PIXEL MAVERICK

I got an email yesterday that made me get choked up a little bit, and go “WOW!” in awe too.  The near tear was from fatherly love for my awesome son, and the wow moment was because what my 5 yr old son had done made me realize that the iPhone is by far the most user friendly device in the evolution of technology and it is singlehandedly changing how people will expect to use tech in their lives.

To set the backstory on this little event.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been spending a lot of time away from my family due to a client engagement I have through my work at The Martin Agency.  Thankfully I have a wonderful wife who is being extremely understanding …and somehow managing to stay sane while taking care of our energetic son as well as my crazy bad dog that I am pretty sure is mentally challenged.

So, I guess my son was doing his normal daily routine (…sticking to a strict eating regiment of cheese, frozen waffles, and an occassional nugget, daily workouts involving lightsaber battles with invisible bad guys, and turning on his “cute” whenever mom takes him to Target to ensure he leaves with a toy...) and it dawned on him that I had not been around in a couple days and he wanted to send me a note.

So, what did he do when he realized this and wanted to do something about it?  He did not ask mom for paper and crayons to scrawl out a “Lov Yeww Dadee” crayola note, and he did not ask if he could call dad.

He just by himself went and dug mom’s iPhone out of her purse, scrolled through the GAZILLION apps she has on it and located the one he wanted (a voice recording app), launched the app, successfully recorded what he wanted to say, saved the recording.  The only thing he could not do in this entire process was spell my name so he could email it to me himself.  His handywork is below – take a listen.

Press Play to Listen

The whole message is priceless and melts this proud dad’s heart, but the part I found especially ironic and humerous was how he ended the audio clip to me …with instructions to a mailmain to take this to Seattle.  Awesome.  So in his 5 yr old head even though he had just solo traversed some fairly complex technology on the most innovative device in recent technical history, he logically assumed that if he wanted to send something to daddy he should give it to a mailman.  The irony of email, cell phones, iPhones being the death of snail mail meant nothing to him, but I could not help but laugh at that a little.

I love being a dad.

Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard a little something here or there about Google Wave.  Basically the two Google wunderkinds are about to do what they do best… take something that everyone uses and blow it to SMITHEREENS with a replacement that we may not be ready for yet but one that will improve our lives.

(BTW…Gold star to me for figuring out how to get the word “smithereens” into a post)

What communication channel has become the most vital to everyone in the last 15 years….you are probably checking it in a separate browser and on your phone while you are reading my little blog post here.  Anyone who has had email go down for a few hours or heaven forbid a day knows that at this point email is by far the most important communication channel in your life.  It is sort of sad, and embarrassing when you actually analyze yourself in this light….that is if you can put the crackberry down long enough for a life analysis.

So, what does Google do?  They figure out a way to take the vital comm channel we all need like we need oxygen and change the game.  They are taking email…and mashing it together with twitter, facebook, linkdin, bebo, friendfeed, ??? + your IM communications….and stirring it all up to produce a new method of online communication.  They are calling it Google Wave, and it is being developed and will be in testing soon.

It is very exciting to hear this, and also a little scary since it means we (which by nature includes me) have to change something that has become part of our methodical daily routine.

As Garth would say from Wayne’s World (…age just shown); “we fear change”