Friday, January 29, 2010

Why Apple is the Death of Creativity

Alex Payne describes the iPad as a "Cynical" computing device - "This is why I say that the iPad is a cynical thing: Apple can’t – or won’t – conceive of a future for personal computing that is both elegant and open, usable and free."

It is one thing to keep anyone from programming on a phone; as Payne states, phone companies are notorious for putting the kaibosh on hardware openness. But why bother releasing a beautiful new portable computing device on which applications may only be distributed via Apple, the hardware manufacturer? I remember when Apple actually stood for creativity... A pretty case design is a poor replacement for artistic/engineering freedom.

I understand that many people don't want to deal with the guts of their computers, but what they don't understand is that these guts and tweakable options are how people learn to use computers in a creative way. I used to shudder of a world in which microsoft controlled the distribution of software, but their philosophy pales in comparison to the evilness of what Apple seems to want for the future.

2 comments:

  1. They're all reform liberal computer nerds. They want their "system" to do it for you. I particularly like how they've decided that the keyboard is "out". It's one of the more audacious ideas they've adopted yet.

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  2. The Onion seems to think that Apple's next step is a replacement of the keyboard with a click wheel. There's a youtube video around here somewhere about it. It's pretty good...

    "Here at Apple, we like to think that we're giving users features they don't even realize they want yet"

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