Not to mention that it shows an innate lack of understanding of writing/printing as a medium (i.e. an intermediary) on Jobs’ part.
As for the review, it’s impressively made, but for me it mostly shows the reviewer’s ability to cleverly combine various apps and plan out a “flow” of sorts in composing the video. While some of these apps are probably iPad-exclusive, there’s nothing in this saying it’s not possible on any (pen-enabled) computer.
Secondly, while I agree that flexible computerized learning tools are invaluable and will ultimately transform how we learn and how we transmit and store knowledge, the review’s obvious “Apple’s ideology will save us all” bent strikes me as frighteningly naïve, and is further underscored by the opening statement that “it’s easy to be cynical about technology[, but…]”. Just because a company’s founder was espousing a love for creativity and free knowledge forty years ago doesn’t change the fact that they’re currently forcing closed systems on users (and has really been doing so since day one), taking away users’ abilities to control their own property, and not least enforcing draconian policies and purposely making everything more difficult when it comes to service and repair of said products. This, of course, applies to many, if not most tech companies. The whole point is that Apple is no different, and continuing to portray them in this light just helps obfuscate this.
I don’t really know of any better alternatives (well, we have FairPhone for phones, but their hardware is way too outdated for most people), but that’s not really the point. The point is that we need to strip Apple of this mythical image that they’ve very successfully built for themselves, as it doesn’t do consumers any good whatsoever.
Is a $329 computer that handles pen input with aplomb a great deal? Sure, especially with a processor as fast as the A10 and the solid optimization that Apple is able to ensure with most apps. That the pencil is a $99 addition would be well worth mentioning in the review, though. As would the closed-off app library and the utter lack of serviceability (this is meant for school kids! Of course they’ll drop, throw, spill on and whatever else might damage these things!).
My main objection is still the evangelizing tone here, though. The world definitely doesn’t need less cynicism towards multi-billion-dollar tech companies and their constant hunt for more ways to sell us junk we don’t need, and to make us turn fully functional tools into e-waste! No way.
