Would-be entrepreneurs take note

Summer Anthem: Lately it feels so much like autumn that all it feels that Neil Young would be appropriate here. But, let’s save that for Autumn Songs, and just try harder for a summery tune. In the spirit of reading about New York City in 1977, let’s include this ditty from ur-Punk visionary Richard Hell (& the Voidoids), title track off their 1977 album: Blank Generation. Or more accurately, ___ Generation. Urban alienation? Yup. Emotional disconnect? In spades. Here’s an anthem for those things, pretty poppy, considering.

I’m going to see my grandparents tomorrow, and I’m probably going to show them my iPhone. They have been successively wowed/baffled by each electronic device I have brought into their Northeast Philly rowhouse, from a seventh grade discman, to a laptop, to a chunky early iPod (I tried to explain how many LPs fit inside this compact block, to little avail.) They still think online is somewhere you queue. And now my phone is from the future. The thing is, they too have been upgrading, technologically speaking. Last year my father and his brother gave them a flat LCD TV, which required them to get that fancy new cable all you people with cable have, with the guide interface and DVR and different aspect ratios for the screen depending on the aspect ratio of the programming, and all this other stuff that feels too complicated for me, and I always thought I was pretty bright. But, Poppop has mastered it, at least enough to watch the Phillies play. I’m just thinking, isn’t it about time for Apple to get into manufacturing geriatric aids? Apple provides the most simple, clean, pleasant interface for their devices, even as the devices do increasingly complicated things. Why haven’t they designed my grandparents’ cable box? Given the shifting demographic makeup of this country, I’m thinking this is a fertile market. And, geriatric aids are all already totally (immorally, really) overpriced. Doesn’t Apple love that? They should be putting out pill dispensers with the rolly-wheel interface, bingo cards with touch screens. I bet they would make a beautiful pen that my Bubba could write with, even when her hand shakes. Imagine how pretty and functional an iHearing aid would be, even with the requisite woeful battery life endemic to Apple products. Would-be entrepreneurs take note, this is a really good idea.