Critical Exponent

Somewhere between a vacation and a staycation lies the webcation. On a webcation, one is not completely disconnected from daily life as in vacations of yore; neither is one staying near home, as in a staycation. A webcation is a web-enabled vacation where one checks personal e-mail and the news thanks to the ever-present Wi-Fi hotspots and cell phone data networks. Webcations often take the form of road or bike trips made possible by Web 2.0 features: researching tourist information on the go from one’s cell phone, looking up traffic and maps on Google, downloading apps and blogging from the car….

Next stop: Crater Lake, OR

I’ve set up a guest account on my Linux boxes using xguest. The Mac has a Guest account. I’m guessing most Windows machines do, too.

So why doesn’t the iPhone?

The iPhone is still enough of a curiosity and non-ubiquitous tool that people are always asking to look at it, use it, fondle it. I’m happy to oblige my friends, but I wish there were away to squirrel away my private data, open applications, and email. You know, a guest mode.

How about it, Apple?