The TV Show on SyFy called Eureka has a little communication device that everyone uses to pretty much do everything from chat with friends to do work.

Well, the new iPod Nano is a little square with multitouch functionality and a bunch of other features. It looks pretty nice. It is hard to imagine having an iPhone and that, and an iPad, and an iPod Touch [no contract].

I dunno.

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1. Is the Apple Tablet the new Video iPod?

Sorry, but Cory Doctorow must think that everyone is or should be a hacker god, capable of writing a couple thousand words on any tech gadget and not just consume the product as intended.

He went off on BoingBoing today about why you shouldn’t buy an iPad, and he let everyone know he wasn’t going to be buying one either. Which is fine. But I think Doctorow has become the FOX political pundit of the tech world. Like Glenn Beck, he thinks that everyone was peaches and cream back in the day [I'm from that day], and people could do what they want with their gadgets and they owned them.

Sure. That was in the infancy, and the term hacker had a meaning beyond being a computer penetration expert [or script kiddy] and that is what we have hear. Doctorow uses things like the Maker Manifesto where you don’t own anything unless you can tool around inside the guts of the gadget. Frankly, it appeals to a certain demographic, or more precisely, psychographic. That mindset that says, HACK IT OPEN, see what makes it tick, and if you manage to put it back together with a few screws left over, it means you are more efficient.

Times are a’changin Cory, change with them or you just grow old and keep repeating the mantra “I remember when” which is what this article pretty much is all about. People who want more, will find that outlet, probably just Netbooks. But if the market swings towards a particular trend, it means that the people want it. And they want it in that form factor to a greater degree than us hackers.

Frankly, it is up to the people, in large quantities, to shift the direction. Keeping comics in paper form is nothing but a Luddite sensibility. And a supplier will supply if the market is there. But if I can carry around my entire National Geographic magazine collection on my iPad, damnit, I’m going to. I prefer it that way. I can get everything on this little gadget.

Seems strange that a technophile would shy away from innovation and something new. Doctorow’s contrarian tendencies towards technology seem to be at odds with the way that some people perceive him. Like a younger Dvorak, I’m expecting him to give a boisterous “BAH!” and cross his arms.

I know Doctorow is hell bent on getting rid of DRM, I’m game for that. I’d love to share my books, and software, even resell it to someone else when I’m done with it. But, there has been found a happy medium with Apple iTunes products. Low cost, and ease of consumption. I’ll easily pay a $1 for an application I can’t trade. But I’ll shy away from anything more expensive unless it is really good.

How about we give the hyperbole a bit of a rest. Apple is innovating in a market that would rather have you use CD’s and be happy with copper land lines. They aren’t so much in bed with the entertainment industry and phone companies as they are poking them with a stick when THE CONSUMER announces they aren’t happy with the situation. AT&T bolstered their network and Apple tweaked their phone to make it easier on the bandwidth [at least, they say so], and the entertainment companies are opening up their iron fist to DRM free versions.

Okay, I’m done. I can’t think about it anymore. I get the feeling that Doctorow wants a giant technological drum circle. I’m pretty sure that he wouldn’t be as well off if everyone thought the same way. He is filling a niche, the technological contrarian, or at least protected technology contrarian. A lot of people simply don’t care.

Crusade on Cory, Crusade on.

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I understand interoperability. I understand content sharing. I understand the DESIRE for tethering. I just don’t get why people expect it, or find it newsworthy that iPad tethering is not going to be an option. At least, not for the foreseeable future. From Engadget [which my spellchecker says isn't a word, but obviously it is since it is on the Internet] to 9to5Mac to Techmeme which probably has assisted in the idea becoming a meme in the first place.

Techmeme has the following, which has grown by 2 or 3 while I was typing this.

The Silicon Alley Insider post is 9to5Mac actually, and Engadget looks to have been caught by the Techmeme search. The rest reiterate the email message. Really, the only thing I’m amazed by, is that Steve Jobs… the CEO of Apple and what people believe is the soul and spirit of the Apple brand… responds to an email from some average Joe in Sweden. I can’t get someone from the local McDonald’s to respond to a ringing phone, I’d never expect the CEO of a multibillion dollar company to respond to an email. Even if it does consist of 3 characters. I wonder if there was a proxy there. I can hear it now:

Proxy wearing Red Shirt: Uhm, uh, uhm, Mr. Jobs? King Sir? Someone humbly requests the merest of drips from your knowledge fountain.
Jobs: I got an email?
Proxy wearing Red Shirt: Yes. A mortal in Sweden is asking if the iPad will tether to the iPhone.
Jobs: [disapproving look]
Proxy wearing Red Shirt: Thank you God King of Technology. ::types “No.” with equal contempt on iPhone::

Another thought, the interaction between customer and Jobs is identical to my interactions with MBA professors during my graduate school. I ask a long question, and get a single word response. Seldom did I get anything more than a sentence.

So, what was the full question? Will the iPad tether to the iPhone if the iPad is the WiFi only model. I don’t think it is a good question, it is answered in the array of models being offered. Wifi = LAN access, 3G = Cell access. No, it doesn’t tether. Why? Because you have devices already available to get you online. The Laptops get you online, and don’t tether to the iPhone because people will molest the system and bring it to its knees for $20 a month. The form factor is already made with options to allow it to get online… WiFi through your gateway and out to the net, or the 3G model which allows you to get online for a small no-contract fee. I can’t believe anyone would even bother asking that question. I’ll digress about tethering now,  you can’t expect any performance value from using your 17″ MacBook Pro through your iPad or your iPad through your iPhone and onto the Internet. If so, use your iPad and purchase the needed model. The screen is large enough. Do your business, and then send whatever you are doing to another device through email or through the media card dongle [which I hate, but I'll take that over a bulky, problematic connector that embiggens the device. One device can not do everything that everyone wants or it will have to be powered by a fusion reactor and a really long [wait for it]… tether.

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