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Apple's iPad

Rubin Farr

By Rubin Farr
in General Banter

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Guest Babar

Guest Babar

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who knows what the future holds for us...but yeah 2D windows in a 3D environnement are pretty but quite worthless. Also I doubt 3D displays(holographic then?) will work : you'll have to hold your hands in the air and that may be quite tiring, if not body-bending. But let's see what apple will release for OS XI, it might be quite relevant. They usually tend to borrow good ideas from the Open-Source community (wasn't multi-desktops an improvement brought by gnome ?).

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jules Grand Master

jules

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will the Internet finally get AWARE OF ITSELF ?

 

 

this is a frightening thought. although, with all that knowledge, he'll most likely be a total dick and talk down to everyone because he is always FIRST! I wonder what the internet's avatar will be when he signs up for watmm and blows us all away with his infinite number of rolfs

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Guest Gary C

Guest Gary C

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/26/kindle-drm-restrictions-apple

 

On Wednesday, Apple is expected to unveil a product that will be, among other things, a competitor to Amazon's Kindle. That will be a crucial test for Apple, and for society. If the company lives up to its reputation for revolutionizing media, this new product and its successors will one day replace physical books. The test for Apple is in whether they try to control what we read. The test for society is whether we let them.

 

We all know that this device will be strikingly beautiful, will feel good in our hands, and will have some special touch that, like the iPod's white earbuds, endows its users with an aura of cool. It will do so much more than display books (reading will be sexy again!) that this simple feature may be lost among the device's more advanced trappings.

 

But after fawning over it, we should ask how much freedom the device gives us, and what it means for the future of reading: will the iSlate (as it's rumored to be named) let us put our own ebooks onto it, or will it only show documents in Apple's own proprietary format? Will we have to buy everything through Apple, allowing them an eye into our reading preferences? And when we buy those books, will Apple have the technical ability to remotely revoke our access to them? A restrictive iSlate would allow Apple--or someone else--to abscond with your entire library in the middle of the night, all without ever knocking on your door. If the act of reading isn't safe, who cares if it's cool?

This ability to take away our books is a current reality, not a future prospect. Kindle users discovered this last year when Amazon remotely deleted their copies of Animal Farm and 1984. Even though customers were storing the books on their own devices, those devices automatically deleted the books when Amazon removed the titles from the Kindle store, like an army of drones taking orders from their master. From day one, Apple has used similar technology to make sure that a song or movie bought on iTunes can only be played on authorized devices. They do this to protect the rights of artists and production companies.

 

But that was music. This is books. The stakes are higher. And the Kindle goes further. Unlike the iPod, which allows you to play your own, non-revokable songs and movies on your iPod in addition to the ones you bought through iTunes, the Kindle is designed to only display books that Amazon can control. The same technology that is ostensibly protecting books also jeopardizes our right to read them. If the iSlate is similarly restrictive but as successful as its music predecessor, we'll have surrendered final say over our bookshelves to companies and governments

 

Obviously not viable in the immediate future, but it does worry me a little that if such technology does take over, that yes, all information could be edited and/or quarantined by a controlling power. 1984, indeed.

 

Of course, I'll most likely be dead before such a future occurs.

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dr lopez Grand Master

dr lopez

Posted
Posted
On Wednesday, Apple is expected to unveil a product that will be, among other things, a competitor to Amazon's Kindle. That will be a crucial test for Apple, and for society. If the company lives up to its reputation for revolutionizing media, this new product and its successors will one day replace physical books. The test for Apple is in whether they try to control what we read. The test for society is whether we let them.

 

We all know that this device will be strikingly beautiful, will feel good in our hands, and will have some special touch that, like the iPod's white earbuds, endows its users with an aura of cool. It will do so much more than display books (reading will be sexy again!) that this simple feature may be lost among the device's more advanced trappings.

 

But after fawning over it, we should ask how much freedom the device gives us, and what it means for the future of reading: will the iSlate (as it's rumored to be named) let us put our own ebooks onto it, or will it only show documents in Apple's own proprietary format? Will we have to buy everything through Apple, allowing them an eye into our reading preferences? And when we buy those books, will Apple have the technical ability to remotely revoke our access to them? A restrictive iSlate would allow Apple--or someone else--to abscond with your entire library in the middle of the night, all without ever knocking on your door. If the act of reading isn't safe, who cares if it's cool?

 

This ability to take away our books is a current reality, not a future prospect. Kindle users discovered this last year when Amazon remotely deleted their copies of Animal Farm and 1984. Even though customers were storing the books on their own devices, those devices automatically deleted the books when Amazon removed the titles from the Kindle store, like an army of drones taking orders from their master. From day one, Apple has used similar technology to make sure that a song or movie bought on iTunes can only be played on authorized devices. They do this to protect the rights of artists and production companies.

 

But that was music. This is books. The stakes are higher. And the Kindle goes further. Unlike the iPod, which allows you to play your own, non-revokable songs and movies on your iPod in addition to the ones you bought through iTunes, the Kindle is designed to only display books that Amazon can control. The same technology that is ostensibly protecting books also jeopardizes our right to read them. If the iSlate is similarly restrictive but as successful as its music predecessor, we'll have surrendered final say over our bookshelves to companies and governments

 

 

a library has the exact same power.

 

what completely baffles me about these arguments is that these devices are used by choice. No one should be reading a book on a kindle unless the have an idea what kind of power Amazon can exert over its devices.

 

Also these gloom-and-doom technology arguments (which seem to pop up every single day) fail to understand that technology not just linear, it builds upon itself. Everyone doesn't just switch to the next viable source of information when it becomes available. Books that in their eyes give completely free access to information will still be available to read after the Kindle and perhaps the iSlate become more popular. And anyone who thinks information control is only becoming popular now is a fucking dolt.

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Guest Gary C

Guest Gary C

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Amazon sold more ebooks than books this Christmas allegedly.

 

I'm not saying it's going to be quick, but it's feasible that in less than a century from now nothing will ever need to be printed on paper again. Sure, there will still be catalogues of old fusty, decaying, books in libraries that farts and futuristic goth-kids will lament, but new works will be published electronically.

 

I do have some reservations about these ebook things though, as I seriously doubt that the upcoming generations actually read anymore.

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chenGOD Grand Master

chenGOD

Posted
Posted

jailbreak your ipad, use ssh to transfer ebooks onto storage medium of your choice.

Anything that can be encrypted can be decrypted.

 

ipad soaks up twice as much as the regular pad

 

Are you one of those girls for whom time stands still once a month?

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Guest uelogy

Guest uelogy

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watch this dumbass leak all the details just hours before launch, on national tv...

 

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/01/26/mcgraw-hill-ceo-the-tablet-is-going-to-be-just-really-terrific/

 

jobs is going to be fucking pissed.

 

"I like to smell my text books..........."

 

my guess is a controlled leak of information, apple do that heaps...

 

 

/waits for ipad jokes relating to leaks.

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BCM Grand Master

BCM

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i am currently reading bram stoker's dracula on my iphone. i've never read it before and it was free so i thought i'd give the whole ebook thing a go. i'm thoroughly enjoying it - really good for reading on the tube whilst listening to music etc. i can dig it.

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kcinsu Grand Master

kcinsu

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This may put jazz mutant lemur out if business... Or make them drop their prices, or make them port their os to the iPhone. Either way, I'm getting a configurable multitouch controller within a year

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o00o Grand Master

o00o

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Posted

This may put jazz mutant lemur out if business... Or make them drop their prices, or make them port their os to the iPhone. Either way, I'm getting a configurable multitouch controller within a year

 

yeah I thought the same last week think about it

 

instead of a laptop you buy a lemur like thing with iphone features that is going to be awesome

 

you could also use it as fucking awesome keyboard alike multi controller in case you want to use it together with your computer but like 10 times better

 

no keyboard no mouse needed anymore

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