What is it with tech journalists who are so eager to find fault with new developments in technology? If manufacturers are making important advances, like the iPad and 3D TV, we should be celebrating them.
I hear many critics of the Apple iPad describing it as an ‘over-inflated iPhone’ or (as it doesn’t make calls) an over-inflated iPod Touch.
Yes, this is accurate, but the tone with which these unenlightened critics make their comparisons implies that Apple has committed some kind of awful crime.
Ask many iPhone or iPod Touch users what they do with their handsets and they’re likely to say watching video, surfing the web and writing emails. And each of these tasks would be vastly improved on a 9.7″ screen rather than a 3.5″ – all that’s compromised is portability.
Give us intelligent criticism
And the portability question only comes down to individual preference and personal usage. A farmer wouldn’t want to use a Ferrari to pull a plough, but he couldn’t argue that a tractor beats the Italian sports car when it comes to road driving. They each meet different needs – despite doing similar jobs.
Apple has its disproportionate share of fanboys, but there are many journalists who lap up the opportunity of big corporation whacking. Likening the iPad to an iPhone or iPod, however, is merely an accurate comparison rather than a devilishly well-informed criticism.
And on the subject of ill-informed put-downs, I’m getting pretty tired of producing a false smile each time I hear complaints about 3D TV. It’s hardly clever to say that all one has to do to experience 3D is live in the real and very three dimensional world. Come on – do these haughty critics see blue Avatars day in, day out trying to save the world?
I wonder if the heritage of such criticism included the damning of the National Portrait Gallery when it opened by exclaiming that if all you wanted to do was look at people, then you may as well just walk the streets.
Technology’s future is bright
The iPad and 3D TV are huge strides forward in consumer technology and I’m all the more excited that they both arrived in the same year. In years to come the iPad may fold away into your pocket and 3D TV might have developed into holographic TV.
Rather than criticising these bold moves by consumer electronic manufacturers, I think we should be raising our hats to them.
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