Like any devout follower, writer and performer Mike Daisey was reluctant to ask questions about his favorite religion—the church of Apple. A self-professed gadget freak and number one fan of the ubiquitous technology company, Daisey’s reluctance is probably familiar to all of us.  In his most recent monologue on NPR’s popular series, This American Life, Daisey renews the debate about “fair trade” electronics by traveling to China and investigating working conditions at Apple’s main manufacturing plant, Foxconn.

Listen to his story here.

Is anyone truly surprised by what he found? Should it come as a shock that while hundreds of thousands of Americans are perusing the latest gadgets at this week’s Consumer Electronic Show, children as young as 12 are working full-time in China in conditions so poor their manufacturing plants are surrounded by suicide-thwarting nets? Read more…

You know, we often talk intergenerationally about what technologies did and didn’t exist “in my day.” It’s kind of the modern parenting version of walking to school “uphill, in the snow, both ways… BAREFOOT.” We tell the children around us how lucky they are that they have the miraculous digital toys that are widely available today, and joke with other adults about raising kids who never had a plug-in telephone in their house.

But rarely do we think about this topic from the child’s perspective. Here, a toddler shows us what happens when high-tech babies and old media collide…

Despite my position as the head of a graduate program in digital media, I’ve always held on to a plethora of print (a.k.a. “dead tree”) newspaper and magazine subscriptions. They’re usually much cheaper than their digital counterparts, and I liked the often serendipitous browsing experience — not to mention the disconnected zen of knowledge absorption.

However, as my affection continues to grow for the ergonomics, usability and convenience of my iPad 2 and Motorola Xoom, I’m resorting increasingly to the excellent tablet versions of The Economist and The New York Times. But this morning clinched it for the tablets. The headline on the rolled up, thrown-at-my-porch edition of The Wall Street Journal read: “Osama Bin Laden, Terror Mastermind Is Reported Dead” (in the smallest middle third above-the-fold of the front page no less).

Hmmm. Hadn’t I received my first notice of Bin Laden’s death last night around 7:15 p.m. Seattle time? I was preparing to view the latest Doctor Who episode (streaming it from iPad to TV set) when the New York Times alert popped up on my tablet screen. I went to Twitter for confirmation. Then I opened up my handy dandy White House iPad application (tellingly, I categorize in under “News” along with my BBC, WSJ, NYT, USA Today, Financial Times, Al Jazeera Live etc. apps), and saw that a live announcement from the President was forthcoming. I popped open CNN on the tablet, but the live stream just wasn’t kicking in. Read more…

In a previous post, I wrote about some driving trends in the Arabic speaking media world and I wrote about a cloud-based publishing platform. This post moves closer to the end-user by focusing on new e-reader technologies as well as online retail.

Last month at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, I met Anish Chandran, the operations leader for the WINK (“without ink”) e-reader and associated publishing ecosystem. Anish and the WINK team were demonstrating the WINK e-reader, the WINKstore iPad app, and other digital publishing solutions. While WINK’s applications launched in the Indian market, the team was exhibiting in the e-zone as part of a larger effort at wider distribution in the Middle East and North Africa.

Bangalore, India based EC Media International launched WINK in 2009 to deliver “a cost effective electronic book reader plus digital content in English and all Indian languages.” Since launch, the WINK digital media ecosystem has expanded beyond the e-reader to include both iPad and Android apps and the WINKstore.  The WINKstore is an electronic book site, which currently counts over 350,000 titles in English and the 15 official Indian languages. The latest WINK initiative is MagsOnWINK, a digital magazine publishing platform and client-side application for e-readers and tablets. MagsOnWINK will integrate over 150 Indian newspapers and magazines by the middle of this year.  The MagsOnWINK application is one of several free downloads from the WINKstore. MagsOnWink also distributes via Apple’s App Store. Read more…

Every manufacturer and OS developer out there seems to want a share of the next huge thing in consumer technology – and everyone seems to think that the next revolution is the tablet. Of course, the Apple iPad was the first to put the tablets in the hands of consumers. Accordingly, Apple pretty much defined the industry standard and currently “owns” the market.

Will every other tablet – Android or other – just become a “me too” product in a world defined by Apple? Read more…

Comparison of video size, iPad and iPod Touch

As far as tech toys go, I’m a late adopter.  I like playing with free betas, but when it comes down to handing over money, I become very conservative.  I like at least one Service Pack on my new OS, a critical mass of my friends on social apps, a solid couple of months post-release on a massively multiplayer online game, and a stalwart recommendation from my IT friends for new hardware.  I delayed my purchase of my Xbox 360 for almost two years; then shortly after I bought it, they announced the big price drop with the addition of the Elite model (shoulda waited longer!)

But this time, I threw the dice and pre-ordered a 32 GB Wifi-only iPad.  I even threw in a Mac Bluetooth keyboard, the dock, and a case.  There’s no super feature that made this the penultimate gadget for me; my desires were based around a great experience with my iPod Touch, a slowly growing interest in e-books (much to the dismay of my library card) and the ability to have a “one-stop-shop lite” computing device.  I game some, I email a fair amount, I watch videos while I travel or work out (no more tiny iPod on the treadmill – huzzah!) and I’ve been using the iPod Kindle app when I fly. Read more…

I own Apple stock, but I’m not lining up at my local Apple store this weekend or waiting with bated breath for the UPS or FedX guy to show up at my door. Why not? Read more…

AFP reports that the Wall Street Journal plans to charge $17.99 a month ($216/year) for an iPad subscription. This pricing model is hard to explain, given other WSJ subscription plans. And I worry that such extreme subscription plans could cloud the iPad debut and doom product adoption.

Read more…