keyboard touchscreen bluetooth 3g wifi usb connectivity
The
addition of an iPhone keyboard allows the iPhone to get closer to being a "computer" in the layperson's sense. The touchscreen is way too small to be a general purpose input device. BT/3G/Wifi are communications standards upon which an I/O framework could be built with the right software. USB host support would imply at least proper support of a general purpose I/O bus. AFAICT, the iPhone only acts as a USB device.
Indeed. So does a cat when he jumps to the lowest branch, then the next, then the next to get to the top of the tree. I must add cats to the list of computers I have

.
and it is a heck of a lot more personal than a desktop as it is truly portable.
"Personal" and "portable" are different words.
in that [paper] example - YOU are the computer.
You are the one changing the way the data is transformed
That quite depends. If the paper is pre-scored, aka pre-programmed, then just pushing it in the right direction while fixing it in some way can cause it to fold in a complex manner, providing results. A blank sheet of paper is thus a programmable computer. Scoring is programming. Fixing is setting up. Pushing is applying power.
What you are saying - is that the iP isn't a PROPER computer.
And that is just geek snobbery.
I'm just trying to provide an explanation for why people don't tend to identify their microwave ovens or their iPhones as "one of their computers" (a similar argument would explain why people don't identify their iPhones as "one of their radios"). If anything, it's unabashed populism.
cmaier said:
Who cares what the common person thinks a computer is?
Yes, who cares that an evolved vernacular gives the ability to communicate with a large number of people? What could possibly be beneficial there?
The common person thinks their PC is run by magic gnomes.
I agree that this is a common misconception. As any fule kno, a PC is run by magic
smoke.
The fact that you don't understand information theory doesn't render information theory an "equivocation."
The fact that someone took a few terms and formalised them in the context of information theory doesn't mean the rest of the universe has to follow those new definitions in all contexts.
Similarly, when I have my mathematical hat on I get frustrated when people don't either imply standard mathematical definitions or make clear the precise meaning of their terms. But when I don't have my mathematical hat on I would be bordering on insane to get bothered that people aren't using mathematical definitions of terms. Indeed, my definition would often be
wrong in their context.