In the long term, it’s probably a bigger deal that Apple’s creating the first mobile platform that people I know outside the mobile business actually seem excited about developing things for, in a way people never got excited about Java or XHTML or WAP or BREW (never heard of any of those? Exactly) with the iPhone 2.0 software update and the new iPhone 3G. Really looking forward to seeing the first wave of socially-networked, GPS-enabled, high-speed iPhone applications and all the great entrepreneurial opportunities they’ll create — Piper Jaffray has estimated there’s a $1 billion business in iPhone apps in 2009.

But in the short term, the biggest deal for me looks like MobileMe. I don’t love the name — if it sounds like something Microsoft would name a product, that’s because it is.

But as a feature I’m really looking forward to it, and I don’t even need to buy a 3G iPhone to benefit from it, I can use it with my good old iPhone Classic. Here’s why: in a normal week, I can’t be bothered to sync my iPhone more than once or twice, but these days, I absolutely live by iCal. I don’t have an assistant — if I schedule a meeting or a call, I put it in iCal and set a reminder. If I have a task to do, I create a to-do and set a date and priority. If I’m out, I pull up my iPhone calendar to see where I need to be next. But that doesn’t work if you don’t sync your phone every day. Add to the complication that I use three different Macs regularly — one at home, and a Mac Pro and a laptop at work — and even with regular .Mac syncing it gets hard to keep everything up to date.

For a while, I was tempted to move completely to Google Calendar, but that’s not ideal when you don’t have an Internet connection. So I’ve created a crazy quilt system using a plugin called BusySync to sync my three different computers’ iCals with a Google Calendar account. It works pretty well: when I’m out, and my iPhone calendar isn’t up to date, I can pull up Google Calendar via a mobile phone or over a web browser, and my coworkers can subscribe to my free/busy information in Google Calendar or iCal without too much trouble. Plus it syncs in real time over the Internet as things change, instead of on a once-a-day schedule via iTunes or .Mac, both of which always seem to take forever to complete a sync.

MobileMe will let me throw the whole system out: any time I update a calendar entry or to-do on any of my computers, or my iPhone, as long as I have a data connection, everything else will be updated seamlessly, if all works as promised. And I imagine it won’t be hard to find some way to keep a Google calendar updated too, for any friends I have who prefer that.

I’m a little bummed the .Mac brand is going away. I’ve been a subscriber for years, still use my mac.com email as my main personal address, and like the name a lot more than MobileMe or the new “me.com” domain. But on the plus side, I’m happy to see that much of the visual design of MobileMe was done by two of my favorite designers in the world, Meg Frost (of Cute Overload fame) and Bobby Andersen. Bobby did a bunch of design work for Next New Networks (including the site for Ultra Kawaii) and Tumblr (including the amazing Dashboard icons) before going to Apple, and I won’t lie: we tried our best to hire him here instead. But it’s a once in a lifetime chance to work directly with Steve Jobs in the Apple designer priesthood on a key project, and it looks like Bobby’s knocked this one out of the park, from the screenshots I’ve seen so far. Congrats, Bobby, and I can’t wait to try it.

Well, I’ve had my Jesus Phone for about 3 minutes and it’s already changed my life. I’ve lost 5 pounds, resolved the $3,700 discrepancy that’s been in my check book for the last 3 years and finally gotten through to Roy using the built in lawyer-to-reality converstion tool. It’s a great device. Lightweight. Slim. Arguably pretty. Well balanced. I’ve got my key stock portfolio synced to the stocks widget so that when my craptacular portfolio continues to slide, the phone can call the poor house for me.

Automatically.

I’ve got the secret RSS reader setup to download episodes of VOD Cars. I’ve got my horoscope all wired in. (Thanks, Mark) and I’m pretty sure I can use it to call my dad (on his cell, of course). I’m even blogging with it.

Yes, that’s right, fair reader. Jesus Phone can blog. I’m blogging with it right now. See how easy that virtual keyboard is to use? Feels like I’m typing nothing at all! Also, inserting images using the built in camera is a snap. Here. Take a look at this action shot from a meeting I had in my kitchen a few minutes ago:

You may think that calling the iPhone “Jesus Phone” may be marginally, if not completely, sacrilegious. Well, let me assure you that I’ve thought long and hard about this and include some helpful comparisons for you between these sons of gods.

As you can see, it’s very easy to confuse these Earth charged deities. While respect and admiration for the two is obviously deserved… worship, on the other hand, should be reserved for one of them.

In conclusion, Libya is a land of contrast.

On the eve of the arrival of my Jesus phone, I cannot help but feel a certain nostalgia for Motorola. Back when I was a wee lad, I recall my grandpa having a motorola radio in his car and office and all the trucks. Then, at some point in the early 1980s, the radio was replaced with a Motorola cell phone in his car. (The lock code was 4820 — and it took less than 1 trip to the boat to decrypt it.)

When it came time for me to start purchasing cell phones, I went the Motorola route. I had a Motorola flip phone. A MicroTAC. A MicroTAC Elite (one of my favourites). A StarTAC (with LED display). A StarTAC (with LCD display). A Razor. A black Razor. A blue Razor V3i. A red Razor V3i. A gold Razor V3i. A blue Krzr. A black Krzr. (There may have been a short lived Nokia and Sony Ericsson flirtation somewhere between StarTAC LCD and the first Razor…)

As time went on, cell phone revisions came more quickly and my desire to hack the phones to, you know, make them suck less, rose. My current phone, the black Krzr has a HEAVILY modified firmware courtesy of: Yours truly.

Tomorrow, a new dawn begins on the mobile phone landscape globally. Yes, the iPhone. Not because the phone is such a revolutionary game changing piece of hardware (although, that is part of it) but because it will, for the first time, open the Internet on hand held devices to entrepreneurs that will be unrestricted by mobile carriers. Thank you, Apple. But, with every dawn, there’s a sunset. This sunset ends my brand loyalty to Motorola. Sorry, grandpa.

Without further pontification, from the home office in West Hempstead NY, the Top Ten things I will NOT miss from the days of my Motorola Razors…

10: Always being asked if it’s “ok” to go online. Yes, for the love of God, it’s ok.

9: Always being informed, with great delay, how many bytes were transferred after going online. Why is email from Tim always 921 bytes more than Fred? Why does my phone think I care?

8: Slow to respond number entry when trying to dial. How hard is this to make work right?

7: Having to press 6 buttons to get to my inbox. Can that happen in 1 press? Maybe 2?

6: Waiting for Java. Memo to Sun: Give it up.

5: “Message Too Long! Message Truncated!” Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait…

4: WAP Decks controlled by “the man”. You don’t get to make media choices for me.

3: Expensive replacement cartridges (Oh wait, that’s what I’ll NOT miss about Gilette Razor…)

2: iTap.

1: Unbearably slow call waiting controls

Can’t wait until tomorrow…