Insanely Great

My introduction to Apple Computers was not dramatic. I returned to teaching in 1983, and there was a classroom in the basement of our high school, with a lab of Apple II computers. A class was taught in that room, "Computer Math," and since I have no gift for math, I shrugged and went back to teaching literature and grammar. Later, as computers began to replace other office machines, I took a class on the Apple II, then I took one on DOS, which was the language being used by personal computers manufactured by IBM. Only when my yearbook program inherited a Mac did I really begin to embrace computing, and before long, I became a fan of Apple. Computers have changed our society, and many of the best ideas in computing have come from Apple.

Since those days of beige boxes and green screens with yellow cursors, Apple has introduced some products which have either changed the way we live, or at least made engineers think of a better way to perform tasks. The Newton was a commercial flop, but it paved the way for Palm PDAs (and I still use one of those) and the iPhone, which has put the smartphone into the hands of regular people.

The first really powerful notebook computers were the Powerbooks introduced in 1991. I'm typing this entry on a MacBook Pro, which is merely a later, somewhat greater, Powerbook. Within a few years, the iMac dumped the floppy drive in favor of internet capability; now no one uses a computer which is not online. Increasing the usefulness of online communications was the goal when Apple led the way in home and small business wireless (Airport) a decade ago. I'm still using my second generation Airport, which was installed years before PC users finally adopted the technology they call WiFi.

Apple also acknowledged that people don't want to buy CDs; they want to pick and choose the songs they listen to, and the iPod and iTunes have been wildly successful because the folks at Apple understood that simple fact. While it hasn't been as successful as some of the iWhatever products, Apple TV also acknowledges that televisions in the future will not rely on cable or satellites, but content will come via the net. Just as land line phone users have dumped them for cell phones, online video content is the future.

I'm a fan of ebooks, and I have watched the parade of devices for reading them march into the marketplace, beginning with the desktop computer, then PDAs, and more recently, various readers including the Rocketbook, the Sony eReader, and Amazon's Kindle. My PDA is nearly five years old, and I've not purchased any of these interm devices, because none of them have the elegance of design and function that Apple brings to its products. Today, I just read that Apple has introduced the iPad, a device which blends together a fabulous portable computer with a screen which might make the Kindle obsolete.

Sometimes Apple is first; sometimes Apple is just better; and often, Apple manages both. As Steve Jobs says of his company's products, "Insanely great!"

Kindle— eBook reader or Web 2.0?

For roughly a decade, eBooks have been available. The number formats has grown as has the number of devices upon which to read them. Unlike video games, which went from Pong on the Atari to Halo on the X-box 360, neither the media nor the device(s) has fulfilled the expectations of buyers. The most common technologies, which include the still available eBookwise and Sony Reader, have a new competitor, Amazon.com’s Kindle.

The new gadget is about the size of a trade paperback; it has the same readable, almost magical screen as the Sony Reader; also, it has a wireless access which is used by cellphones to a huge selection of titles, some 90,000, via Amazon (no computer needed.) Amazon has managed to secure agreements with most of the major publishers for content, stating that 90% of the NYT bestseller list is available for the Kindle. Many periodicals are also available for low, monthly prices. Could this be what the iPod and iTunes has been for the music world? Perhaps, but I see three downsides to this new effort: it is rather expensive to buy the machine and its content, the screen isn’t backlit for reading in the dark, and it is ugly— really ugly.

That said, I still think this is an interesting development. Right on Amazon’s website, authors are encouraged to make their stories available for the Kindle. No publisher needed. That, by gosh, does intrigue me. Amazon’s new gadget might do away with conventional publishing— no printers, paper, ink, wholesalers, salesmen, managers, truck drivers, or bookstores. Even editors would be optional for some writers, which should mean less cost for readers and more income for writers. With all that in mind, I mentioned the Kindle in a message posted to my publisher’s Yahoo group. Please remember that this is an eBook publisher, so you’d think these folks would be interested in this new gadget. Only one author responded, and that one was concerned about the price. None of the other list members (230 or so) responded to my query, which may mean that a Yahoo group is dead as means of online communication, or it may mean that this is not the device which will bring out the benefits eBooks to the book-buying public.

I remain positive about present and the future of eBooks. Currently, I use a Palm as an eBook reader, and mine has some 80 books and short stories on it, but I recognize that this device is the VCR of pocket sized computing. Some are still around, but it’s on the way into oblivion. Apple’s iPhone, the various iterations of Blackberry, and other gadgets have been infused with that hard to define but easy to recognize characteristic— cool. The Kindle is not yet cool, but it is a step toward the future. Indeed, the word kindle means to start (a fire) burning, to stir up, to bring into being and to catch fire. Interesting name, now isn’t it?

When I was a kid, there were record stores in just about every town. Now there are virtually none, and the ones which do exist sell accessories for the iPod. Watch out, Barnes and Noble, something has begun which just might burn you guys.