i got one, i am velcro’ing it to my elliptical trainer to read blogs while i get my daily sweat on. but i basically agree with cory.

Why I won’t buy an iPad (and think you shouldn’t, either) - Boing Boing

(via fred-wilson)

hapa: Wow.  Cory is a guy who can get very fired up about some stuff while simultaneously missing the point about so much else.  There’s a lot of baggage in his thesis.  There must be, because any reasonably innovative newcomer to the space might also consider the promise the iPad brings by being one hell of a conduit for browsing the web, using web apps, and communicating with other networked devices on the LAN or WAN over TCP/IP… so if he could take the blinders off that he thinks he doesn’t have on, he’d see much more potential for building on the iPad beyond what he might achieve by hacking the circuit board and relying on (just) an open native app infrastructure.

I loved tearing apart gadgets when I was younger with the best of em, but it’s really all about what level of abstraction you choose to define the components you innovate with and work to integrate into compelling experiences for users…  

A counter thesis then might be: User’s want to own their experiences… not necessarily their tools for acquiring them.

(via hapa)

Me: Was going to write a long, opinionated response, but then I decided I didn’t care that much. There are many different philosophies that people have when they buy tech (whether they know it or not). Some people care more about the experience they get, others care about the openness and hackability of the device, and so on. I expect the iPad to be extremely successful and spawn and number of copycat devices. Apple continues to prove to be very innovative and drive the industry and customer experience in new ways, which is great to see. However, the way in which they ensure the specific experience they target for customers, by locking down what people can do with the device, or even limiting what software you can load, goes completely against my personal technology beliefs, and is why I don’t buy anything from Apple. Hopefully someone else will come out with a similar device that meets my “openness” priorities that provides as good a user experience.