technology news always makes me understand marxism better

So the Pandigital e-reader thing came and I opened it up grimly to learn to use it and get it all ready and clean for my mom's birthday--and I just could not deal with how slow it was. Or rather, I could not deal with the fact that for only a bit (er, twice the price plus a cover) more, she could have a nice, shiny Kindle Fire, and honest to God, I would not use mine happily if I saw her meandering sadly with that one.

Hence, we're going with Kindle Fire for Mom and both my conscience and my glee at helping break the iPad's death grip on tablets are pleased (I still can't think of it as a tablet no matter what I do, but apparently, I'm the only one in the universe. No matter how many movies I may or may not stream on it). I do not hate iPads, and Apple's hands aren't any dirtier than any other company, so I think it comes down to Apple's highly successful use of snobbery in its ads that turned me against them for life. It's about as logical as navigating by cloud (no amazon pun intended), but the smug Mac computer commercials combined with the constant refrain both implicit and explicit that people who do not have iPads just can't afford them (if one more reviewer says, amused and disparaging "Oh, well, at that price" as if consumers will buy any old junk because it's cheap really--gets to me.

I have to admit, after a long time bowing at the throne of Apple, the way that Amazon's freaked out the complacency of the tech world since Wednesday has been nothing short of hilarious to watch. The constant, consistent, exhausting way the entirety of the tech universe seems to hang upon The Next Version of the iPhone and The Next Version of the iPad et al like the Gospel got caught up in what could almost be called surprise--and amazon hasn't hidden what they're doing either, so it's not like Fire fell from the sky (no reference to the movie implied) to land on their laps like Aphrodite rising from the ocean (not so wet, for one thing). I get the feeling they expected another iPad clone to follow the standard and were completely nonplussed to see something that was uncomfortably close to a suggest that maybe iPad is not the be-all and end-all of what a tablet should be, but just--heresy--a variation of what tablets might be.

I do enjoy watching confusion in the technological trenches, I admit it, and for more than my stock portfolio's health. Though I do wish they'd just get this one thing (I give up on teh entire "only cheap people won't get an iPad" thing; tech's love of Regency-level class lines is not exactly new); at seven inches, fourteen ounces, and less than half an inch thickness...size, people, is a feature. It fits in my bag, my purse, my coat pocket, in one hand being carried while walking, in one hand while reading, watching, easy to pull out, easy to put up, easy as a book to read, use, hold up to show people, glance at, and put away.

That's a feature.

(Only here, quietly: I really wish they'd add the 3G. But I am also thinking how even my phone does not get fantastic reception in most places and a million and a half new Fires coming online abruptly would be--slow, to put it mildly.)

Comments

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*glee* It's going to be awesome to watch this happening.