Of iPad and the elusive "third category"

Apple's chief says iPad will sit comfortably in the space between smart-phones and laptops -- except that such space probably doesn't exist | IslamOnline.net

Whenever Steve Jobs takes the stage, he’s guaranteed to amaze and disappoint, regardless of what he has up his sleeve.  The Wednesday uncovering of Apple’s long-anticipated, feverishly-rumored tablet-like iPad was no exception.  Almost immediately after Apple’s chief took the wraps off the new gadget, the blogosphere was humming with mutterings: too expensive; no slot for memory expansion; no removable battery; no physical keyboard; and no camera either.

As for the other camp, the immediately-amazed — judging by the volume and tone of comments on popular technology websites such as Engadget and Gizmodo — they’ve plenty to appreciate in the iPad.  That includes the expansive 10-inch brilliant screen, the familiar interface (resembling, but not copying, that of iPhone and iPod Touch), the compatibility of the whole repertoire of iPhone apps, and the new iBooks app that draws books from five major book publishers in an iTunes-like interface.

In Avatar, the medium eclipses the message

Avatar is a runaway success apparently because of its cutting-edge technology, but it's not immediately clear whether that spells a boon or a bane for the future of film | IslamOnline.net

Like other films by James Cameron (of Titanic and Terminator), Avatar strives to please most everyone in the movie-going crowd: a tale of an epic struggle of "noble savages" against the much more technologically advanced, but arrogant and short-sighted, invaders from Earth, with a plot sprinkled with a love story, a journey of self-discovery, a greedy corporation, and plenty of not-so-subtle pro-environment and anti-Iraq war references.

More convenience, less privacy

The Web offers a seductive bargain: you will get more of it if you will stop being nervous about your privacy | IslamOnline.net

Privacy online is like no other privacy.  That is not because the Web is a wild west full of sinister people bent on breaking into your digital lives (though, of course, some such criminals indeed roam the cyberspace). Rather, privacy on the web is a category of its own because of the peculiarity of the Web as a communications medium.

That peculiarity has two main features. One is the Web as the ultimate storage medium. The other is the Web as a medium that has given rise to a new breed of highly diverse service providers whom we entrust with vast amounts of information about ourselves. Think of Google, Yahoo, or Facebook.