The iPad is the future of the past of books
The iPad definitely ups the Kindle’s ante. Unfortunately, it ups the Kindle ante by making an e-book more like a television set.
Will it do well? I dunno. Probably. But is it the future of reading? Nope. It’s the high-def, full-color, animated version of the past of reading.
The future of reading is social. The future of reading blurs reading and writing. The future of reading is the networking of readers, writers, content, comments, and metadata, all in one continuous-on mash.
Compared to my laptop, the iPad lacks a keyboard, software development tools, writers’ tools, photographers’ tools, a Web server, a camera, a useful row of connectors for different sorts of wires, and the ability to run whatever software I choose. Compared to my Android phone, it lacks a phone, a camera, pocketability, and the ability to run whatever software I choose. Compared to the iPad, my phone lacks book-reading capability, performance, and screen real-estate. Compared to the iPad, my computer lacks a touch interface and suffers from excessive weight and bulk.
It’s probably a pretty sweet tool for consuming media, even given the unfortunate 4:3 aspect ratio. And consuming media is obviously a big deal for a whole lot of people.
For creative people, this device is nothing.
But…I don’t need to download software to be creative. There’s lots of cloud services out there that let me do all kinds of creative things.
As for “pocketability”, this is where women have an advantage. This device, like my netbook, would fit easily into my purse.
Rochelle, yes, for creative people the iPad is not exactly nothing. But it was clearly designed for consumers — a term I dislike but which in this case is apt. Just about every generative capability that could have been in it is left out — although, we’ll see how usable the keypad is: Good enough for responding to GUI queries, but good enough to do some serious writing?
I want to change elements of my lifestyle, such as un-tethering from a pre-defined physical work space, beginning to use cloud tools more, changing my mental approach to “work”, relaxing my wrists, hands and fingers more, lightening the load made up of the tools of my trade, and exploring unknown territory along with challenging myself to alter my approach to productivity and accomplishment. I trust the iPad to be a suitable platform for beginning the process. I don’t have an iPhone or iTouch, and won’t get one, but the iPad is what I consider the first “adult” mobility tool that Apple has made available to me. I’m gonna get one and check it out *:L-)
[...] Do Scholars Really Want “Social Scholarship”? Jump to Comments David Weinberger comments on the new [...]
I ll wait for a slitly thicker version running a real os
but the shape is spot on
the idea of ‘opening’ a laptop is sooo booked
[...] Weinberger says that the iPad is the “future of the past of books” and says it’s missing interactivity and collaboration as key [...]
I’m a consumer, but I’m not buying one. I want the single product that will let me consolidate my connectivity, communications, and tools. iPad limitations outweigh the features.
I’ll continue to make calls on a simple cell phone, multitask on a large laptop, take pictures with a camera, watch TV on a TV, read books on paper, even subscribe to a real newspaper (although that last thread is seriously frayed).
I asked my family “what pocket will I put it in?” It seems far too large for practical use. I have a smallish shoulder bag that my Palm TX fits in, along with a bunch of other things, but this won’t come close. I thought they should have made it fold in the middle to cut the packed size. It would likely be cheaper too, since I believe that screen panels escalate in price nonlinearly with the size. A dividing line could be thin and easily placed between lines of text. If Apple does this, I want my royalties.
But I’m biased, anyway-I still like paper.
tim bray said:
> For creative people, this device is nothing.
that’s strange. i’d think _creative_ people will be
able to find some kind of use for any type of tool…
i know that i intend to explore some of the
imagination-stretching aspects of the ipad.
-bowerbird
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Sure, bowerbird, and I look forward to what you come up with. But, if you were designing iPad as an instrument for creators as opposed to consumers, you would have made other decisions about its design, what to include, and what to allow.
maybe if _you_ were designing it, you would’ve made a different design.
me? i’m not so sure. constraints can _facilitate_ the creative process.
at any rate, i don’t need to decide how _i_ would design it, because
those kinds of decisions are above my pay-grade, since i don’t have
a 50-billion dollar hardware/software company at my beck and call.
it’s also meaty to consider the stance that the ipad will help out artists
not by being a tool which we use (since we already have access to
tools that are much more useful), but rather as an appliance which
will help furnish us with a bigger and better audience for our creations.
(the craziness of the iphone app store is a testament in that direction,
and i am salivating at the prospect of a no-longer-too-small screen.)
at any rate, let’s see if artists can be creative with the ipad. i bet so…
-bowerbird
Depends on how you look at empowering creators. I’ve gone from reading and commenting on blogs/news/socialmedia at a desktop or laptop to instead simply reading them on my iPhone during free moments, and contributing isn’t as easy. Great for me, but my input back to those sites (and even my own social media) has sunk to zero.
Secondly, don’t forget that the iPad will make mass consumption of the web fun, comfortable, and easy. That means consumption will go up, and if 90-9-1 holds true, the contributor slices will grow.
Let’s see how it plays out….