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Comment on Steven F on the iPad: Old vs New Worldparent

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I'm not sure if this division makes sense. Are Android phones "Old World" or "New World"?

You're barking up the wrong tree.

a) It's not a real taxonomy. He's, in effect, making a prediction about the direction that computing is going -- towards prepackaged specific purposes away from general purpose. Think of it as a descriptive concept.

b) Even if it was a taxonomy, most of those are going to fail boundary conditions. Those things aren't mathematical sets. They're useful to talk about populations, and generally fail at boundary conditions. "North America" doesn't really exist because you can't decide if a particular Panamanian boulder is in it or not?

Classic nerd/techy mistake. Now cut it out!

I think it's a valid point- we have this tiresome parade of articles claiming that the future by necessity is one in which we pay apple a toll, forever, and that open systems are dying.

Android is a counterpoint. So is the OLPC OS, for that matter. You can have an open, general purpose computer that's also turnkey in operation.

I think you need to re-read the title of the article.

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