The miracle of crap.

The faster technology develops, the shorter the journey from miracle to crap. Just a few years ago, today’s Haier Quad-Core Tablet deal would have seemed like a dream: a 9", 8GB Android tablet for 33 bucks! We’d have been all over it just a few short years ago. We have socks older than that.

Now it’s crap.

Same device. Same basic tablet capabilities: web browsing, streaming video, casual gaming. Ridiculous low price. Miracle? Crap.

Blame it on the context. The miracle/crap spectrum is relative. By now, we’ve seen enough basic cheapo tablets that it takes a lot more than the Haier Quad-Core Tablet to get the metaphorical juices pumping and rouse the figurative loins. We expect more - nay, demand more. The miracle bar has been raised and this tablet has been found wanting.

You know who might not feel this way? Kids. Senior citizens. Shut-ins. Hermits. Recent immigrants from agrarian tribal societies. If you know one of those people, someone who might still be capable of wonder that a half-inch thick rectangle can show movies and play games and explore the collected wisdom of humanity on the Internet, give this to them.

Maybe, in sharing their wonder, your own sense of wonder will stir anew. Perhaps the miracle will live again. Probably not, though. It really is a pretty crappy tablet.