The Prestidigitator

While I don’t agree with Cory Doctorow on comic books (I rarely, if ever lend mine out), this is exactly why I won’t be getting an iPad.

Then there’s the device itself: clearly there’s a lot of thoughtfulness and smarts that went into the design. But there’s also a palpable contempt for the owner. I believe — really believe — in the stirring words of the Maker Manifesto: if you can’t open it, you don’t own it. Screws not glue. The original Apple ][+ came with schematics for the circuit boards, and birthed a generation of hardware and software hackers who upended the world for the better. If you wanted your kid to grow up to be a confident, entrepreneurial, and firmly in the camp that believes that you should forever be rearranging the world to make it better, you bought her an Apple ][+.

But with the iPad, it seems like Apple’s model customer is that same stupid stereotype of a technophobic, timid, scatterbrained mother as appears in a billion renditions of “that’s too complicated for my mom” (listen to the pundits extol the virtues of the iPad and time how long it takes for them to explain that here, finally, is something that isn’t too complicated for their poor old mothers).

(…)

If you want to live in the creative universe where anyone with a cool idea can make it and give it to you to run on your hardware, the iPad isn’t for you.

If you want to live in the fair world where you get to keep (or give away) the stuff you buy, the iPad isn’t for you.

If you want to write code for a platform where the only thing that determines whether you’re going to succeed with it is whether your audience loves it, the iPad isn’t for you.

So, I’ve been using the Apple Magic Mouse for over a week now. And yes, like everything else that Apple comes out with, the design is pure genius. Very minimalist. At first glance, it looks like it’s carved out of a slab of marble.

I love the iPod Touch’s capacitive screen and I like that the trackpad for the MacBook Pro is very configurable. The touch interface for the Magic Mouse is as good if not better but the mouse tends to move when you do the two-finger side swipe. It’s slightly irritating but not something that can’t be gotten used to. Also, no pinch zoom. It tethers quite easily too and remained connected even when I took the mouse to the toilet. Yeah, don’t ask.

The one huge caveat is the price- I had to pay AUD 99 for it. Not cool.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been tempted to post on a range of topics but the lack of time coupled with some serious lethargy prevented the flow of…er…words. So I shall resort to cliche and write in points.

• Californication: In spite of the gratuitous sesk and noodity (PG 13 you see), I love this show. The show follows the travails of a depressed has been writer trying to bring his life back on track. If you’re still not convinced, there are a bevy of beautiful women in every episode.
• ”Tumhara Kya Hoga, RGV?” : Couldn’t resist. Ram Gopal Varma’s attempt at remaking Sholay has pissed off pretty much the entire country. Looks like his illustrious career is headed for the dogs now. Thankfully, our very own Lalettan has come out unscathed.
• I have finally gotten an apartment after weeks of futile hunting. Of course, I had help and a person to get the lease transferred from.
• Work is starting to feel like a long unfunny version of The Office.
• A 3 year old kid (whose parents are software professionals from Cognizant and Satyam Computers) was kidnapped in Hyderabad and subsequently released. Police claim the reason the parents didn’t receive any ransom calls could have been because the family’s land line was out of order. Could have been. Can you come up with a smarter deduction?
• I have this sudden yearning for travel. I’m seriously contemplating visiting Tasmania.
• I have been (re)reading Name of the Rose for over 2 months now…haven’t been able to finish it yet. When did I get so slow?
• Apple has gone ahead and announced the iPOD Touch…that too 2 months after I bought a 30 gig iPOD!

 Now we wait for the reviews!

http://www.apple.com/iphone/