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Mike Monteiro Fucking Gets It

By The Angry Drunk

Add Mike Monteiro to the list of people who actually understand the iPad. The money quote:

The people don’t want “tablet computers” with Ubuntu and OpenID (worst name ever for a product attempting broad acceptance). They could honestly give a shit whether it’s a closed or open system. And, let’s be really honest, they probably care as much about DRM as they do about baseball players juicing; by which I mean not very much at all. They want things to work most of the time, and be easy to fix when they don’t. And if the process by which it happens is “magic” they are totally cool with that.

They want the thing in the movies.

This is a concept that’s been banging around in my head for a while now. Ask most geeks if, given the opportunity, they would want a device like the PADD from Star Trek. Hell, ask them if they would want the whole Star Trek computing experience (“Computer, download all available pornography with the keywords, ‘asian,’ ‘big titties’ and ‘lesbian’”). I think most would say yes. But, when confronted with what well may be the genesis of that model, they run screaming back to 1992. It’s weird.

February 5th, 2010 | Keywords: , | View Comments - (Comments are closed)


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  • Gatesbasher
    Your last sentence says it all. If you had really queried any of the über-geeks up until 8 days ago, they would have said this was their inspiration to get into the field in the first place. Then, somebody hands it to them on a silver platter, and they're saying: "Oh, did I say Star Trek? I meant The Flintstones!"
  • I don't want to worry about drivers or if the flash memory is soldered correctly to enable fast-interleaved access. I don't give a fuck if it works with my refrigerator. I want it to work for me.

    Maybe people who bust their nut over an open system should try using a system that is more complete from the start. No system truly is but some do it a hell of a lot better than others and they do it in a way that does not take away from the user experience. Maybe that is the problem with "open system" people; their definition of a user experience is having to fuck with the system to make it work in the first place because it is incomplete or half-assed.

    For some software, I like expandability and options but it is often the case, as George Carlin once observed: "Too many choices, people. Not healthy." (From "Back in Town," 1996).


    Money quote:
    "Hell, ask them if they would want the whole Star Trek computing experience
    (“Computer, download all available pornography with the keywords, ‘asian,’
    ‘big titties’ and ‘lesbian’”). I think most would say yes."

    Absolutely! Make it so!
  • Moeskido
    I wanted that thing on the tv. Once I was clear about how the first iPhone interface actually worked, I congratulated TNG's Mike Okuda for the first consumer realization of his software-based interface design for TNG. I did so again the day the iPad debuted. Not bad for 1987.
  • IMO Apple should make a special edition where there's PADD written below the Apple logo, not iPad. They should also add an interface skin that makes it looks like LCARS.
  • Moeskido
    Once the SDK's in enough hands, I'm betting we'll seea dozen LCARS-style blinkie apps up on the App Store before you can say "shut up, Wesley."
  • You're probably right. I loved this episode of Family Guy.
  • When I saw the presentation I immediately thought: "Wil Wheaton will finally be able to scribble one something that isn't just glass with printed paper behind it."
    I commented on this on the AMB blog (ep #45) already, but I'll say it again:

    If I'm not much mistaken were entering an era (sounds pompous, but I couldn't find a better expression) of consumer friendly client-host-computing.
    This goes beyond the single tasking approach of the iPhone and iPad, where you can only have one app running at a time.
    You'll decide what you want to do, load up the client device with the needed data and work away.
    Or to use your example: You stuff the iPad up to the brim with porn, walk away from the host computer and start jerking off. When you're done, you delete the unnecessary data, and fill the iPad with stuff for your next task.
  • bkharmony
    When I saw the iPad, I said, "Finally - the Star Trek PADD!" What's funny (not ha-ha) is when the iPhone was introduced, I said, "Finally - the Star Trek Communicator!"

    Is Apple about to create the Phaser?
  • I'd buy one.
    As would everyone of the AMB crew, even though I wouldn't want to know what they'd do with it *cough… Arrington… cough*

    Also: http://gizmodo.com/5448955/no-seriously-a-worki...
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