The loonie hit $1.05 briefly yesterday.  The iPhone is coming to Canada.  If you had told me any of that back on January 1st I would have said you’re crazy.  At that time the loonie was just under 85 cents US.  The iPhone was a figment of Apple Computer’s imagination.   With November just around the corner, you’ve got to be wondering what is going to happen next.

Let’s leave the loonie for now.  Its rise has been setting records almost daily.  Maybe the iPhone is the answer to that.  What you say?  No, I don’t mean everybody should go out and get an iPhone to deal with the loonie.  What I’m saying is with our dollar currently in unheralded territory maybe new technologies like the iPhone are the best ways for Canadians to move forward in this brave new world.

Nonetheless, Canadians still can’t get their hands on the iPhone.  It would seem Apple is being pretty tight lipped over there new invention will be on store shelves in Canada.  Molson even got in a bit of trouble last week when they had to withdraw a promotion where one of the prizes was an iPhone with service provided by Rogers.  The only problem was Apple hasn’t announced a date for the iPhone to come to Canada and Rogers cannot say much for obvious reasons.

So let me tell you what I know.  Your loyal scribe has had a real Apple iPhone in my hot little hand.  I’ve even made a call to my own moribund battle scared antique phone using the iPhone.  That was a couple of months ago at the AT&T store at the Lakeside Mall near Detroit.  I had been recruited to drive the family to the mall.  However, I didn’t have much interest in going other than to get a chance to see the iPhone.  So at the end of the day, I wandered down to the store and there it was, Apple’s gift to telephony.

For those of you who know me Apple products are part of my life.  In short, some people would surely categorize me as an Apple zealot.  However, that’s not really true.  What is true is I’ve used Macintosh computers for over 20 years.  So when the iPod and iPhone came along, it didn’t surprise me that Apple’s elegance would make those two products real hits in the technology world.

The iPhone was very nice, a wonderfully elegant piece of technology which surely will be part of a whole bunch of stocking stuffers this Christmas.  However, I’ve got a Sony PSP and to tell you the truth, other than the phone capability, it’s not much different.  Of course Sony didn’t do a great job of packaging the PSP like Apple has done with both the iPod and iPhone.  Users like myself fight through the instruction.  Like most Apple products, nobody ever needs to read the instructions.

Competitors to the iPhone better watch out.  In Canada we have the Research In Motion Blackberry handheld devices, which have pioneered the use of text messages, wireless email and phone service.  It’s a great product, but antiquated compared to Apple’s iPhone.  For instance the Blackberry products have a miniature keyboard with the proverbial “thumb” buttons stuck on each side.  Apple eliminated the keyboard by creating a touch pad saving the space for more applications.  I thought that a masterstroke.  With the iPhone running the same operating system Mac OS X as I run on my computer, it makes the product truly revolutionary.

So am I going to get an iPhone?  The answer is no, reason being my day job can be a pretty tough place with moisture and dirt making up a big part of it.   If you want to get me, you’ll have to call my cell phone or pay me a visit.  I think the half-life of an iPhone on my farm would be about two days.

Nonetheless some of this technology is reaching my farm with unfortunately the same pratfalls.  Your loyal scribe this past spring traded for a new tractor.  The new tractor is “software driven.”  It has a computer monitor within it that monitors all the tractors vital functions.  These vital functions used to be monitored by analog dials or by checking for yourself through visual inspection.  The only problem is the new tractor beeps and buzzes telling me things aren’t working when they really are.  The dealer now wants to install new software hoping the problem will go away.  It’s all so stupid.

The bottom line is there is technology we can use to enhance our economic lives and there is technology, which is “toyish” in its application with little long-term use to the user.  Inevitably, in our modern the world the “two ways” gets mixed up our productivity goes down.  That’s exactly what’s happening to me now with that tractor.  With the iPhone, at least for me, I don’t think that would be far behind.

Thankfully, the world doesn’t see things the way I do.  What that means is there is more whiz-bang stuff coming down the pipeline, which will surely dazzle our senses along with our wallet.  I’ll take it if it helps me deal with our $1.05 loonie.  However, I’ll pass if it’s otherwise.  I just hope I don’t get caught in the stampede when the iPhone finally comes to Canada.  Whoever thought saying “hello” could get so complex.