Monday, November 26, 2007

Wocket in your Pocket?

Despite the initial covetous reaction that swelled up when I read the announcements, I came through Black Friday without purchasing a Kindle. I did, however, upgrade my old Nintendo Gameboy to the DS Lite [Zelda edition, of course, which is a fancy way of saying it's gold and pretty]. Within a few days of the purchase it's been fully incorporated into the swarm of electronic devices that are integrated to my life. I am only a bit embarrassed to confess that this assimilation includes a newfound addiction to this generation of Pokemon and the understanding that an extra few minutes waiting at the accupuncturist's office can be spent catching a Zubat.

There's nothing particularly useful about a device of this kind. The interface allows for the nifty use of the touchpad, which can be taken advantage of in ways like shaking trees to make apples fall in Animal Crossing or in using the battle management system of Pokemon. This is nothing on the scale of the revolution Nintendo created with their other interface design for this generation of console wars, namely, the motion responsive controller for the Wii. But it's still a fun toy, and it's worth losing some room in pockets or purses to displace the mediocre interface of the cell phone as a method for playing games in waiting rooms and the like.

1 comment:

G. Jackson said...

i like thinking about the mobility of technology as the next major social evolution related to technology. first print, then screen, now itty bitty portable screen. Please pass my glasses ...

i do wonder if portable devices really reach broad audiences - i suppose content is the key here - and when (since it is not a matter of whether) they will be as ubiquitous as cellphones. Sooner rather than later, I am sure. I once said I would never own a cellphone. That was eons before the MP3 player and all the other digital appendages I seem to have acquired.