It's All About The Options

There is a reason I keep going back to content creation.
And that is simply because it is important.
The most important thing that these devices can, and I might add should,
be able to do is the creation of content. This is what the participation
society wants; more participation. Simply consuming content is allowing
control to be handed over to those uncaring and cold market forces which
feign concern but are truly disinterested. Too often, your input is
meaningless.
This past week, I was gifted with a Sylvania 7" Android tablet. It is
purely a device for consumption.Even the material contained in the box
were admonitions; "this is not a computer". As if repeating that mantra
would make it so.
It is, nonetheless, a computer. Just one with restrictions, caveats a plenty.
But, like the 7" netbook, it has plenty of untapped potential.
Simply adding a keyboard is a step in the right direction. While it may
void the waranty, I also advise rooting the tablet. This is going to give
the user much more power over the tablet and its capabilities.
A perfect set of applications for the tablet would be a small editor and a
graphics program. The ability to write is a given, but what could be more
natural for a tablet than a way to draw and paint? These sort of
applications are sorely lacking in the Android realm, and in fact seem to
be missing from the tablet world altogether.
Yet these devices, along with the inexpensive netbook, are so close to the
original concept of the DynaBook. They have come incredibly closer than
ever, yet the goal seems to remain elusive.
It's time to wrest control away from the powers that be and return it to
the users. Or at least give us the option.