One little tablet, so many haters

There's much speculation that the Apple tablet will ship in March.

There's been so much hype about the tablet--about what it could do for the future of publishing, how it could change the way that we read, how we interact with the written word.

Something with so much promise, something developed by the unstoppable vision of Steve Jobs, must. garner. cynics.

Today, Matt Yglesias wrote that it wouldn't fit in his back pocket so it probably wouldn't be useful to him.

On TechCrunch, Paul Carr noted that the tablet would likely have the same "retina-burning screen" as the iPod to better display movies and web content, and therefore, this device would probably be pretty useless for reading, and also fix none of the problems with the Kindle.

Slate's Jack Shafer says that tablets will eventually morph into ultra-light laptops and your magazine will just be a website.

I most agree with Carr, who writes his criticisms of the notional tablet (remember-it doesn't even exist yet) by prefacing his disapproval with this note:

Predicting that something is going to fail before it’s even launched is like betting against the future: easy to do, but likely to end in embarrassment.

Image from Wired.com

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Oh, and see this video from 1994... creepy.

Best Wishes

Happy 2010, everyone. I hope this new year brings you joy and new inspiration.

Before getting my party gear on last night, I put together this little chapbook for my magazine course. This week, my brother and I visited Main Street and Granville Island, and then had dinner with our parents at the very cute (and dark) Les Faux Bourgeois restaurant. This is a photographic journal of our day.

Most of the text in this book links to websites for more information about the locations I visited, some to music on Hype Machine. Explore and enjoy! (and leave comments as before).



Best to read in fullscreen

It's all the same... except for Kim Kardashian

Who's commanding top dollar on the Internet? For all their bitching and moaning about how they can't compete in the world of online entertainment, the big players--Martha Stewart, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and NBC and FOX (via Hulu)--are still rated by agency buyers and media sellers as the most powerful sellers of ad space.

But one lone lady is making it on her own: Kim Kardashian charges $10,000 for just one tweet. MMMM Carl's Jr., so tasty.

Who makes it happen? Ad.ly

.........
from Ad Age

Snap and Search (and Scare Megan)

DEAR TECHNOLOGY:

I know things are going well between us. Ever since you gave me the Internet, I've been totally in love. But we're moving too fast. This Google Goggles is a bit much for me.

I think we should take it slow and get to know one another a little better. In fact, I think you know too much about me - I know so little about you.

I hope you will understand.

With affection,
Megan

"The world, like the World Wide Web before it, is about to be hyperlinked. Soon, you may be able to find information about almost any physical object with the click of a smartphone.

"This vision, once the stuff of science fiction, took a significant step forward this month when Google unveiled a smartphone application called Goggles. It allows users to search the Web, not by typing or by speaking keywords, but by snapping an image with a cellphone and feeding it into Google’s search engine.

"How tall is that mountain on the horizon? Snap and get the answer. Who is the artist behind this painting? Snap and find out. What about that stadium in front of you? Snap and see a schedule of future games there.

"Goggles, in essence, offers the promise to bridge the gap between the physical world and the Web.

"... It is ...easy to think of scarier possibilities down the line. Google’s goal to recognize every image, of course, includes identifying people. Computer scientists say that it is much harder to identify faces than objects, but with the technology and computing power improving rapidly, improved facial recognition may not be far off.

"Mr. Gundotra says that Google already has some facial-recognition capabilities, but that it has decided to turn them off in Goggles until privacy issues can be resolved. 'We want to move with great discretion and thoughtfulness,' he said."

"Snap and Search," NYT

One Day We Will Look Back and Laugh at This

The Vancouver Sun's bid to get with the times is so adorable. The "THIS TWEET JUST IN" headline just kills me.

The Moment My Life Changed Forever

You can now bring WiFi with you everywhere (and share it)! This is a revelation to me since I have just spent five days holding my iPod touch in the air around Toronto, searching for any wireless signal I can get, like a real idiot.

About MiFi at the NYTimes

Cheat Codes for Life

Courtesy of Wired.

Tips on how to order at In-And-Out, how to put in 1/2 star ratings on iTunes, how to leave voicemail on a certain someone's phone without letting their phone ring... and more!

WIRED: Teach your iPhone/iPod touch how to swear

I wish christmas could be sooner

Oooh baby, that's a detachable touch tablet screen on a laptop computer with two batteries so that it lasts 10-15 hours, and weighs only 2 lbs. AND it operates on your choice of O/S. I'm drooling.


Introducing the TOUCH BOOK by Always Innovating (www.alwaysinnovating.com)

via GIZMODO

I was doing my homework, I swear

While researching on Google Books, I discovered that they now have back issues of Popular Science, Ebony, and New York, among other magazines available for your perusal. Happy reading (and procrastinating).

Note to self: Learn how to use Twitter now

... or get left in the dust.

According a blog on Wired.com people are getting their household plants, appliances, etc. to twitter them. That is so cool.

Businesses are starting to be built around it. Botanicalls, for example, sells a Twitter-enabled hardware kit that lets your neglected house plants alert you when they're thirsty.

The company has developed a tiny moisture sensor attached to a circuit board with an Ethernet port. You stick it in your plant's soil, and when the moisture levels drop below a certain level, your plant sends you a tweet begging to be watered.

Wired.com, "Twitter Fast Growing Beyond Its Messaging Roots"

The future of fashion

MIT students have developed a wearable computer system! Maybe now they can figure out how to put music and sound into their videos, too. (I kid).