[NTLK] OT: iPad vs. MS Courier: Sound Off

[Mr Jonathan Dueck]

I can't resist... Anyone else here a fan of hard SF writer Charles Stross? His book Accelerando is a really fascinating thinking-through of the social dynamics of such mind-machine interfaces. He tracks several generations of a particular family, as the relationship between human and machine becomes closer (and stranger) over time. Fascinating! What's most remarkable about the book, in my view, is that it becomes less and less possible to sympathize with the characters in subsequent generations--largely because they are no longer really "human" subjects, with just one instance of themselves running / acting.

But back to the subject. The WinCE thing puts me off, but I'm trying to wait 'til I both see what OS 4 brings to the iP*d devices (today), and to see if Microsoft delivers something neat finally. The videos, fictional though they may be, do look much more like something in the tradition of the Newton to me than the iPad, though I think there's a lot of Newton legacy in the iPad too, at least as it's been reviewed / commented on here.

Cheers,
Jon


      __________________________________________________________________
Looking for the perfect gift? Give the gift of Flickr! 

http://www.flickr.com/gift/