Doing the iPhone Shuffle

We're headed into the home stretch on the iPhone frenzy. Apple is still saying "end of June" but Web sites like The Boy Genius Report are saying June 15, just about two weeks away. Alpha early adopters will be flaunting them in every martini bar and boardroom in America and the rest of us will be doing the iPhone Shuffle, waiting in line at the Cingular store. Already there are leaks and speculation about follow-on products -- and a different kind of iPhone Shuffle.Actually, the iPhone Shuffle is old news. Just after MacWorld in January Doc Searls traveled into the future and sent back his report on Steve Jobs' announcement of the iPhone Shuffle at MacWorld 2008.

The iPhone Shuffle joke had a good run, with versions like Gizmodo's pocket-clip, and even better, iPod Hack's simple free-standing button.

One of the Photoshop funnies came from Information Architects, a design shop run by Oliver Reichenstein in Tokyo. Reichenstein's take on the iPhone is worth some attention, because beyond the visual joke of a Shuffle-sized phone he gets into some serious thinking about what we use phones for, and how user interface and function interact.

By the time he's done, an iPhone Shuffle doesn't seem like such a silly idea after all.