Cell phone-wise, it's a great time to be alive. Things are coming together, but also just beginning. Cell phone technology is getting more disruptive, and our lives are changing around it. Sixteen percent of households have given up their land lines, due at least in part to advances in cell phone technology.

IPHONE 2.0 ROLLED OUT

Sorry if you didn't see Steve Jobs unveiling Apple's 3G iPhone at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday. You can watch the video (almost two hours long) at www.apple.com/iphone.

Jobs claims the iPhone is one of the three computer platforms today: Windows, Mac and now iPhone. The 3G makes it faster than before. It has built-in GPS, wireless, up to 16 gigs, better battery life, interface, graphics, integration with Microsoft, and great third-party applications.

The iPhone 2.0 Software Development Kit is a free download from Apple. A quarter of a million people have already downloaded it. Apple demonstrated applications by third-party developers using that SDK, a game from Sega, an auction from eBay, a news program from the AP, and my favorite, Loopt, which lets you track your friends on a map.

When iPhone 2.0 is released on July 11, Apple will open the "App Store," from which you can download, install and update these new apps from the iPhone itself. Software developers will keep 70 percent of the fees they get from these downloads.

Apple will also release new Net-based desktop applications on its new synch site, mobile me.com. They're on a roll, but they're not alone. Soon others, likely including BlackBerry, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Qualcomm, Microsoft and Google, will wow us with more cell phones and improved open architecture SDKs. And the leapfrogging continues.

TRACKING HUMAN EVENTS

GPS tracking is everywhere. Last week, we read about a GPS survey in Europe that tracked 100,000 cell phone users for six months. That could be useful in modeling emergency response, urban planning and disease control, the authors said in the journal Nature.

Nurses at Kaiser wear GPS tracking devices that allow management to improve their deployment. Cell phone tracking possibilities go far beyond navigational software for cars. GPS can gather geographical data for analysis of any condition, process or sequence of events, including, for example, a battle, a natural disaster or an environmental phenomenon.

GPS cell phones in Honolulu could send their locations to a traffic center to analyze where traffic is bunched up. A Berkeley-Nokia study found you only need data from 5 percent of drivers to do this. It would help develop traffic solutions and would cost very little, mostly the software. We're experts in traffic here. If we can develop that software, we could sell it elsewhere.

IT'S THE SOFTWARE, SILLY

Yes, the cell phone has become the computer. This will be more the case with intuitive touch and tilt interfaces like the iPhone touch screen and the new Phillips "no button handset." What's next? Will they read our minds, like Amazon, figuring what we want before we ourselves know?

You walk by a store. Your GPS tells them you're there, and then your cell phone rings with an offer you can't refuse. Meanwhile, their system tracks you to see how things can be improved. You swipe your cell phone for the purchase — it becomes your credit card, but the swipe only works if your thumb is on the security pad and the cell phone is in the store.

On Stephen Spielberg's www.TalkingStreets.com, you can stop at an historic site, dial a number on your cell phone and hear a radio play. With New Oriental (symbol EDU), you can educate yourself on your cell phone in China. Why can't this be everywhere? Why not add simultaneous translation so the translator can be anywhere? Why not in Hawai'i?

LET'S MAKE SOME MONEY

Cell phones are smaller, more powerful, smarter and more ubiquitous than we would ever have imagined even five years ago. That trend will undoubtedly continue with increasing surprises and delights.

Cell phones are made mostly in Asia these days, but that doesn't mean Hawai'i can't be involved. The Worldwide Developers Conference is only one of many places where you can learn how to program cell phones. My advice? Learn everything you can about building these applications.

In her article in last Sunday's Advertiser, Gov. Linda Lingle is hoping for an innovation economy. We need to be more than consumers — we need to get in on things. Someone in Hawai'i must have the skills and moxie to build cell phone applications — could it be you, or someone you know?

Remember, the clam is your oyster and the world is your market.