It would not have been appropriate. Nobody knows what an "LCARS Internet Media Reader" is. So I gave semantic to the article by quoting not the title, but the body of the page.
Obviously there was an interest in this article since it shot to #1 in mere minutes. I wonder if "LCARS Internet Media Reader" would had the same reaction.
Btw: I am in no way related to lcars - I found the website this morning, I liked it and I wanted to share. Sorry for wasting your time with sensationalism on a news-page.
"LCARS Internet Media Reader" would be been an accurate title but as you said, people might not know what that is (on the other hand, the target audience probably does).
"This is why you bought an iPad" is a completely information void sentence which also is not true for most people. Imagine if every story was posted with a title like this. Go to reddit.com to see how a site like that ends up. Not the content is upvoted but the title is. Classic linkbait.
What about "A Star Trek Pad inspired media aggregator for the iPad". That is to the point, objective and gives the reader a clear idea of what to expect. The essence of hyperlink titles.
I don't think you waste anyone's time. I found the site somewhat interesting and cool. :-)
I give you credit for "A Star Trek Pad inspired media aggregator for the iPad". In fact, in all honesty, I feel the pretty much the same about linkbait. I tried to think of a good name, but after like.. 10s in which I didn't come up with a good name, I quoted the body.
In retrospective I had three reasons for that:
* I wanted people to see the page (obviously)
* I think most of the intersection HN readers/iPad users would like it
* Non-iPad users tend to have trouble with all iPad/iPhone related content on HN, so the title actually is not the most controversial topic. The technology/vendor is.
Anyway, as I stated, I give you credit for the suggested title. I didn't come up with a good one quick enough and just gave up.
If I could, I would rename to your suggestion now.
Also, I learned something. I did not know the acronym LCARS for real. I saw all Star Trek series multiple times (except the original series). I own TNG the collectors edition. And I did not know the acronym. I only googled it, because you referenced that the target audience probably knows about it. Shame on me. Had I known, finding a more accurate title would have been easier.
I guess the submission has been flagged massively. 31 upvotes in 3h and it is leaving the frontpage. There are submissions on the frontpage with a third of upvotes in the same time.
Hah, it's crazy how the things we saw in science fiction are becoming a reality!
Interestingly enough, the (unattributed) background music in the video was played/recorded by Adrian Holovaty, one of the original creators of Django: http://www.holovaty.com/writing/mario-gypsy-jazz/
For Android there is a fun sensor and statistics viewer called Transcoder that has the same interface.