Laura Sydell reports here about the loss of freedoms that come along with any purchase from Apple. As noted in this NPR story, this didn't stop people from lining up for the shiny, new iPad device en masse over the weekend. These gentle folk happily trade their freedom to get inside the exclusive "gated community" that Apple provides for them. It is at least encouraging that the mainstream press is starting to notice that not everyone is equally enamored with Apple's business strategies as covered here.

The NPR audio is cached here.

Update: Slashdot has an update

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As reported in this Slashdot story, the major players that aren't happy with the status quo are looking forward to devices like the iPad, Kindle, and similarly locked down devices. They hope that will allow them to reintroduce the paradigm where users must pay for all content. It's no surprise which camp Rupert Murdoch is in. Good luck with that because anything that goes beyond simple "ad supported content" is going against the tide provided by the low barriers to entry that is at the very heart of the internet.

I last wrote about the iPad here. ...even Hitler was disappointed with the iPad.