Note: Eirik Newth is a Norwegian writer and lecturer, who blogs interestingly and well about, among other things, eBooks. Here’s his take on the iPad and its impact on the eBook market. The original article (in Norwegian) can be found here.
Category: Opinion
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The iPad
Yesterday, Apple announced the long-anticipated, much hyped iPad. Looking like an overgrown iPhone, it sports a 9.7″ screen, with a resolution of 1024×768, multi-touch and your choice of WLAN (all models) 3G (some models) and 16, 32 or 64 GB memory.
A commenter at NRK Beta said it was disappointing that it didn’t have some sort of eInk technology. Now, while eInk is GREAT for reading comfort and battery time, it has a deadly flaw for a device like the iPad; it has a screen refresh rate on par with, well a book (never mind the fact that eInk is so far only available as black and wh … err … gray).
To me, the iPad is NOT ideal for reading, for the exact same reasons why a device with eInk is; backlight and screen refresh. The backlight and screen refresh makes your eyes go tired much quicker, and, eInk having neither, it is actually like reading off darkish paper.
The book function being less than interesting to me, my interest, which, I admit, is piqued, is fading. As a websurfing device, well, it just doesn’t fo it for me. If I want an instant-on, touch screen device, I’ll use my phone. If I want to seriously surf the web, I want a computer, complete with a mouse and a keyboard.
Playing music? Sure, I could, but why not use an iPod or a Creative Zen; they’re smaller and have better power usage times. As for reading and editing documents, I’d rather have a computer to edit and either paper or eInk to read, so that’s out. Photo viewing and editing? Again, I want a computer.
The iPad
The form factor looks good, but I am still critical of both the weight and how long the battery will last. I notice that, like the iPod and iPhone, the iPad does not look like you can exchange the battery yourself, which I find a curious choice. Sure, for a tiny unit like the shuffle, I can understand it, but for an everyday usage unit like the iPhone? I don’t get it.
Using iPhone OS is an obvious, albeit exciting choice. Apple are basically saying that the iPhone OS is mature enough and powerful enough to be used on this kind of device. Also, by all accounts, it does exactly what an OS for a device like this should do; IT JUST WORKS.
While the tech geek in me goes “OOOH! SHINY!”, the sensible guy sitting somewhere deep down, right next door to the justification department, is going “Meh. Yet another device I have no use for.” And that, really, is what it all boils down to, isn’t it? The answer to the question “Do I have any real use for this?”
When all’s told, my interest is piqued, but I am not convinced, and I doubt that I will shell out the $499-$699 for one of these units. There are three main reasons for this:
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RIP Geocities
Monday last marked the end of an era. Since 1995, Geocities has offered free hosting to anyone who wanted their own piece of the net. It has been the last bastion of the <BLINK>and<MARQUEE>tags for years. Monday, October 26th, 2009 marked the end of that, with the closure of Geocities
Seriously though, I know a lot of people around the world took their first steps as inhabitants of the world wide web at Geocities. I had my second site there, and seem to remember having chosen the username FizbanAR back then, a testament to my fandom of the Dragonlance Chronicles books.
I will certainly not miss Geocities, but a part of me keeps thinking “Well, it would be kinda nice if all that information would not get lost”. The rest of me just scoffs and says “Yeah, get real!” -
Innocent until proven guilty – or so I’ve always learned.
The miscarriages of justice made possible by the two acronyms I loathe the most (RIAA, MPAA) just keeps piling on it seems. First it was the lawsuits against dead people and infants. RIAA recently announced their decision to stop pressing these lawsuits.
Later on there was the suggestion of three strikes legislation to fight piracy – first accusation gained you a warning, the second meant your bandwidth would get strangled, and with the third accusation you’d lose your net connection altogether.
Most recently, I learned that New Zealand are planning an even stricter law: upon the first accusation, you are immediately assumed guilty, and your connection is cut.
Now, I believe very strongly in the principle of the accused being assumed innocent until proven otherwise. For an assembly of elected officials to even think of proposing a law like this should be anathema, never mind actually really looking to put it into legislation.
You can think whatever you will of piracy, filesharing and so on, this is just wrong. -
Internet Explorer and me (Or: Why I choose)
I’ve been using computers more or less actively for about 10 years now. My first encounter with a computer was a hulking 386, which I never really got the hang of. Since then, I’ve encountered computers in many different ways, but the first time I can remember getting a “So that’s what it’s all about” feeling, was back in the summer of 1996. Using Word (!) I constructed my very first website.
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Net neutrality
Net Neutrality has become a heated topic over the last few years. The debate is whether an Internet Service Provider (ISP) should be allowed to decide what their customers are allowed to use the service for. Examples are many, and range from the Norwegian ISP Telenor attempting (however unsuccessful that attempt might have been) to charge content providers (notably the Norwegian Broadcasting Company) for Telenors clients to gain access to content.