I was Mr. Mom this afternoon keeping an eye on sleeping child to make sure her fever remained stable (risk of triggering her epilepsy) and making sure she didin't scratch her constantly migrating hives raw. I also did some phone calls with my managers at work, keeping my various communications gadgets close by.

But while child was physically feverish, I was emotionally feverish over the delicious details of the just announced Apple iPhone. Apple made the product site live in the afternoon, and I'll be watching the link tonight to get the replay of Steve Jobs' Macworld keynote speech. Engadget posted their own photos of iPhone from the exhibit hall. Someone has already taken the published dimensions of the iPhone and entered them into Sizeasy to create some diagrams of the device compared in size and profile to the iPod video, nano and RAZR.

Looking at my bedside collection of "comfort" gadgets, I saw the potential of iPhone (or a competing device) to finally replace my Sidekick and reduce the size of my gadget pile.

Time's Lev Grossman, who was flown into Apple Headquarters for a private demo with Steve Jobs, had this to say:

Apple's new iPhone could do to the cell phone market what the iPod did to the portable music player market: crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority. This is unfortunate for anybody else who makes cell phones, but it's good news for those of us who use them.

I can't wait until June!

- mike lee - wheaton, md