Another annoying iThingy app ad that takes over my iThingy's entire browser. Thanks #Fandango: you're lame.

Another annoying iThingy app ad that takes over my iThingy's entire browser. Thanks #Fandango: you're lame., a photo by thepetecom on Flickr.

Why do they think this is a good idea? I'm on their site, looking for info, if I wanted to download their app, I'd already have done it. This kind of ad only makes me want to never visit Fandango again.  Website designers: please discourage your clients from wanting this kind of ad! Thank you!

I know Amazon wants us to buy their new flaming thing but can't they support iThingies a bit better than this?

I know Amazon wants us to buy their new flaming thing but can't they support iThingies a bit better than this?, a photo by thepetecom on Flickr.

I snapped this last night while trying to buy the awesome score for the brilliant UK show "Misfits" last night. Amazon's cloud player will work but the media gallery does what you see below. I can stream mp3s via Safari but playing in the background is super flakey. I wish they would just do an app. In the end I did buy the "Misfits" score but had to use my MacBook Pro to download it. Could have DLed it on my Android phone, of course.

India One-Ups OLPC, Beats their $200 XO and their $99 tablet with a $35 iPad lookalike for 2011

A $35 Tablet? India Is On The Case

03:49 pm July 23, 2010 by Joshua Brockman AP

 

Kapil Sibal, India’s human resource development minister, displays the low-cost tablet that it hopes to put into production by next year.

Can you imagine a tablet computer priced less than the cost of a textbook?

It may soon be a reality. The Indian government unveiled a $35 prototype of a touch-screen tablet for students that could be a game changer in the consumer electronics world. That’s because it would be the world’s cheapest if it goes into production, according to the Guardian.

…

India’s human resource development minister, Kapil Sibal, said on Friday that the government is already in discussions with manufacturers to produce the device by 2011. He called the device India’s “answer to MIT’s $100 computer.”

via npr.org

Hm… this is an interesting development.

While it’d be great to get my hands on such a cheap tablet, one of the commenters on the NPR post makes a good point:

liam stockwell (liamaniac) wrote:

I can’t help but think it has the same, extremely detrimental draw-backs of every other sub-priced…anything. “Who is getting taken advantage of in order to produce this?”

Sat Jul 24 11:44:10 2010

I don’t mind spending a couple hundred on something like this as long as it’s got the same (or similar) specs as the iPad AND poor people in 3rd world countries aren’t exploited to death to bring me the damn device.

And I’ve heard/read a bit about what India is like and it worries me when I see electronics with this tiny-ass price point.  But hey, if they can produce it morally, I’d be happy to pick one up.  Maybe I can run Sugar on it! ;)

Rather than killing off the netbook...

Nick Farrell, in the dramatically titled “Why Apple might regret the Ipad,” in the Inquirer.

So…yeah. Even if you accept that cannibalizing yourself is by definition a bad idea, I’d like to do a basic arithmetic check here.

Let’s say that we’re talking about 1,000 iPad buyers. 24% of them — 240 people — purchased a bare bones iPad ($500) rather than, say, a bare bones MacBook ($1,000).

Loss to Apple from iPad sales? 240 * $500, or $120,000 

But wait — that’s only 240 of our 1,000 people, which means that we’ve got 760 people for whom that iPad purchase was not eliminating an Apple laptop purchase.

Bonus to Apple from iPad sales? 760 * $500 = $380,000

Apple’s top line bumps up by around a quarter of a million dollars.

The horror, the horror.

(via whitneymcn)

I still think the iPad will end up a bit of a joke in the long run. Once current iPad-owners work out how much less useful the thing is compared to a netbook or a laptop, word will get around.

Just my ¥2, of course.  I could be wrong.

"The iPad, a gorgeous device for displaying content, has become something of a metaphor for the hermetic kingdom of Apple. A seamless device that can’t be opened, it has no apertures for input and is animated mostly by purchases from Apple."

"The iPad, a gorgeous device for displaying content, has become something of a metaphor for the hermetic kingdom of Apple. A seamless device that can’t be opened, it has no apertures for input and is animated mostly by purchases from Apple."

newsweek:

gillianmae:

jennydeluxe:

As usual, @carr2n nails it.

Thing is, this isn’t just a metaphor for Apple. This is how most media companies view their ecosystem, as a closed space in which they create content and people pay to consume it. Of course, that’s not how the Web works, and while closed systems can work in the short term, or in niche applications, the long-term trend is toward openness and interaction as the place where the big audiences (and, hopefully, big profits) happen.

Meh, it’s already been Jailbroken—*now* it’s open! ;)

Still, a touchscreen netbook running Win7 with a mifi or a 3G USB stick is a more logical, economical choice for the same money.  That’s what I’m going to buy (as soon as I have the money).

UPDATE 20110823: Earlier this year I picked up myself an Asus T101MT.  It's great, I love it and only started considering an iPad 2, recently, after learning the BBC's iPlayer was going to be available for the iPad--for free.

My Educated Take on the iPad

Not powerful enough to beat a netbook, but too big to be a PDA. This is an e-book reader competitor, folks. How many people do we know with an e-book reader?

Just sayin’…

 

 

UPDATED 20110823: how wrong was I on this one! O_O I still think the iPad can't do as much as my netbook, but clearly netbooks aren't glamorous enough to compete with the iPad.  Ah well...