iPhone Freakout Watch

Shortly after 9 a.m. this morning, I saw about 30 people lined up on the sidewalk outside the Apple Store in Clarendon. Some of them had obviously slept there the night before--no small feat, given yesterday's weather.

Since I was running, I didn't stop to ask these folks what they were waiting for, but I have a hunch it wasn't a good deal on Bluetooth mice or Web-authoring software. Nope, gotta be that phone thing Apple's selling--what's the name again?

Should you feel tempted to join the crowds on line at an Apple or AT&T store, a few things to ponder:

* The iPhone, as far as I know, does not cure cancer or provide teleportation services.

* They are, you know, going to make more of them after the first batch are sold.

* Every now and then, the first release of a technology product suffers from a glitch that gets cleaned up in the next production run. I'm just sayin'...

In the meantime, I commend to you my colleague Paul Farhi's excellent essay on how things like the iPhone can get so hyped, and how they fit into the bigger picture of the last century of technological development. Should be just the thing to talk about with the stranger sitting next to you in the iPhone line.