This past weekend, when the iPhone 3G was released (and even more so in the media hype leading up to it), I found myself almost to the point of wanting to go whole hog with this crazy machine. It's strange, because I don't have a BlackBerry or any other mobile email device, and I don't really want one. Sometimes people (at work) think I'm weird for that reason, but I don't care. All I have is a piddly little bargain-basement cell phone.

One of the reasons I have a piddly little bargain-basement cell phone instead of a more fancy-pants cell phone is that all the fancy-pants cell phones have features that I don't want or need. Why would I want a silly 1-megapixel camera on my phone (which has limited storage capabilities)? It would never replace my actual digital camera, which has 3.2 megapixels (I bought it five years ago - now that's pretty piddly too, but it gets the job done). Why would I want some pay-by-the-month music service? It would never replace my iPod.

But the new iPhone is tantalizingly close to what I've been waiting for all along: the all-in-one killer-app gadget. A single device that is: 1) cell phone, 2) iPod, 3) digital camera, 4) Internet, 5) email, 6) GPS, and 7) who knows what else. If there were a single device with good enough features that it would replace my camera, my iPod, etc., then I think I would be sorely tempted.

Probably that killer device will be the next generation of iPhone. The reason I'm not rushing out to get this version is that I still am waiting for the following: 1) better camera resolution (at least 3mpx), 2) video camera capability, and most importantly, 3) much larger hard drive so that I can store all my music and high-resolution pictures. I would also want to make sure it could play webcasts and make me a bowl of soup and just about everything. I think this day will come and then I'll be the coolest guy on the block. Till then, I'll just be a Luddite.