Jeff Jarvis: iPad turns us back into an audience
BuzzMachine’s Jeff Jarvis has an interesting take on the iPad, having used one for several days. The iPad is a step backward, he says: by focusing on native apps, and on consuming content (rather than Web interconnections and creating content), it turns us back into a passive audience.
“The most absurd, extreme illustration is Time Magazine’s app, which is essentially a PDF of the magazine (with the odd video snippet),” he writes at his blog. “It’s worse than the web: we can’t comment; we can’t remix; we can’t click out; we can’t link in, and they think this is worth $4.99 a week. But the pictures are pretty.”
The iPad is designed, he argues, not to advance personal computing in the age of the Web, but to frustrate it.
“The iPad is purposely handicapped, but it doesn’t need to be. See the German WePad, which comes with USB port(s!), a camera, multitasking, and the more open Android operating system and marketplace”
