Napthine Turning Technology Upside Down

With 2014 being a Victorian state election year, both the Premier and the Opposition Leader are running around the state, making promises to butter up the voters ahead of the November poll date.

Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews was in Ballarat today, touting an upgrade to Eureka Stadium, in an effort to encourage AFL games to be played in the city.

Premier Denis Napthine was in Geelong, making a promise that has been promised over and over again over a number of years, to install free wifi in V/Line trains.

Of course, promises made by politicians often come to nought when they come to power – so each of these promises are currently vaporware.

Politicians being politicians, they are always looking for a good photo opportunity – such as the photo above of Napthine trying to look technology savvy while making the free wifi announcement.

They have their minders and image consultants to make sure they look their very best, and present the right image to the target audience.

But hang on, something looks a bit unusual with the iPad Napthine is holding in the cheesy staged photo – (click image for larger view) – right?

Is he holding the iPad upside down? That sure looks like the home button at the top there, doesn’t it?

Certainly, the cover in which this iPad is installed appears to open on the right hand side, further suggesting Denis should be standing on his head to be oriented correctly.

I first noticed the “error” while watching the evening news, where footage was shot from left of frame from where this still image was taken – and I thought it odd that the dock connector was at the top.

Sure – the auto-orientation feature might have turned the screen the right way up – (if it was turned on) – but one gets the feeling the good doctor doesn’t play with such technology very often.

You might say it is a bit finicky to criticise such a basic mistake – but really – that’s just funny, especially when you are trying to appeal to the technologically savvy audience an announcement like this is aimed at.

Oopsies.