It’s something emepheral, almost. Our relationship is defined almost entirely within the confines of the darkness and the music, the undercurrent of alcohol and the late night, the unsteady beat driving our actions and defining our interaction. It’s hard to have a moment of intimacy when you’re surrounded by strangers at close range. Any such moments must be stolen, and undeclared, lasting mere seconds while the gaps between the moments stretch out, time’s elastic nature playing its usual trick. The music’s volume precludes anything but the eyes conversing, though at this stage it’s still early enough in the relationship that all the common phrases have not been defined in the language of the eyes. ...

Entire Relationships in One Paragraph: It’s a short, sharp and utterly effective glimpse into three relationships that’s utterly bowled me over. Wish I could write this concisely and effectively.

Smaller than I expected But slicker than I expected - the sheer speed/responsiveness of the interface beats the crap out of practically any phone, smart or otherwise, I’ve played with. Initial layout a little confusing. I expected the “main tasks” (Phone, Web, Mail, Music) at the top, instinctively. You would get used to it, yeah, but for at least 10 seconds I was searching the main block of icons for the “Music” section. Mobile Safari - could do better, though it’s a far better implementation than nearly any mobile browser I’ve seen yet. The keypad: ugh. ugh ugh ugh. A struggle, pure and simple, especially with my bigger fingers, and the lack of tactile feedback is an issue for speed too. “Autocorrect” saves going back and typing again though, and is pretty easy to use. “Go” button in browser keyboard stupidest idea evar because it’s so damn easy to accidentally brush. Music - wow, this has got to be the coolest part. The iPod is more intuitive, however, and in my (brief) experience the iPhone is less responsive. Text based search would be cool. Overall, as everyone has pretty much already said, a slick little device from Apple; it’s got its place though, and I think it’s pretty unlikely that I’d get (or have much use for) this first round effort.

Facebook came out this week with their real business plan - to leverage the network of people and the information they have on them to create an advertising behemoth. Using the ideas of viral marketing, combined with targeted advertising based on the interests and activities that many users list in their profiles, Facebook hopes to deliver an effective advertising platform that surpasses others simply because of the social power behind it. ...

The story of NYGirlOfMyDreams, including a picture of the girl (she’s Aussie!) - Damn, she’s cute too :)