

Impact of 'iSlate' Could Rival iPhone - physcab
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/arts/04iht-design4.html?hp

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houseabsolute
"Could rival" articles are a great example of what's wrong with newspapers
these days. A quick paragraph by paragraph breakdown of the content of this
article should be enough to show anyone what's wrong with it:

P1: People are excited about Apple's rumored tablet computer.

P2: People were excited about Apple's rumored phone.

P3: The iPhone was successful. (Plus an irrelevant point about Apple's
controlling nature.)

P4: Bloggers are excited about a possible tablet computer, but Apple has
failed sometimes as well.

P5: Irrelevant discussion of other possible industrial design releases this
year.

P6: Nothing.

P7: Nothing. (The entire content of this paragraph is an incorrect statement
that tablet computers have been becoming more popular since the XO laptop. The
article's author has confused netbooks with tablets. It's also confused the XO
computer with the design concept the OLPC organization recently created that
they will soon fail to implement.)

P8: Continued confusion of the tablet and netbook markets.

P9: The rumored tablet computer from Apple will be able to do stuff that you
would expect a tablet computer to be able to do.

P10: The market for eReaders needs a messiah. (If I were being more snarky, I
might say that the writer has never met an Amazon Kindle owner.)

P11: An extremely popular eReader would improve the demand for content
normally used by eReaders.

P12: The rumored tablet will need a corresponding store.

P13: Nothing. (Plus an incorrect point about Apple's sustainability. Whether
she means environmental or economic, there's no evidence to support either
point of view.)

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foulmouthboy
Re: P7-P9. I don't think the author is confused at all. It seems to me that
those in the market for a netbook would strongly consider a tablet as an
alternative (if a tablet wasn't already in their consideration).

In a year or two, I could see somebody's technology collection consisting of
smartphone/laptop|desktop/netbook|tablet. I have a harder time imagining the
average consumer being interested in both a netbook and a tablet.

~~~
houseabsolute
My problem with it is that tablets have not become significantly more popular
since 2005, which indicates to me that she's confusing the two.

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replicatorblog
I think this is a great example of why print media should go out of business.
This article contains no new information and no useful analysis. The author
profits on the backs of all the people who have tracked down rumors. By virtue
of her position at the NYT she can be the vessel by which this data is
communicated to the masses.

~~~
tptacek
This is the same publication that broke the NSA wiretap story; it operates 20+
foreign bureaus and has won more Pulitzers than any other paper. But, yes,
let's shut it down for running linkbait about Apple.

~~~
replicatorblog
I meant "should" in the sense that it is a good thing they rapidly being
eclipsed by newer types of journalism, not that they should actively be shut
down.

"Sure they have a ton of Pulitzers." Given that blogs have only become serious
competitors to print media in the last 5 or so years this shouldn't be a
surprise, and it certainly isn't a defense.

"They maintain lots of foreign bureaus." Again this is awesome, except now we
can just get the info from residents of these areas.

"They broke the NSA wiretap story". Sure and folks on the internet broke
"Document-gate" when people were trying to frame GWB.

I'm not against the NYT, but I am against them just slurping up content from
the web, adding no value and then passing it off to their customers without
credit to the original sources. I'm really against the factual errors brought
up in the top post.

~~~
tptacek
I find these comparisons amusing. The NSA wiretap story documented
unconstitutional malfeasance by one of the largest, most secretive
organizations in the US government. The "GWB was framed" story involved
knowing the typeface used in a fake document circulated by a private citizen
and inadvertantly authenticated by a private news organization.

Similarly, I'd like to know who in Darfur is going to file the CNN "i-Report",
or how many 140-character "Tweets" it's going to take to document the next
genocide.

I'm not in favor of the NYT, but I think I have a decent bead on what the "new
journalism" has in store for us (breathless promotion of context-free Flip
Mino clips of Iranian protests on Andrew Sullivan's blog; TechCrunch), and I'm
confident that most of its advocates don't _really_ understand that
@BreakingNews actually gets its news from big companies that pay people to
actually report.

~~~
replicatorblog
I'm glad I can amuse you. Another example would be the "Citizen Reporters" who
documented fraud committed by ACORN by going under cover with a flip cam. The
NYT did almost no substantive reporting on the matter. I'm sure you'll try to
write that off by saying it is just righty propaganda, a tacky spectacle, etc.

However Al Franken won by a razor thin margin in a state with active Acorn
voter registration efforts. Might they have been the difference that got him
elected? Now his vote makes a massive overhaul to our health care system
possible. I'm not sure if reshaping 20% of our economy is on par with
"documented unconstitutional malfeasance by one of the largest, most secretive
organizations in the US government", but on a day to day basis it will
certainly impact more people, in more significant ways.

And yes I can see where you could stress test this argument successfully.
Congrats. Take great satisfaction in citing the supremacy of of a 100+ year
old medium with an established business model that has managed to keep a
slight edge on a 5 year old medium that is still getting its legs.

~~~
tptacek
You're not doing the "new journalism" any favors with the examples you're
choosing to advocate with. The O'Keefe ACORN video you're talking about has
been roundly criticized for editing out details that exculpate ACORN staffers.
The fact that O'Keefe probably had a real story to chase down makes it _worse_
, because his sloppy efforts --- which by his own admission mix "attack-
attack-attack" political tactics with reportage --- make it impossible to talk
about ACORN without talking about the credibility of the reporters.

You seem eager to talk about politics. I don't care what your politics are. I
care that we're exchanging The Wall Street Journal (35+ foreign bureaus) for
Twitter, TechCrunch, and the YouTube exploits of DailyKos and Malkin
"diarists".

~~~
replicatorblog
I'm not eager to talk politics, however most big news stories share that
subject so it's hard not to. In fact, my original criticism of "old media" and
all the bureaus and trappings that lend it legitimacy, was that it had gotten
lazy and shallow. This seems to be your quarrel with "new media". I'll
reiterate my original point. I don't like repoters who write factually
incorrect articles that are read by millions when there are better original
sources.

I would like high quality journalism be it new or old.

Nary a partisan statement to be found:)

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imd
It's interesting that both the Newton and Cube--which the article correctly
points out as unsuccessful financially--still have cult followings. From what
I've read, the Newton--which is, I believe, the first PDA--did many things
better than any PDA since, including the iPhone.

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runn1ng
The author called App store a "successful exercise in design democracy", to
which I can only say "what?".... the App Store is anything but democracy.

