Ina Fried

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Interview: Martha Stewart on Tech Etiquette, Her Two BlackBerrys and More (Video)

Martha Stewart loves technology. She got her first computer in 1982 and has a variety of phones and tablets, including two BlackBerrys — so she can talk on one and look stuff up on the other.

But Stewart also has some pet peeves with how technology is being used. She bemoans the fact she was at dinner recently and four of her six friends were on their phones. Worse, she said, was the family at the next table celebrating a mom’s birthday with the kids having their heads buried in a digital device, not speaking at all.

“That’s not the most attractive scene for a mother’s birthday,” Stewart said in a video interview following her talk at this week’s D: Dive Into Media.

In the interview, Stewart talks about her love of tech, and what she does and doesn’t like about the BlackBerry phones she is never without.

“They are struggling and I can tell why,” she said. “The touchscreen on the new BlackBerry is hideous, and the phone is not good. I have to change back to the old one, unless I go straight to (an) iPhone, which I am tempted to do.”

She also has some complaints about her favorite new toy, the iPad, including the fact that it isn’t faster.

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Another gadget you don’t really need. Will not work once you get it home. New model out in 4 weeks. Battery life is too short to be of any use.

— From the fact sheet for a fake product entitled Useless Plasticbox 1.2 (an actual empty plastic box) placed in L.A.-area Best Buy stores by an artist called Plastic Jesus