Been spending a lot of time this week playing with and exploring the new iPhone, getting caught up on the last three years of technical and social innovations I’ve been in the dark about. Cut to scene in our kitchen on Tuesday where I was again giving an awesome demonstration of the capabilities of the Lightsaber app, through which you can brandish your space phone and have a simulated — even musically soundtracked — laser sword battle. Upon completion, roommate Brittany said to me: “So is that how you’re going to get a new girlfriend?”
As I was loading up other apps, I couldn’t help but be baffled why the New York Times app, which provides updates from all sections of the paper in an eye-friendly format, was free, while this skeeball app — and all its incumbent Jersey shore nostalgia — cost 99 cents.
If I can drop a dollar to spend hours trying to win pretend plastic combs and erasers, I can justify spending at least another dollar on the top news of the day.
But you shouldn’t have to pay for the lightsaber app. Lightsaber, like information, wants to be free.
Inverted Soapbox 