Steve Jobs never wanted us to use our iPhones like this

“Smartphones are our constant companions. For many of us, their glowing screens are a ubiquitous presence, drawing us in with endless diversions, like the warm ping of social approval delivered in the forms of likes and retweets, and the algorithmically amplified outrage of the latest “breaking” news or controversy. They’re in our hands, as soon as we wake, and command our attention until the final moments before we fall asleep,” Cal Newport writes for The new York Times. “Steve Jobs would not approve.”
“In 2007, Mr. Jobs took the stage at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco and introduced the world to the iPhone,” Newport writes. “If you watch the full speech, you’ll be surprised by how he imagined our relationship with this iconic invention, because this vision is so different from the way most of us use these devices now.”

“He doesn’t dedicate any significant time to discussing the phone’s internet connectivity features until more than 30 minutes into the address,” Newport writes. “The presentation confirms that Mr. Jobs envisioned a simpler and more constrained iPhone experience than the one we actually have over a decade later… The minimalist vision for the iPhone he offered in 2007 is unrecognizable today — and that’s a shame.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: No, Steve Jobs never wanted to create a bunch of “iPhone zombies.”
When you’re in a no-smartphone (or a no-Internet) environment, it’s 2006 all over again and, yes, it is magnificent! — MacDailyNews, April 6, 2018
So, put down your iPhone once in a while (and, no, that doesn’t mean picking up your iPad or MacBook!) and stay off Facebook! — MacDailyNews, January 20, 2018
Some people saw what Apple’s iPhone really was and what it really could/would be the day it was unveiled:
Apple really only botched one thing with the iPhone – its name.
Apple’s “iPhone” isn’t really a phone at all. It’s really a small touchscreen Mac OS X computer, a Mac nano tablet, if you will. Here’s how misnamed the iPhone is: Some people are complaining that Jobs didn’t spend enough time on the Mac in his keynote! Folks, iPhone is not only a Mac, it’s the most radical new Mac in years! What’s to stop Apple from making a 12-inch model (and larger, and smaller) one of these days (use the headset for the phone, please) and calling it a Mac tablet?
It has an iPod built in, yes, so it can be used solely as a “true video widescreen iPod,” if that’s what you want… But, the main thing about the “iPhone” is that it’s really a pocket Mac. It has email, SMS, full-featured Web browsing, and much more. But, beyond that, it is a platform that’s just sitting there waiting for Apple to sell software for it. Just imagine games with the large multi-touch display and the built-in accelerometer!
Imagine all of the other software possibilities, too…
Maybe Apple named it iPhone because of all of the free publicity and buzz that name has already garnered. Maybe they want this trojan horse to slip into the market first under the guise of being the best smartphone available and they’ll exploit its capabilities as a full-fledged platform later. Perhaps it’s easier to explain and sell as a phone first. It probably would have been even easier to just have called it iPod (6G) and listed “iPhone” as a new iPod feature – that’s how they sold video, right?
So, yeah, it can be a phone, even the very best smartphone, but it’s so much more and holds so much promise that the name “iPhone” hardly does it justice. – SteveJack, MacDailyNews, January 9, 2007
SEE ALSO:
The changes ushered by Apple’s iPhone have been as momentous as those of electricity, telegraph, radio or TV – June 28, 2017
Has Steve Jobs’ iPhone destroyed a generation? – August 3, 2017