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

[eponymousanon.livejournal.com]

As for the iPad being a tablet... when it first came out I was all "it's a PADD!!" which I don't think of as being a tablet--I think of PADDs as being an access point to a larger computer, with the ability to take memos and stuff. A Touch or iPad to me is more of an access point than a self-contained machine, in large part because you hook it up to your actual computer and choose what you can fit onto your smaller device. Which I don't mind--I'm actually turned off by a device marketed as a tablet which has even less memory and power than a netbook (which I also despise, because most don't have the same memory and power as a baby koala let alone a laptop).

Now, as far as MacBooks are concerned... my experience is colored by the fact that I went from cheap Dell/Acer laptops that quit after 18 months to my shiny metal MacBook which is going strong at 3 years old. But I think it's not so much Ford v BMW as it is Big Three v Toyota (at least in the 1990-early 2000s). Toyota made its name in being reliable and built to last, while the Big Three tanked their brands with a focus on huge vehicles and a lack of quality assurance. Fact is, the only detractor I have about my MacBook is that I need to get my hands on Windows and BootCamp so that I can play the new Star Wars MMO, and that's more a reflection on the software industry than Macs in general.

Oh, hey--I just realized that you, Ms. Tech Guru Extraordinaire, might be a good person to ask about smartphones. My brother in law is a Mac Guru, but I want to know if there is an Android phone out there which is equally awesome but more reasonably priced to the iPhone. Any suggestions? The reasons I lean towards an iPhone are thus: I have a Touch, so I know the software and want to upgrade to being able to make calls from my mp3 player; there's soooo many other smartphones out there that all I know is that Windows Mobile sucks.

[1001cranes.livejournal.com]

I am not a tech guru, but my htc incredible is two years old, bought second hand on ebay, still going strong, and I hear good things about the incredible 2.

ahha, we also had the exact same experience of shitty Dell -> Macbook, apparently.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Okay, hilarious, my best computers have been Dells--I literally don't buy anything else anymore. HP was the one that turned me off Anything But Dell forever, but to be fair, my reasons are legion. I'm in Austin, Dell's semi-hometown, so it's ridiculously easy to get parts and post-warranty fixes inexpensively, and within two miles from home.

My biggest problems with my laptops are that I use them heavily, constantly, tremendously, and far, far more than I ever used my desktops, so I tinker for performance and multitask speeds and therefore must pay for it later. Which I guess, for me, is a feature for PCs; being able to tinker, and tinker often, make repairs and do my own fixes is part of my funtimes, and sadly, every day cannot be Build a New Server To Ease Your Restlessness Day (God do I wish, though). Much as I love my Kindle and my phone (AND I DO) I have a weird feeling I don't entirely own them because I've never taken them apart to their circuitboards and rebuilt them again at least once. *grins*

I'll second the Incredible and add the Evo; the Evo is truly fantastic every time I've played with it. To be honest, I've always liked my Android phones. However, if you have mostly Macs at home, compatibility would probably be easier with an iPhone; Apple's unbeaten at integration between their hardware. But Android, if you like that kind of thing, has a higher overall memory capacity; my current Android has an 8G card, but from what I remember, while recommended no higher than 32G expansion, I'm pretty sure some guys with free time tested up to 64G and 128G cards and didn't have a problem. The Evo (and Incredible) also have a very large and comfortable screen size as well, and the Android app market is growing exponentially.