Just Curious--What Happens Next?

If you've seen the latest iPhone ad, you're no doubt impressed by how simple it is to download plenty of useful applications to your phone.

In fact, you can be speaking Mandarin in a matter of seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9jKAiUEgXE.

This, of course, is pretty cool. You can almost instantly walk up to a native Mandarin speaker and impress him/her with your command of the language. Just like Mike Myers impressing Tia Carrere in Wayne's World, when he learns to speak a few phrases of Cantonese. Schwing!

But then something struck us: once you ask the question about a restaurant recommendation, what happens next?

Chances are, the native Mandarin speaker is going to reply in a tone that, for him or her, is a comfortable pace, and for you is something akin to ludicrous speed. Are your ears capable of picking up the words fired back at you and typing them into your iPhone for translation? After four years of Spanish, trying to understand the normal conversation flow of native speakers was still way past my skills.

It's probably not completely fair to pick on Apple for this one--the ad does demonstrate the simplicity of downloading apps. But there are plenty of other apps that are a lot more mainstream that might have been better choices for the demo. According to digitalreview.com, the top 3 iPhone apps are: 1. EBay, SaveBenjis (web price comparisons), and iDrink (a digital cocktail recipe book). Things many of us understand.