This device is an intriguing example of technological convergence, the tendency of certain technologies to be combined in a single device (as opposed to their existence as multiple products).
This is reminiscent of a more recent device...
Why do I blog this ? basic observation about how convergence can lead to strange solution, especially due to contextual reasons. This led me back to what Henry Jenkins wrote some time ago:
All media content is going to flow through a single black box into our living rooms (or, in the mobile scenario, through black boxes we carry around with us everywhere we go). (Jenkins, H. 2006)
Jenkins, H. (2006). 'Worship at the altar of convergence: A new paradigm for understanding media change'. In H. Jenkins, Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide (pp 1-24). New York: New York University Press. [URL: http://www.nyupress.org/webchapters/0814742815intro.pdf]
I first saw the iPooed on Cnet a while back and could not stop laughing. I actually had a guy come into my work the other day and want to buy a waterproof iPod dock/speaker so he could listen to his iPod in the shower. I wanted to ask him if he just took long showers, or was so desperate to be digitally distracted, that he had to have one, no matter how short a shower he took. It does represent though, the way society has (I guess) shortened it's own attention span. We have to have some form of digital connectivity in everything we do.
ReplyDeleteHaha, Yea well I take showers that are long enough that I need a soundtrack but I usually compose it myself..
ReplyDeleteI watched a TV show the other day where a couple was building a house and the younger judges were impressed with the fact that there were Tv's in the bathrooms but the older judged were appalled!