It was interesting, but also pretty simple. "Let it be open," he said. His point is that Apple doesn't need to exert a huge amount of control over the iPhone app market. The best way to excite developers and users is to have a wide-open market for software, he said.

It's funny that during this App Store furor, people's minds have turned to Guy Kawasaki, but it's happened all over the place. iPhone developer Fraser Spiers , saying that Apple should "loudly and conspicuously hire an App Store Evangelist. Preferably someone with an already high profile who does not already work for Apple. In fact, it might even be best if this person was not paid by Apple but an independent developer to whom Apple would give deep access to work with the App Store team." And Ars Technica as saying, "We need Guy Kawasaki back."

I don't think Guy's going to be going back to Apple anytime soon. He seems happy investing in smaller tech companies, traveling, and speaking. (And playing ice hockey.) But I can't deny that Apple hiring someone like Guy to act as an out-there evangelist for iPhone development would be excellent.

Before I said goodbye to Guy and hit the road, we reminisced about his days as a columnist for monthly Mac magazines. He fondly recalled an old article where he compared using a state-of-the-art Mac to flying in an F-15 jet. I expressed to him how I'd love to get the text of all of Macworld's (and MacUser's and MacWEEK's) issues from the dawn of time on the Internet in searchable form.

Well, that day isn't here yet, but I'm happy to present two of Guy's old columns: Here's "" from the July 1993 issue, and here's an interesting and prescient article, "," wherein Guy suggests (in the summer of 1993, as the Newton was being released!) that what he really wants is a combination of cell phone and computer. It's an even better read 15 years later, when you keep the iPhone in mind.