links for 2010-01-30
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"We're Americans, goddammit. Ye shall know us by the tang of our bitter and untenable jadedness." Mark Morford is on fire.
links for 2010-01-29
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"I think the worst thing that’s happened in the blogosphere in general is that there’s this sense of needing to insulate yourself from being excited about something by saying, 'I’m very skeptical about this.'" -Damon Lindelof
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Andre Torrez's response to the iPad. Perfect.
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Fantastic rant.
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"The more beers you drink, the more enjoyable you will find Season 6 of Lost." – Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Noted.
Blame the iPad
Here’s how I know that Apple’s upcoming iPad is important: It’s already at fault for everyone’s worst fears.
Anil Dash says the iPad is sapping attention from political engagement. Annalee Newitz says it’s a glorified television. Alex Payne says it’s going to discourage programmers. Rafe Colburn says it dooms personal computing. Aaron Hemmelgarn is sure it’s a failure. A lot of people think it disrespects women. And some schmuck thought it might save print or something. (Yes, that last one was me.)
Take a deep breath, everybody. The iPad will be out in a couple months. Then we can see what it’s like. Maybe it’ll be a hit and develop into something really interesting like the iPhone, in which case we will push for it to be better. Maybe it’ll be a flop like the Cube, in which case none of this will matter (I doubt it).
Either way, most of what we’re writing today is speculation without any real world experience with the device. As a result, it says more about us – our hopes and fears for the future – than it says about the iPad.
Even Apple doesn’t know what this thing is going to be yet. Remember the first version of the iPod? It couldn’t do one tenth of what a modern iPod can do. And, oh yeah, it was too expensive and didn’t have enough memory and blah blah blah. Now they rule the world.
I admit I have an optimistic bias. I think that computing devices that create better experiences will lead to more computer users, and those people will go on to make incredibly interesting things. It’s happened before.
But the future is, as always, in flux. Personally, I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
links for 2010-01-28
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I'm really happy to see more people thinking about how to get these two crazy kids together.
What Apple Unleashed Today
So yesterday I had a total nerdgasm imagining what Apple was going to introduce and how it could change the print industry. And today I watched the iPad unveiling and thought, well, hmph.
On the plus side, it’s a sexy piece of kit. As expected, the iTunes store will sell ebooks. The interface is akin to the iPhone but more developed. And it’ll come in two versions, with or without 3G connectivity.
On the minus side, the name is a joke (even if it is what I expected), the iTunes store is just adding books (not magazines or newspapers), the books are going to be way too expensive, there’s no word on how independents can get in on the act, and we have to wait 2-3 months to get it.
So was it what I hoped for? Kinda. It’s a beautiful device, and it’s a stumble in the right direction.
But the only periodicals shown in the demo (Spin and the NY Times) were shown in the web browser. (Update: NY Times also demoed an app.) The only content coming to the store is books. It’s clear that Apple is still thinking about magazines and newspapers on the web, not as a new kind of saleable digital content.
So the iPad is really just a laptop with less keyboard and a crippled OS. It does not solve the problems I was hoping it’d solve and may introduce a few of its own. (Do we really want Apple gatekeeping the apps we can put on our mobile computers?)
There is still an opportunity for publishers here. But instead of relying on Apple to save them, publishers will have to step up and create their own apps, for their own content.
And as a designer, I’m very excited to see what kinds interface experimentation the new format inspires. Designing for finger gestures is different than designing for mouse clicks. I also could see the iPad becoming a powerful social computing experience. It’s easier to use a iPad with another person than it is to share a laptop.
The iPad may not turn out to be the missing link in the media ecosystem, but it is definitely a fascinating glimpse into the future of personal computing. I’ve already picked the spot on my coffee table where mine is going to live.
dp
- Michael Sippey says the iPad is the family computer.
- John Gruber on The iPad Big Picture.
- Rafe Colburn asks Is the iPad the harbinger of doom for personal computing?