Slashdot Mirror
Throwing Out Software That Works
theodp writes "Just as the iPhone rendered circa-2007 smartphones obsolete, points out Marco Arment, the iPad is on the verge of doing the same to circa-2010 netbooks. Should this succeed, cautions Dave Winer, we may be entering an era of deliberate degradation of the user experience and throwing overboard of software that works, for corporate reasons. Already, Winer finds himself having to go to a desktop machine if he wants to view web content that's inaccessible with his iPhone and iPad. 'There was no bottleneck for software in the pre-iPad netbooks,' he writes. 'It matters. What I want is the convenient form factor without the corporate filter. It's way too simplistic to believe that we'll get that, but we had it. That's what I don't like — deliberate devolution.'"
Its not a netbook and shouldn't really be compared to one.
Since its uses are parallel to those of a netbook, I completely disagree.
For any place/purpose you could use an iPad, a netbook can do it. Additionally, there are things that the netbook can do that the iPad cannot.
The *ONLY* think a netbook can't do that your iPad can do is be an iPad. Once you've come to realize you bought an ornament it will make more sense to you why people compare it to netbooks.
Its a netbook with less options.
Its a netbook without a keyboard.
Its a netbook with limited space.
Its a netbook that doesn't run Flash.
Oh... and its a netbook by Apple, and so it has an 'i' in its name. Cool huh?
Lol. Apple. Lol.
Which planet do you live on?
Other smartphone are not obsolete by a long shot.
I stopped reading after the first sentence.
I agree. The Iphone is whats obsolete. I have an HTC Touch Pro 2 and its way better than even the newest iphone -- and thats because it actually does what I want, not what it wants me to do. To me, and others who prefer options and versatility, Apple is perpetually obsolete.
There are apparently 3 types of people involved in these 'apple issue' debates, but only one type is actually having the problem:
1) Apple fanboys - these people love apple stuff and the image they get for owning it so much that nothing matters, these people are never upset by apple. I understand. We're all fanboys of something.
2) Technology realists - these people look at the core and peripheral values of the technology they consider, they see the shortcomings of the iPad and iPhones and are usually swayed enough to buy the better tech out there. They weigh out the actual options and decide (usually not apple) what to buy.
But the people that always seem afflicted and are the source of all this drama are 3) Trendy Consumers - they don't know WHAT they really want. They follow marketed trends and hardly look at the tech they are buying until they are using it. This often leads to a post-purchase realization that their trendy product may not be as cool as they wanted. Some of these people are still cool with the object trendyness, and some come here on slashdot to produce articles attempting to blame Apple for their own skewed attempt at interacting with life.
The lesson to be learned is to quit being trendy and attempt to actually be in control of yourself.