The iPad cometh

A couple of interesting comic-related news stories coming out today:

Apparently, the big news is the iPad. I know this because last night, I couldn’t friggin’ stop talking about it and how this is Apple’s sneaky endgame — which started with the iPod — to steal market share away from Microsoft by focusing on computer items that are not traditionally lumped under the “computer” category. And now they’ve developed something that is kinda a laptop but kinda not. Folks: this is why Steve Jobs is an evil genius.

Brigid Alverson has done an incredible job of collecting several iPad-related articles over at Paperless Comics. I advise you to check them all out, especially NPR’s grand proclamation that the iPad is going to save comics.

In unrelated news, The Beat is going to soon be leaving the Publisher’s Weekly umbrella. Remember to update your links to this excellent comic book news resource.

The Webcomic Overlook #28: Applegeeks

There is no person in the world more obnoxious than an Apple elitist. Boston sports fans come pretty damn close, but typically those are somewhat pudgy guys with hilarious accents and not nerdy hipsters with smug faces you are sorely tempted to slap or punch.

It’s always, “Why would you waste your money on a PC when you can get a Mac?” Or “Macs are way more reliable than PC. Have you ever seen a Mac get a computer virus?” Or “Look at that god-awful Zune. Why would anyone ever pick that over the graceful simplicity of an iPod?” Or “Microsoft totally stole their Windows interface from Mac. God I hate Microsoft.” Or, if you ask them to help you out with a computer, they snicker and shake their heads with mock sadness and say things like, “Well, if you’d gotten a Mac, none of this would’ve happened.”

It’s like some sort of inferiority complex, bourne by the ubiquity of Microsoft PCs. They’re the sorts who laugh and nod at those “Mac and PC” commercials, which every normal-brained person finds obnoxious. Dave Barry was right when he said, “To this very day, Apple is not considered by us cyberwonks as a truly serious computer. It is viewed as a computer that is popular mainly with your flaky or artsy-fartsy type of individual.”

By the way, I’m totally writing this review on an Apple PowerBook*. Suck on that, PC users! Or should I say, PC Looooosers! Yeah!

So today, I’m reviewing a webcomic by two of my fellow Apple elitists, artist Mohammad “Hawk” Haque and writer Ananth Panagariya. It’s a webcomic called “Applegeeks”, a love letter to the wonderous products that Apple Inc. provides. All hail Steve Jobs!