 Q&A: Chris Roper
Editor of Mail & Guardian Online
Q: What mobile phone do you use and why did you go
for it?
A: iPhone 3gs, 32gig. The same reason as everyone else. It works. It's easy to use. And it makes work play.
Q: Do you use mobile apps at all and what are your top 5?
A: All the time. PS Mobile that makes it really easy to edit photos on your phone; News24, a great piece of software for finding news; Amazon Kindle – for reading books queues; Google Maps, it, uh, tells you where to go like Google search and Tweetdeck, for when you just have to tweet.
Q: You're a Mac user. Does it do everything you need it to do, in the environment you're in?
A: There’s nothing I can’t do on my Mac. Fearing that my needs might not be met, I asked my development guys if there is anything they can’t do on a Mac, and all the PC guys could come up with was that you can’t run WinMerge. The Mac guys reckon you can with VMware, so I guess the answer is – there’s nothing you can’t do on a Mac.
Q: As someone who travels quite often, what gadget won’t you travel without?
A: Essential for flying is my iPod, the only way I normally get to catch up on the latest movies. But also necessary, for watching airline movies, is a converter for the double pronged jacks they use for the plane headphones, so that I can use my Sennheiser headphones. That way, you actually get to hear the soundtrack.
Q: How important is user-generated content? Where do you see it in the next two years?
A: How important? It's enormously important. First, as content source, but most importantly, UGC is the new search. A fleshware Google that pushes, if you will.
Q: All this hype about the iPad. What are your opinions on it, based on what you've read? Would you own one?
A: All the criticisms come from techheads or tech writers. Users are going to love it, and I'm going to be one of those users. Techies always seem to be looking for the ultimate single gadget, when the truth is, you're always going to need multiple gadgets. The iPad is one of those, to go next to my Kindle.
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