Apropos of this, Apple came along with the App Store on the iPhone, and showed the world there was a whole new way to distribute programs on a platform, instead of relying on people to go to individual developer sites. And now we’re some 3-billion-apps-sold later, with a whole host of pretenders to the throne in the form of the Android Marketplace, Ovi store (Nokia), and others for Blackberries, WinMos and Samsungs. There’s suddenly a profusion of app stores, even to the point where someone saw a market opportunity for a Mac OSX App Store (Bodega) – though not Apple, at least not yet =)

Someone at Google though clearly added two plus two and got five, because Google’s now launched its Google Apps Marketplace – you can now add non-Google web apps to your Google Apps For Your Domain.

Wow.

If you haven’t grasped the wow yet, think of this way: you could previous start up a small business, have the e-mail, calendaring, online doc sharing, and all those lovely Google services hosted for you; now you can also have CRM, or bug tracking, or project management, or invoicing, all available for your business, with a single login, in the “cloud” for access anywhere, hosted by Google. All those IT costs of running and managing servers for businesses whose primary business is not technology-based is now effectively optional. Wow.

As long as you trust Google.

Cost of two movie tickets to a standard session of latest hit: $36
Cost of a medium popcorn and two drinks: $16
(Optional) Internet booking fee to guarantee seats: $1 per ticket

At Home

Cost of a DVD on your giant flat-screen TV on your very comfy couch: 3 months from cinematic release date + $15
Cost of medium popcorn and multiple drinks: $3
(Optional) Seat guarantee: $0

Now, I don’t know about you, but is going to the cinema to see the latest hit really worth the extra $36 dollars? It’s starting to feel less and less like it is…

If You’re Going to Do Something, Do It Well.

At least, that’s what I think Apple’s motto is these days, even if it failed a couple of times in the past. Recently though they’ve had a string of hits, and one can’t help but be drawn into that myth. The iPad has to live up to this.

But: i…Pad? Are you serious? Did some geniuses in the marketing department get totally trashed one night when trying to decide a name and go, “wait wait I know it you guys, I have it… the iPad. It’s like the iPod, only it’s a pad! Am I a genius or what!”?

No, somewhat akin to the naming of the Jesus Phone, creativity only extended so far. Something which apparently caught them by surprise was the near instant sanitary ‘pad’ jokes that appeared on Twitter instantly.

I mean, I know I’m being petty when I say this, but even the word shapes of iPad and iPod are pretty damn similar; you would think they would do something which differentiated it immediately.

The iPad is a bit out there. It’s definitely not a phone, it’s not your average music player, and it’s not a computer by a long shot.

It’s not a tumor!

The thing is, phones everyone can understand that they are limited. Until the Blackberry and the iPhone, pretty much everyone just expected their phone to be able to do calls well, and SMS was a bonus, because who wanted to stab the 7 key four times for the letter s? (seriously: S is not that uncommon a letter!)

Some are calling this a gigantic iPod touch, but it’s not that either. While I’m sure it’ll play music well and be the best touchable music interface out there, just because of the size of the screen and Apple’s expertise in designing user interfaces, but that still doesn’t make it practical as a portable music device.

It doesn’t work as a phone, and I don’t think much more can be said there: it hasn’t got phone capabilities, I haven’t heard any mention of a mic, and there’s no video camera to enable a sweet ultraportable video conference/chat device. Just imagine for a second how sweet that would be.

And finally: it’s definitely, definitely not a computer… even though it does all these computer-like things.

Yes, it’s got all the underpinnings of a computer, but it’s one that’s permanently stuck in Kiosk mode, locked down and unable to perform general-purpose tasks on demand. This was acceptable on an iPhone or an iPod, because their primary purpose was Something Else, something other than Being a Computer, and the limitations of hardware were accepted.

Uh, Well, What is it good for?

An iPod is to play music on the go, an iPhone is to make calls. Everything else those two devices do is a fringe benefit.

The iPad doesn’t have a distinct independent purpose – its features are a “But wait, there’s more,” list. Its essential function appears to be to consume content, a convenient and highly portable device to feast on the latest from what I’m going to refer to collectively as Big Content.

While I’d quite happily have a 10 paragraph screed on the evils of Big Content and Apple’s 800-pound gorilla behaviour with these guys on board, here’s a simple way to put it: iBooks is currently US-only.

While Amazon will happily accept my credit card details and international shipping address for a hard form of a book, and ship it free if I spend enough, Apple and the publishers have determined, negotiated, planned, connived to deny an electronic copy, which costs next to naught to copy and “ship” instantly, will not be available here in Australia.

The point of that little example is to illustrate how the content distributors are dictating terms of use – of how and where and when a particular production is viewed, read or heard by a consumer. So much for the freedom of the internet abstracting away location and distance, or the idea that information wants to be free.

And it may be a long bow to draw here, but the difference between the Apple iPad and Hewlett-Packard’s recently announced Slate, or Lenovo’s dockable-touchscreen concept, is that the iPad is locked down and limited to an Apple-controlled sandbox; Apple dictates terms, what applications are available to install, what purposes the system will be used for and how the system can be extended. The HP Slate is a true computer; the iPad is a piece of consumer electronics.

But is that really such a bad thing?

No, it’s not. But there’s an asterisk there.

No, because it works for some, even most people. It works for the average consumer, who just wants the device to work, do some fun stuff, and be above all things easy to use.  Apple understands that, and they deliver – consistently, constantly. The consumer doesn’t want to see a buffering message or a loading screen when they go to play a song on their iPod, they just want it to play like a CD player would, or a cassette deck once did. Apple understands, and by locking down the iPad, gosh darnit, they deliver.

The big asterisk is that the iPad, in the form that it is sold, is not a general purpose computer, not the revolutionary tablet that everyone was waiting for from Apple. While Steve Jobs might be out to make the consumer electronics industry in His image – one button ought to be enough for anybody – there are plenty of people out there who would have killed for a couple of USB ports, the ability to multitask (you already have the gestures to switch apps on Mac!) and the freedom to install whatever you wanted, and hang the battery life or ultra-slim profile.

These are the people who resign themselves to a Slate, despite the lesser beauty. These are the people who bought UMPCs when Microsoft pushed the Origami concept. These are the people who tinker with Linux on weekends.

These are the creatives, once a group that was Apple’s near-exclusive domain. The people who create the content aren’t looking at the iPad as a revolutionary device because it’s too locked down, too constrained by decisions made to sacrifice complexity for wider consumer appeal. Oh sure, there will be Apps That Can Do That, but the apps are constrained by the programmer’s imagination, so the truly creative will have to articulate their vision to a programmer before they can create with their imagination.

And that is why the iPad isn’t getting universal adulation; in creating the iPad, Apple came close to an ideal device – light, instantly portable, beautiful form-factor, and quite clearly capable of doing quite a lot – but they locked it down in an effort to appeal with simplicity, and in doing so have missed the bar that was set.

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.

So I’d say Apple is creating something here which hasn’t really existed before, and will likely succeed in its own right, simply because it’s useful for doing quite a lot. The market for content consumption is vastly bigger than that for content creators, and I genuinely hope this device succeeds.

But… there will be those that find ways around the limitations placed on it, and there will be those that continue to hold a candle for the One True Tablet, awaiting the true coming of their messiah. And there will be those challenged by it, those who feel they must lift their game to compete, and hopefully those will find their edge in being general purpose.

The iPad may or may not quite suit your needs for now, but the only way to know if you’ll find it meeting your needs is to ask yourself: am I happy to consume content, or do I want to produce it too?

Supporting Material

• Mark Pilgrim tackles this from a true hacker’s perspective in Tinkerer’s Sunset
• Hitler embodies it better than anyone in this video.
• Scott Adams (Dilbert Man) goes in twice, picking up on the creativity angle, and the general lack of comparable products for Apple to excel against.
• Adam Pash of Lifehacker agrees too: “To say that “either a device is user friendly or it’s open” is a false dichotomy.”
• Steve Frank mentions the Pareto principle (80/20 rule), arguing that the iPad represents the next step to the “new world” of computing and that it’ll address 80% of users’ needs.
• Over on O’Reilly, Jim Stogdill compares the iPad to the Prius, noting how ‘tinkerability’ as it were has gone down in cars, and it was inevitable computers would follow the same pattern, but also highlight’s Apple’s control of the app landscape.

The Complaints Choir of Chicago

What a great idea!

“The price you pay is always wrong. If you sell then by definition you are lowest price in the market. If you buy, then your bid is the highest… [P]rice is what you pay while value is what you hope and pray for.”

That… is just depressing to think of. And why you have to take emotion out of major purchase decisions.

The Pentagon has responded… by deciding to screen all United States defence services for staff who are unstable and potentially violent.

Pause for effect.

You’re looking for people who are potentially violent… in the Army.

(sauce)

In some respects this now makes the site look much like any Wordpress site on the iPhone, especially since Wordpress.com has this plugin installed & enabled by default, but the benefit of the design and additional functionality is well worth the trade-off of appearance.

But before I do that… I have finished reading the book. And it is good. Later parts – indeed, parts that start to get discussed here – of the book are a… little more gripping, shall we say, and the idea of stopping after 6 chapters was blown out of the water. So here’s a few extra chapters of action from Randland…

Chapter 19 – 28

• Tuon and the Seanchan give me the utter shits. The level of ritual and formality in that society, it’s a wonder their army can do anything for all the bowing and scraping they must do to those “above their station”.
  • … on the other hand, we’re finally seeing the White-Tower-gets-hit-by-Seanchan prophecy come together, and in a reasonably sensible way (i.e. Seanchan don’t have to magically conquer everything between where they are now to TV.
• MAAAAAAAAT! Mat is back!
  • Yay!
  • This makes me Happy.
  • Apparently there’s a bunch of people out there unhappy with Mat’s new funny bone. I say bollocks, I love a character who can say “Saidared,” and cause raised eyebrows. Freaking brilliant.
  • Err, nothing much happens when he’s first introduced, save a mention of Ogier that reminds me how long it’s been since we’ve seen Loial or other Ogier…
• Perrin and Faile re-appear but do nothing but angst. Time to get a move on!
• Semi is freed by Shaidar Haran, and then goes nutso on Rand…
• … fucking him up good and proper…
• … and now he’s done what?! Well, Semi is out of the picture at least.
• I suppose you could see this coming if you were reading the right hints, but that doesn’t make it any better.
  • Yes that’s right, I won’t spoil exactly what he did here, because this really is one of the most powerful scenes in the book.
  • In terms of Rand’s character, this is a major Fuck. moment… in terms of the book, it’s a logical progression.
• Rand promptly tells Cadsuane he’s sick of her and that he “will kill her the next time he sees her face.” Minor cheer for comeuppance for most uppity Aes Sedai character ever.
• Gawyn reaches the Rebel camp, gets sat down by Bryne
  • While he’s wandering in he discovers the Aes Sedai who was stripped of the shawl amongst the washer women, and they bring her to the Aes Sedai later.
  • You’ve got to wonder though, with a camp full of Aes Sedai keen on signing up whoever they can get to the novice book why they didn’t ‘feel’ this lady already, and why it took Gawyn to discover her?
• Sheriam is going to get pwnd.
• Egwene manages to be a prisoner with dignity, and is still in a position of influence. This bodes well for her fight.
• Avi finally, finally gets the guts up to ask why she’s being forced to do useless stuff. The reason? Wise Ones don’t get pushed around by nobody.
  • And how do you instil that lesson? By, uh, pushing around the apprentices until they push back. Uh, good learning strategy that.
• Mat chapter again! Mat wanders into a small town for supplies. Hmm, any bells being rung re a certain Perrin-in-a-small-town scenario?
• Here’s why: The townsfolk turn into madmen by night, ripping each other limb from limb. But! They wake safe in their beds the next morning. Bubbles of EVIIIILLLL.
• No I still don’t know why we’re being shown these sequences proving the existence of bubbles of evil dammit.

And so we get to the thick of the book, and the plot is definitely in gear in more than one spot – Egwene is past the point of no return, and Rand appears to be approaching his own quite rapidly. Tune in next week to find out more!

Anyway, the looks on people’s faces when they see me reading is priceless.

Also one particular advantage of having such a large book is that others who are also interested can spot it a mile away. Already I’ve found someone at work interest, someone at a random food court, etc – and it’s always fun to discuss the series and see everyone’s take on things.

Enough blathering! Onwards!

Part the Third: Chapters 13 – 18

Well well well. I really did speak too soon on the topic of plot threads not moving at a sufficiently hurried pace, because suddenly things have kicked up a notch.

I hesitate to add “relatively,” because I know one of the hallmarks of the Wheel of Time has, since probably the third or maybe fourth book, extensive and detailed descriptions of characters and situations, to the point where you could easily construct some of the outfits the characters wear down to their very embroidery.

I guess the high-water mark for the pace was in book 1, when the characters and threads were simple and tightly bound together – indeed, it was about a third of the way into the book before we got a perspective on things other than Rand himself, when the party was separated.

In some ways the complaints of a lack of speed boils down to that comparison – the complex story doesn’t move as fast as the simple story the series started with. A comment in here indicates that at least one major plotline has only moved two or three months since The Path of Daggers, which was released four books and, oh, ELEVEN YEARS AGO.

In amongst these chapters though, roughly a third of the way (chapter-wise) into the book too, it’s clear now that the story is getting a head of steam. I suppose the timeline isn’t as important as the events that take place, so it’s starting to get to a faster schedule. So let’s see what’s happened:

• Gawyn finally learns that he’s fighting against his own one-true-love in supporting the Tower Aes Sedai (TAS), though he still assumes Egwene is being sock-puppetted and it’s up to him to do some rescuin’.
• We also learn here that the TAS have the Travelling trick, and they’re using it actively. Which spells a relatively quick end to be coming to the siege.
• Cadsuane knows how to hide stuff! Put it in a box with a One Power burglar alarm! Hmm, this is going to go well.
• Confirmed: Rand is linked to Moridin.
• Avi’s unexplained punishments are getting annoying to me too, not just the character. This whole ji’e'toh thing is beyond what is necessary now… can someone explain it?!
• Egwene finally has her show-down with Elaida, though perhaps not in the way expected.
  • Fuck yes.
  • Egwene can see a bigger picture, and she’s making an effort to try to show that to others. Elaida on the other hand appears to be getting pettier and pettier. This alone makes Egwene a better Amyrlin, which starts to become evident when…
  • The showdown finally comes when Elaida attempts to humiliate and show her dominance of Egwene in front of 5 Sitters. Egwene naturally doesn’t even give a glimpse of giving in, drawing Elaida’s ire and finally the confrontation we all knew was coming plays out in a dramatic and conclusive way.
  • This is one of the most brilliant scenes so far, at least in the book if not the series. The tension ratchets up and up, and you can vividly imagine the setting in your head as it takes place.
  • I wondered for a moment whether this was RJ or Sanderson writing, but there’s something distinct about it and if Sanderson touched it, it wasn’t so it was obvious or distinct from RJ’s style.
  • At the end of this chapter, things are looking pretty damn bleak for the girls outside….
• Cadsuane finds the key to getting Semi to talk is humiliation and treating her without reverence: giving her a good spanking.
  • Not much is said about how much/what exactly, if anything, she reveals, however.
• Word is out to the rebel (Salidar) Aes Sedai (SAS) that the TAS have travelling. This is going to cause… issues.

The story is starting to move; I still think at times it’s got an ability to wander off on dead-ends, but you get the feeling alongside the characters that the end times are coming, and soon.

The other thing I like about this book particularly is that the perspectives are kept relevant: there’s no page or two of different perspectives on the same event, or of minor characters wandering in the background to establish that the world has complex plots: we know this by now. Tight focus is Good.

Ed note: If I’m perfectly honest, I’ve actually finished the book already and this is going back over it to see how much I can remember. Bits may be a little blurry, and I may resort to a re-read to sort it out.