iPhoning It In: Technology, Ideas, and the “Finger Painting” cover

It’s interesting that, while strikingly beautiful, the much talked about iPhone cover is one of the least conceptually interesting New Yorker covers to appear since Tina Brown took over and insisted on wit and relevance.  (Or am I missing something?)  The story seems to be how the cover was created, not what the cover conveyed. 

I can certainly understand why the New Yorker did it, and they need every break they can get right now—I would give up the entire internet to save that magazine. (Big talk from a man who visits twitter every weekday and facebook every day. And I’d sure miss that cat that plays the piano on YouTube.)

But “Finger Painting” points out a larger problem: we so so simultaneously dazzled and challenged by technology that ideas take a back seat because truly great ideas require an ease with one’s materials and tools that new technologies lack. You can only be so creative when you’re reading an owner’s manual.