Ok, hands-down, the hottest tech story of the day (month? year?) was Steve Jobs' iPad roll-out demonstration. The traffic from all those in the tech world who couldn't get in to see the show in person practically shut down the seemingly zillion live blogs that were covering the rock-star-ish event. (There was even a whiff of a rumor right before Jobs came out that maybe Bob Dylan was going to be part of the show.)
Now the story is like that world clock that keeps track of the growth of the global population. Blink and there are hundreds more sites and commentators that are dissecting every word and slide that Jobs and his co-presenters put up on the stage, some virtually pumping their fists in the air, and others pissing and moaning about all that the iPad doesn't appear to offer: No Adobe Flash? Yikes! No multi-tasking? OMG! No camera or video? WTF?
But I tend to agree with David Pogue of The New York Times who said in his blog:
"My main message to you, fanboys, is this: it's too early to draw any conclusions. Apple hasn't given the thing to any reviewers yet, there are no iPad-only apps yet (there will be), the e-bookstore hasn't gone online yet, and so on.... It may change an industry or two, or it may not. It may introduce a new category--something between phone and laptop--or it may not. And anyone who claims to know what will happen will wind up looking like a fool."
So here's what I want to say.
Wait for the iPad to come out--or at least for the key reviewers to get their hands on one--and in the meantime consider and get the word out on an unheralded tech story that also broke today. (Well, very very late last night. The news landed in my inbox at 11:41 pm.)
Nicholas Negroponte, MIT professor and co-founder and director of the MIT Media Laboratory, sent an email out to tens of thousands recalling his famed XO laptop. But this is not another Toyota accelerator story--Negroponte is recalling the XO laptops that Americans purchased back in 2007 as part of the Give One Get One project of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program so those computers can be put to a new use.
For a brief time a little over two years ago, every American who purchased an XO laptop to donate to an international recipient, received another one for his or her own use. As a result of the Give One Get One project, according to Negroponte, "75,000 laptops went to Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Cambodia, Oceania, the West Bank, and Haiti."
Today, Negroponte is asking those Americans to donate those computers (that can also be used as eReaders) back to OLPC--so they can be sent on to Haiti. Here's why, as Negroponte said in his email:
"75% of the schools in Port-au-Prince have been destroyed in the recent earthquake, but by good fortune, none of our Haitian team was hurt. They have spare parts and OLPC technical staff and teachers, and stand prepared to deploy these XOs. Because of the XO's unique features (sunlight readability, solar powered, water resistant, drop proof), it is also an ideal tool for relief work."
How cool is that?
Maybe, just maybe, those of you who can't resist weighing in on the game-changing potential of the iPad should consider what other features the Apple designers should have built into the new tablet: like maybe features that kids in developing countries need, such as mesh-networking, and a cheap and long-lasting battery that can be charged by a $12 solar panel (the XO battery itself costs $10 to replace and is good for 2,000 charges).
So what do you think? What does the world really need? More commentary on the iPad, or more attention to how to use cutting-edge technology to make the world a safer place?
(See David Pogue's original article and video on all the features of the OLPC.)
Sidebar: Engadget's Joshua Topolsky won my vote for best blogger of the Apple event--not just solid--and grammatical--summaries of what Jobs and the rest were saying, but crisp photos of the stage and the critical slides up behind them. All at a rate of multiple posts a minute, with only a few snarky comments along the way.)