iSlate... iDon't
There is a lot of buzz right now around Apple's impending iSlate reveal on January 27th. You can see a shot of it here. Apple does a lot and it does most of it right. I love the idea of E-readers and coveted Amazon's Kindle for a long time. In fact, if Amazon hadn't taken it upon themselves to go ahead and delete a book from people's Kindle and online storage, I couldn't really see a drawback. But they did delete a book from customer's Kindle without telling them or asking or any such thing. Just a click of a button and "Poof!" it was gone.
And that scares me.
Giving a big ole corporation the ability to decide on what we keep after we buy it. And that its books, news, magazines and information is downright frightening. Apple can do this to your iTunes library. They can decide what you can burn onto a disc and what you can't. If they don't like the source of your tunes, they can delete those too. Just because they play on a shiny, pretty little iPod we tend to overlook this important fact. The iPhone is a beautiful little phone. But you can't just put whatever you want on it. You need to have Apple's okay and Apple's stamp of approval. This type of control is freaky to me.
So, these slates/tablets are supposed to be a big thing. I think they are super cool and super scary all in one sentence. Information is something that shouldn't be able to be deleted or taken back. Words, art, poetry have been written and printed for centuries.
A beautiful book, with the sound of the pages turning and the glow of a lamp light is how we've had our minds changed, our hearts opened and new worlds revealed to us. We can take that book and put it on a shelf or loan it to a friend. We can check them out of a library and read them for free. We can hold onto them for generations if we choose.
Think about book burnings. What is the difference between what Amazon did and this? Are you really ready to let that happen? To give the Wal-Marts, Amazons and Apples the power to take it away or dictate who you can share it with or not?
And that scares me.
Giving a big ole corporation the ability to decide on what we keep after we buy it. And that its books, news, magazines and information is downright frightening. Apple can do this to your iTunes library. They can decide what you can burn onto a disc and what you can't. If they don't like the source of your tunes, they can delete those too. Just because they play on a shiny, pretty little iPod we tend to overlook this important fact. The iPhone is a beautiful little phone. But you can't just put whatever you want on it. You need to have Apple's okay and Apple's stamp of approval. This type of control is freaky to me.
So, these slates/tablets are supposed to be a big thing. I think they are super cool and super scary all in one sentence. Information is something that shouldn't be able to be deleted or taken back. Words, art, poetry have been written and printed for centuries.
A beautiful book, with the sound of the pages turning and the glow of a lamp light is how we've had our minds changed, our hearts opened and new worlds revealed to us. We can take that book and put it on a shelf or loan it to a friend. We can check them out of a library and read them for free. We can hold onto them for generations if we choose.
Think about book burnings. What is the difference between what Amazon did and this? Are you really ready to let that happen? To give the Wal-Marts, Amazons and Apples the power to take it away or dictate who you can share it with or not?
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