steve's reflections: 2010

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Only Magical

Imagine you are William Shakespeare. Imagine you have a witty tale to tell, and that you think it is worth sharing with others. You take a quill, dip it in some ink, and begin scratching words onto parchment.

Some hours and many stanzas later you feel the need for inspiration --- or just a break, a little escape from the hard work of being a bard. You think it would be nice to read somebody else's work for a while, perhaps to marvel at their wordcraft and turn of phrase, or maybe lose yourself in their literary world.

Instead of putting down your quill and picking up another author's book, you simply wave your hand over the parchment you have been working on and your words are (temporarily) replaced by those of another. Magical.

Well, magical it would have been to Bill if he had indeed been able to do such a thing. And magical is how Apple have marketed the iPad, on which I can do (am doing) these very things. But to today's critics, this technology which I can use to not only read and write, but to publish, is flawed. Apple products are for a niche market: overpriced artefacts which privilege "design" over function, features and capability. The iPad doesn't do anything that wasn't possible four years ago. An Android tablet could do those things better. The iPad is just a big iPhone, anyway. And it's a media consumption device, not nearly as good for content creation as a Windows netbook.

I find it a bit sad that we have we reached a point where magical is not good enough.

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