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The Apple Two
theodp writes "Over at Slate, Tim Wu argues that the iPad is Steve Jobs' final victory over Steve Wozniak. Apple's origins were pure Woz, but the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad are the products of the company's other Steve. Jobs' ideas have always been in tension with Woz's brand of idealism and openness. Crazy as it seems, Apple Inc. — the creator of the personal computer — is leading the effort to exterminate it. And somewhere, deep inside, Woz must realize what the release of the iPad signifies: The company he once built now, officially, no longer exists."
I certainly could but then again I would have to have at least a small amount of interest in doing so.
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I've replaced the batteries and screens in iPhones and iPods with no problem, those where the "closed" devices of the last 8 years. Give it a couple weeks and people will be doing the same thing to iPads.
The iPad/iPhone/Zune/Nexus One aren't computers, they are PDAs and honestly since the Newton came out PDAs generally just aren't as storage and memory upgradable or flexible as a laptop or desktop.
Just last month I swapped out my hard disk in a MacBook Pro 5,3 and right after that had to work inside our newer HP laptop. Guess what? The MacBook was easier to get into and work on than the HP.
I've also replaced every conceivable part in MacBooks, iBooks, Powerbooks and iMacs along with every Apple "Pro" desktop of the last 15 years. I ran my Power Mac G3 233 MHz at 292 MHz for years before swapping out CPUs to get it all the way to 466 before I retired it, so don't blather on that Apple products are "locked down" because they aren't.
I wonder if the next generation of Apple Personal Computers can deliver what their customers want today -- namely, the sense of smug superiority and being set apart for having the priviledge of overpaying for a name and some self-righteous packaging that advertises where something was _Designed_ [in california, no less], as if that had any bearing on its fitness for any objective purpose...
Yes.. I wonder if in the near future, Jobs and Apple will be able to deliver that without actually putting any electronics in the machine at all...
Will it still be a personal computer, since it does what its buyers want?
I see a business opportunity, btw. Selling Apple laptop "skins" that either
- cover up some other brand of computer
- don't contain a computer at all. The skin is just that - you just sit somewhere in public, with a laptop-looking-thing open, proudly showing the apple logo to all who pretend to not be looking at your glorious presence.
With a fake-Apple skin over your laptop, Onlookers will see that you are better than they are, and will forgive you for spending 2 hours fucking with your hair all to make it look like you didn't spend any time on it. They'll want to sit down and ask you what important work you're doing, but be too threatened because your Apple Skin -- hey, the name of the product will be called "Apple Peel" -- your Apple Peel clad-device will put an impenetrable psychological distance between you, the annointed, and them, the plebians. And so they will remain standoffish and contemptuous, and at least in this little microcosm of the stifled social dynamics of the wifi coffee-shop, you will emerge victorious.
Apple Peel (C) -- the apple-branded covering for your affordable and functional laptop. All of the social superiority, none of the overpriced shittyness of an actual apple product.
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You obviously didn't bother reading the article. Woz is the one who suggested it
Hey, you'd better stop unquestioningly taking the advice of computer company founders. People might think you're a fanboy!
On a more serious note: please stop trying to apply Woz's straw man to other people. Buyers of Apple products do not think only Apple-approved thoughts. That's only coming when iTunes adds the Thought Store.