29.1.10

Okay, so now we know it's called an iPad

Why you shouldn't let the cat too near the keyboard

(Image above of my old iBook used here for nostalgic reasons. Someday not too far in the future, I don't think we'll be wrangling with keyboards like this anymore.)

Now that it's been more than 24 hours since the announcement of the iPad and everyone's had a chance to freak out about all the functionalities it doesn't have and how it's not going to be the tablet-killer everyone thought it was going to be, let us remember a few things:
Me, I just wish they'd called it the iSlate instead because I'm old school that way --- I think the word "slate" has more resonance. "Slate" also makes me think of all the fun doodling goodness (literally or metaphorically) you could have with it, whereas "pad", once you get over the jokes about feminine hygiene products, merely conjures images of lined notepaper (perhaps even in that sickly yellow hue of legal pads) just waiting to be filled with, ugh, work.

Edited to add (10:48 am): Oops, except that I forgot about the HP Slate --- which I suppose tells you something about how much mind share it holds with me.

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2 Comments:

At 1/29/2010 1:30 PM , Anonymous Brandon Lee said...

Thanks for the link. I'd say iPad sounds more natural and in-family for Apple than iSlate, which has a tricky sound and can become isolate or iceskate. I definitely prefer it, but was hoping for something else. Then again, Apple just cuts to the chase sometimes, like iPhone and iTV (which became Apple TV by time of launch).

 
At 1/30/2010 3:31 AM , Anonymous Robertstone said...

I'm going to come off as a Luddite but so be it. I'm sick and tired of Apple gearing all its new products toward consumption rather than production. I'm sick of all the technological instruments following that lead. E-books... perhaps this is a little premature, but I feel they are leading to a wearing thin of the publishing industry, writers getting paid less to do more patchy work that can consumed more quickly with less thought. I can understand having a mobile device the size of phone that can function like a little Internet browser but if I'm going to get something that big, it won't be to read more on the Internet. YUCK. Perhaps I'll eat my words later on, but the way I feel right now, our civilization based on mass consumption of mostly worthless soulless goods should go to hell.

 

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