Kindling an Interest in Apple

Baker, Nicolson. “A New Page” The New Yorker. Condé Nast Digital
August 2009. Web. 28 Jan. 2009.

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In his article A New Page, Nicholson Baker examines the emerging market of the digital distribution of books, with special attention on Amazon’s Kindle line of e-readers. In his piece Baker questions the basic necessity and quality of the various editions of the Kindle. Baker shares his own personal experience in purchasing a Kindle and is somewhat disappointed with the device. After unwrapping the Kindle from its elaborate packaging Baker finds that the screen is not at all what he had expected. Baker writes, “The problem was not that the screen was in black-and-white; if it had really been black-and-white, that would have been fine. The problem was that the screen was gray. And it wasn’t just gray; it was a greenish, sickly gray. A postmortem gray.” Baker brings to light a technical weakness that runs counter the assumption that e-readers (at least newer models) should be just as visually appealing as reading a standard book. When Baker does eventually get past the “sickly gray” and finds that it is possible to read on a Kindle, he finds other concessions readers will have to make. Baker writes “Photographs, charts, diagrams, foreign characters, and tables don’t fare so well on the little gray screen.” The fact that images such as photographs and maps are blurred or are absent from some Kindle editions of books is a problem. Distractions such as these do not help a reader to become lost in a book. Baker also finds issues with the auto-reader function, a fading of the screen in direct sunlight that causes the reader to have to reload the same page multiple times and entire articles missing from the Kindle Edition of the New York Times. Baker writes that in spite of all of the aforementioned issues and a few disappointed consumers, the Kindle has a large and devoted following. This success is not likely to go unchallenged as other companies such as Barnes and Nobel, Sony, and Apple move into the realm of e-books. In fact Baker advocates bypassing the Kindle and by using an IPod Touch or an iPhone as an e-reader instead. In the end Baker finds he is able to get past the hype/headache of the Kindle and gets lost in one of its e-books.

After considering the various pros and cons, Baker makes a rather astute observation about the Kindle’s creator and manufacturer Amazon, “Amazon, with its listmania lists and its sometimes inspired recommendations and its innumerable fascinating reviews, is very good at selling things. It isn’t so good, to date anyway, at making things.” The Kindle has been very successful and yet it is not the replacement of print and paper. Baker has illustrated in the article that just because this innovative piece of technology may be popular, the technology is still in its infancy. One of the current limitations of the Kindle’s technology was exposed when Baker shined a light on a number of books that he had couldn’t download, simply because they weren’t available. While it is unrealistic to assume that every book should be available in the e-book format, it is a limit that is not as tight at a local library, for example. The Kindle has been the most recognizable format for using e-books, but Baker has shown the level of quality still has a long way to go. My reading of A New Page seems to have been especially timely with the unveiling of Apple’s iPad. In his article Baker was almost prophetic in his endorsement of the iPhone as an easier to read alternative to the Kindle. Baker writes, “The nice thing about this machine (the iPod Touch/iPhone) is (a) it’s beautiful, and (b) it’s not imitating anything. It’s not trying to be ink on paper.” One of the fundament flaws Baker saw in the Kindle was the fact that the screen was jarring to his eyes; not so, with the iPod Touch. Even before the revelation of the iPad, the iPod Touch was delivering a comparable if not superior format to read e-books. Baker’s article clearly points to the fact that the innovation in e-books would not come from pale imitations that are of dubious quality but from technology that would focus on accurate representations. In A New Page Baker takes his readers through his experiences with the Kindle in an evenhanded way; we are neither riled to abandon print and paper books nor are we discouraged to seek the electronic representation of them.

No Strings Attatched

As I look at the various intersections of technology and culture, I begin to think of my favorite episode of the Twilight Zone, To Serve Man. In the episode, a race of aliens, the Kanamits, come to earth and share the “fruits of their knowledge” with humanity. Mankind is all too eager to accept the technological advancements with little thought given to potential dangers. I see this paralleled today in our own culture; are we just as eager to welcome technology into our lives, giving little thought to what the consequences may be. In this blog I hope to explore America’s use of technology to be constantly entertained via IPods, cell phones, gaming devices, etc. I would also like to explore the digitalization of media (music, films, and literature) with little concern for the impact it may have on the quality of the media. There is also the exponential growth of videogames over the past forty years and the inevitable impact that has been made on society. These are just a few of the main issues I hope to deal with, in just asking whether the fruits of technology’s knowledge is worth what it asks for in return.

At this point allow me clarify, my purpose in this blog is not to spread doom and gloom; I just want to look at just a few aspects of technology and culture with an analytical eye. I wish to cover America’s use of technology as entertainment because while I believe that IPods, cell phones, and gaming devices can be useful in moderation, I find that people use digital devices to escape the utter horror of being bored. I also want to cover the digitalization of media because while the digital distribution of media has its benefits there is still the matter of piracy. In particular the digitalization of books; while on the surface an appealing idea, is it worth making books intangible? I also desire to cover the impact of videogames on American culture, where on one hand you can have an emerging form of story telling and on the other hand videogames can cause people to miss out on meaningful life experiences. In regard to technology and culture I don’t want to appear to demonize or fear technology’s impact on our daily lives; I simply want to ask a few questions before I reach out my hands.