Project Origami aimed to take the power and features of a full Windows PC and cram it into something much more manageable. This initiative proved fruitful, with ultra-mobile PCs quickly gaining traction in the marketplace. These machines continue to fascinate me today – their portability is an unparalleled advantage, yet they still boast all the functionality of a traditional desktop PC.
So, I ended up picking one up, and the rest, as they say is history. Of course, back then the device cost a whopping $1,000 (which would be equivalent to around $2,500 in today’s money), but that didn’t matter. I was hooked on the possibilities of devices that could basically do anything (provided you had data access).###
In my early twenties, I was living in Berlin and working as a freelance web developer. I never paid for internet access at home – my flatmates were always happy to share their excess wifi connections with me – so I had a pretty constant stream of new websites and software popping up in my inbox every day. It was exhilarating to be constantly learning and exploring, and it made working on client projects feel like a real adventure.
The iPhone launch was an incredibly awe-inspiring experience for many people. The technology industry is constantly evolving, and new shortcuts and ways of thinking are now before us. The iPhone launch showed us that there is a new way of using technology, which was previously entirely obscured.
Twitter and my blog allowed me to be who I wanted to be without any restraint. They both let me share my thoughts and emotions with the world, without having to go through any intermediaries. The immediacy of communication made them both intoxicating, and I could not stop tweeting or blogging even if I tried. However, there was a certain feeling of liberation that came with these platforms; as though I had finally broken free from some shackles, or maybe they had just revealed another layer of myself that I never knew existed.
