It’s called cognitive dissonance:
That disappointment you sometimes feel between expectation and the thump of the actual experience of the product (also known as reality). Ever shopped from a TV channel? Hey, you know what it’s like then.
Today there’s a heap of that cognitive dissonance sitting in the office.
To be more specific it’s in two piles on the table over there.
The tablet PCs are out of the box and we’re playing with them. They’re slick, funky, lightweight and still pretty sturdy. Sure the rotation’s awkward and the leather case designer had questionable taste, but who wants to hide them anyway? Fashion accessory, geek chic, I’m ready to wear them on my sleeve.
They’re here, they’re working, and they’re about to revolutionize my life.
The logic’s simple. You take the concept of a handwritten notepad and bolt it to the technology of a laptop. From today I can let go my Dell workhorse, never look at a Post-it again, carry a lighter satchel, and be part of the newly enfranchised.
Truth is I’ve never been fond of technology- fond of utility but not technology for its own sake. That’s for the gadget monkeys and the boys-who-need-toys. Yet the first time I saw a tablet I knew I wanted one; needed one, had to have one, would wither away without one.
Okay so it was in a demo from Bill (Yes, Bill! Microserfs unite - if you’re going to see something new in Windows, then it really is a bit of an experience watching Him demonstrate it just in front of you).
He flipped it open: I’m transfixed.
He spins it round: my eyes follow.
He unfolds the notepad to the audience: *gasp*
And then He writes, and I’m mesmerised as the projector shares it with the assembled followers. In the temple of Windows, surrounded by the High Priests of code, I’m an unreserved convert.
The boxes arrive within a few months of when our supplier starts shipping.
So why am I depressed, hacked off and kind of ashamed?
This sucks.
Another industry promise has fallen short by a mile. I can write 5 Post-its in the time it takes to ‘save’. Everything is slowi n g r I g h t d o w n.
It’s like asking a ZX81 to render fractal geometry -achingly slow applications open and close. I don’t even know if it’s registered my last five commands because it’s still working on the one before.
Arrgh.
Why does this industry keep doing this to us all?!
