WHY I DON’T WANT AN IPAD
Apr. 5th, 2010 04:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogI confess that on both a professional and personal level I’m interested in the iPad primarily for its potential role as an e-book reader and the impact it might have on that market, which is mostly dominated by the Kindle and the Sony Reader Daily Edition.
Kindle has the Amazon ecosystem but that also means consumer-unfriendly DRM (not to mention the occasional price wars and surprise recalls). Sony is also keen on DRM – as was its music division at one point, and we saw how that went.
The iPad has the successful App Store and the new iBookstore on its side. Unfortunately, both have content policies designed to treat me like a six-year-old Mormon. The App Store has an arbitrary No Bikini policy, while the iBookstore is so tightly wound that it bleeps phrases like “sperm whale”.
Which is not only just stupid, but also insulting.
So honestly, at this stage I’m at a loss as to why I should give any of these people my money when I can buy dead-tree books without any of the inconveniences their products offer.
BONUS TRACK: One interesting side note is the argument over whether the iPad will be a good or bad thing for comics fans who want their comics in digital form (with Marvel already set to leverage the iPad platform).
Cory Doctorow says it’s terrible. Warren Ellis says it’s not. Personally I think Warren wins that argument, but then I don’t share Cory’s OTT hacker mentality that if you can’t disassemble it, you don’t own it.
No sale,
This is dF
Kindle has the Amazon ecosystem but that also means consumer-unfriendly DRM (not to mention the occasional price wars and surprise recalls). Sony is also keen on DRM – as was its music division at one point, and we saw how that went.
The iPad has the successful App Store and the new iBookstore on its side. Unfortunately, both have content policies designed to treat me like a six-year-old Mormon. The App Store has an arbitrary No Bikini policy, while the iBookstore is so tightly wound that it bleeps phrases like “sperm whale”.
Which is not only just stupid, but also insulting.
So honestly, at this stage I’m at a loss as to why I should give any of these people my money when I can buy dead-tree books without any of the inconveniences their products offer.
BONUS TRACK: One interesting side note is the argument over whether the iPad will be a good or bad thing for comics fans who want their comics in digital form (with Marvel already set to leverage the iPad platform).
Cory Doctorow says it’s terrible. Warren Ellis says it’s not. Personally I think Warren wins that argument, but then I don’t share Cory’s OTT hacker mentality that if you can’t disassemble it, you don’t own it.
No sale,
This is dF
