I wasn’t immune to the recent press frenzies over the release of two of the season’s biggest techie thrill-rides: the iPhone and the Michael Bay movie Transformers.

I don’t have an iPhone but some of my best friends do. I’ve touched them, caressed them, and I still think they suck. But not for the reasons you might think. I don’t hate them for their technical flaws, though of course it’s hard not to dislike the idea of a tool whose battery can’t be changed unless you send it back to the manufacturer. Plus, the DRM. But the troubling politics of the iPhone go beyond tech. These devices have even been the subject of debates in Congress. And as I say in a recent column:

The iPhone is political because it somehow manages to capture the essence of authoritarianism in its shiny little box. Totally locked down, it runs only preapproved software on a prechosen phone network that is subject to government surveillance.

Read more about that.

I also liked Transformers. I know, I know it was all flashy crap and had the silliest plot ever. But I thought the eBay jokes were funny, and I liked the fact that it was about teenagers who curse and are obsessed with sex — not like those sanitized, unrealistic teens you normally see in Disney vehicles. Plus, you’ve gotta love a movie where characters yell, “All hail Megatron!” Read more about why I think Transformers is more than just a truck commercial here.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 2:04 pm.
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