Tag Apple

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Steve Jobs, James W. Carey and the Museum of Fail

Oct 11, ’11 12:42 PM

Sometime earlier this year I was joking with someone about curating a Museum of Fail: All the things that were supposed to save journalism. I shared this idea with Dave Cohn, who was all about it, and this post began as an email to him.

I was reading yet another post about Jobs, but this one caught my eye because it was talking about disabilities. They excerpted from a Wired interview:

Jobs: I’m sorry, it’s true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We’re born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It’s been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much — if at all.

These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I’m not downplaying that. But it’s a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light — that it’s going to change everything. Things don’t have to change the world to be important. (Emphasis mine)

His comment reminded me of when we hail yet another technology as the savior of journalism. Meanwhile, part one of Jobs’ comment brought to mind James W. Carey, who had a similar observation about journalists (and life) in the changing environment:

Life is a conversation. When you enter it, it’s already going on. You try to catch the drift of it. You exit before it’s over. That is the best single definition of human living I have ever encountered. We are born and all these bloody adults are talking. We stand around saying, what the hell are they talking about? And how can I get into the conversation? For years they say, shut up and eat your peas! Then, finally, you catch the drift of it and at some point you say, “Oh my God! When I die the conversation’s going to be all over! It’s going to end!” Then you realize people will pause for one moment and say, “Goodbye!” But the argument won’t stop.

— James W. Carey, Speaking on Public Journalism

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Is technology the new fashion?

Apr 1, ’10 8:58 PM

While on the evening bike ride last night, I caught a sliver of a conversation between two friends.

“It’s cyclical,” one of them said.

They were discussing analog’s comeback. Admittedly, it’s hardly enough to make a blip in the general population, but the demand for rotary phones, typewriters, lomos, lo-fi and other older technologies is becoming a trend.

“Cyclical.” <CLICK> Is technology the new fashion?

Apple’s done an amazing job turning technological goods into accessories. One might go so far as to say fashion accessories. There is an intentional visual difference between generations of Apple laptops, iPhones and iPods. The entrance of the candy shelled iMacs was game-changing, pinpointing technological goods to the year they were released.

It goes without saying that current fashion trends are usually a blend of trendsetting aspirations and inspirations from the past. My mom and I are about 35 years apart, yet I still wear several of her pieces, from clothes to jewelry, every other day. Vintage, retro, antique, shabby chic, however you frame it, it’s plausible that fashion peaked at one point and now draws from its strongest successes.

There have even been points where fashion and technology have elided. At SXSWi last year, a panel briefly discussed how HP had employed fashion designers to clad their notebooks with style. Every other year since 2008, new designs have debuted each year at New York’s Fashion Week (for images of Vivienne Tam’s latest clutchbook, click here).

However, it could be argued that the difference between fashion and technology is that fashion has peaked. Capes, empire waists and Jackie O, today’s fashion is turning a fresh eye on the tried-and-true. There is some revival of old technology, but whether tech will also peak is anyone’s guess. I imagine if it did, it would be in one of those doomsday scenarios. However, one thing’s for certain: From the moment man “invented” fire, technology has been on a long trajectory.

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The Medium: Can you say oopsy-daisy?

Apr 3, ’09 6:52 PM

mediumlogo_vhI’m generally a fan of Virginia Heffernan, The Medium columnist for The New York Times. I geeked out when I heard she’d be interviewing open source graffiti artist James Powderly at SXSWi. I may have had star dust in my eyes.

Since I began following Ms. Heffernan, I’ve consistently thought she makes astute observations about our intimacy with screens—phones, computers, Kindle, television—and what’s on them, even if those relationships are shrouded in a jumble of words and alliteration. Although her pieces are completely syncopated against the release date of the subjects she writes about, she always manages to illumine them in a new way. But lately, I’ve had this dreadful feeling that Ms. Heffernan’s work is going downhill; she posts less often, rarely engages her readers and her writing and issues are out in left field. Case in point: today’s article entitled I hate my iPhone.

Ms. Heffernan spends much of her piece blathering about the iPhone‘s 2-D keyboard, it’s cheekiness, the cold and lifeless materials and poor reception. My biggest beef with Virginia is that she may have brought the nearly 500 comments upon herself, many of which label her as a technophobe. And can I say she doesn’t deserve it?

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