So everyone’s been all abuzz about the iPad. Some have even been squeeing in most unseemly ways about how it, in combination with iBooks are going to change the future of publishing. Me, I’m just not all that thrilled.
As I’ve stated before, I don’t really enjoy reading long-form things on a battery-powered device, so that part doesn’t wind me up (and no matter what SJ says, ten hours is not enough battery life for an eBook reader). The form-factor is too big to fit in my pockets, and I don’t carry a man-purse around most of the time, so that’s another strike. And while it might be handy for showing off photos, I don’t do very much of that, preferring to show folks paper, or show the photos on my iPad nano (aka iPhone) in a pinch. And finally, I don’t see any easy way of getting data like photos from my CF and SD cards when I am out shooting into it. Or for that matter even syncing with it without connecting a cable, which is one of my biggest complaints about the iPhone.
Of course my thoughts on it don’t really matter all that much. I wasn’t that excited about the iPhone when it came out, and that seems to be doing okay. Is it a game-changer? I don’t know. And I also don’t know if it matters to me today or not. For the next few months, I need to be squarely focused on the old world of computing. It’s where I make my living, and like it or not, that’s where my focus has to be.
Anyway, it’s interesting, if for no other reason that in watching people’s reactions to it. And there’s more in the last set of links below. Enjoy.
- Want to know about The Secret History of Typography in the Oxford English Dictionary? I had fun reading about it. [metafilter]
- Also from The Bygone Bureau, The Benevolent Sun, a two part story about a westerner’s visit to North Korea.
- Here’s a weird twist: Human bed-warmers at Holiday Inn in the UK because of the cold weather they’ve been having.
- Okay, these are just cool: Egg Watchers: the egg timer that entertains you. Hard-boiled or soft? In the fridge or room-temp? Large or small egg? You get a video that’ll run just how long your egg will take. Now if they’d just add a way to time the “start with the egg in cold water” version I use when making hard-boiled eggs… [metafilter]
- Have we reached a Tinkerer’s Sunset? How will the aspiring programmers of today screw around with their systems the way we did using BASIC, or ResEdit and MacsBug, or Hypercard? Meanwhile, jr’s got some similar thoughts in which he talks about the walled gardens of iDisney and Bill found a photo titled Entering Apple Restriction Zone. On the other hand, maybe it’s just Future Shock. See also I need to talk to you about computers.