JUNE 11 — The consumption of media is indeed something that turns the world around. In my eyes, there is nothing more powerful than the media.

Many major leaders of the world have managed to get into power, or stay in power, due to their influence on the media (read: Silvio Berlusconi, Thaksin Shinawatra and even Adolf Hitler).

And when something new hits the media world, many people sit up to see how it’s going to affect the industry, the audience and, well, everything else.

It goes without saying that when it comes to New Media, what Apple says, will be so. It happened with the Powerbook, the iPod and the first iPhone.

I’m sure they know that. And that could not have been more apparent on Monday when a cool Steve Jobs stepped on stage with his latest toy.

Now, I’m not an Apple basher. I have a couple of Apple products which I love and have contributed to my career and my interest.

So I, along with the rest of the world, was really anticipating the coming of the new Macgyver knife of the New Media world.

The iPhone 4 was launched. I wasn’t there, but I did see a video of the event online and it was actually quite entertaining, but for the wrong reasons.

The introduction of some key features, which were touted as what would change everything, actually made me feel quite embarrassed for Jobs.

In the video I saw, Jobs stood up and announced that the iPhone 4 will now have multitasking capabilities. The entire hall bursts into applause.

Subhanallah! How groundbreaking! I wonder how long it took him and his team to come up with that idea.

Oh wait. My beat-up, non-Apple smartphone has been slogging with my multitasking for the past three years and it has never failed me yet.

Then Jobs walked across the stage in his slow, dramatic style and sits on a sofa. He says he’d rather show the next feature rather than talk about it.

He dials the number of a friend and when the person answers, lo and behold! A video image of him pops out on the iPhone 4!

Masyaallah! Now how is that possible? What kind of witchcraft allows for the image of a person from far away to appear so close?

Oh wait. For the past five years, Europeans and Asians have already been enjoying video calls over 3G networks.

Even then, the iPhone 4 can only make these magical video calls to other iPhone 4s, and you can only do so over WiFi networks.

But I really don’t know. Who’s to say, when it comes to Apple? Just like what I mentioned earlier, what Apple says, will be so.

So many different MP3 players came way before the iPod, yet it is still considered the tool that changed the way we listen to music, just because Apple said so.

However, there is a feature that I think is quite innovative. And that is the iMovie for the iPhone, which means editing in the palm of your hands.

Now, speaking as a multimedia journalist, filmmaker and all round content creator, I think maybe this would be a push in the right direction.

So now let’s all just sit back and see what revolution comes around once iPhone 4 users start to increase in number around the world.

Alhamdulillah!

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.