Apple’s Magnum Opus
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Apple’s Magnum Opus
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Re: Apple’s Magnum Opus
#2I think this article pretty much nails a key part of it. What Apple wants to do is implement a seamless digital world that Just Works. (It remains to be seen whether it does in fact Just Work.)
Oddly enough, you could accuse them of, once again, stealing ideas from Xerox PARC (and, once again, be redirected to Douglas Englebart et al) ... the kind of thing Apple is demonstrating with iCloud, iOS5, and Lion is essentially the computing paradigm described in a Scientific American article on Xerox PARC in the 80s (I wish I could give the exact issue, but the article described four basic kinds of computers - post-it notes, slates, desktops, and wall screens - all, except the post-its which were a rough prototype with a rudimentary display, sharing a common UI with data stored on the network.)
An interesting remark that touches on this topic on The Talk Show was (and I paraphrase) "how come this [the app-centric universe] feels so reasonable and natural and yet has taken so long to come". In fact, there was a huge detour in the opposite direction exemplified by OpenDoc (on the Mac) and OLE (on Windows). How many of us remember copying a table from excel, pasting it into PowerPoint and getting some kind of weird icon? In the 90s the idea was to remove the app and make the document (or perhaps the workflow) the center of attention. This may actually have been a Good Idea but it was (in the case of OpenDoc) badly conceived and not especially well-implemented. Or, perhaps, it was just too far ahead of its time.
Re: Apple’s Magnum Opus
#3Ok, that all sounds grandiose, but I think that perhaps people are overplaying the impact of iCloud. Yes, it's a big deal to be sure, but perhaps some pragmatism is in order.
The author gets one bit right, that what Apple is theoretically "killing" is mostly irrelevant. On the other hand, what Apple showed thus far with iCloud is more about the fact that they are doing the cloud quite a bit differently than Google is.
Apple is saying, yes syncing and pushing is important, but so are rich apps. They are showing that cloud doesn't just mean doing HTML5 apps. That is the right approach IMO. The cloud isn't just the web, it's your data across all devices in the best possible format for each device. Dropbox got this right, Apple is getting this right(on their own platforms), Google doesn't seem to do this as much yet and their products seem to suffer as a result.
I would love Google to do more with say Google Docs on Android than forcing mobile web apps down our throats, but they have a web-based advertising business to prop up so of course they love the web-only approach.
In theory Microsoft is doing some kind of hybrid approach or something to the Office cloud, but really I wish they would just put out a killer version of Office on all platforms. It would make them lots of money and would enable them to lock people into their cloud (for better or worse). As it stands, Microsoft's cloud strategy by comparison is to throw crap at the wall and hope something sticks. Thank goodness they didn't offer $9 Billion to buy Dropbox...
Re: Apple’s Magnum Opus
#4Ok, that all sounds grandiose, but I think that perhaps people are overplaying the impact of iCloud. Yes, it's a big deal to be sure, but perhaps some pragmatism is in order. The author gets one bit right, that what Apple is theoretically "killing" is mostly irrelevant. On the other hand, what Apple showed thus far with iCloud is more about the fact that they are doing the cloud quite a bit differently than Google is…
Google is not forcing web apps on mobile devices. There are Android apps for Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Maps, and Reader.
Re: Apple’s Magnum Opus
#5Ok, that all sounds grandiose, but I think that perhaps people are overplaying the impact of iCloud. Yes, it's a big deal to be sure, but perhaps some pragmatism is in order. The author gets one bit right, that what Apple is theoretically "killing" is mostly irrelevant. On the other hand, what Apple showed thus far with iCloud is more about the fact that they are doing the cloud quite a bit differently than Google is…
I recently switched password manager to 1password. It syncs with dropbox on the iphone as well. Indeed feels like magic.
My budgeting app syncs over wifi and feels bad somehow. It is nice to get rid of this unnecessary obligation to sync stuff. Kinda as if the garbage walked itself down to the container. One thing less to take care of.
Re: Apple’s Magnum Opus
#6I think this article pretty much nails a key part of it. What Apple wants to do is implement a seamless digital world that Just Works. (It remains to be seen whether it does in fact Just Work.) Oddly enough, you could accuse them of, once again, stealing ideas from Xerox PARC (and, once again, be redirected to Douglas Englebart et al) ... the kind of thing Apple is demonstrating with iCloud, iOS5, and Lion is essenti…
The article you're referring to I think was written by Mark Weiser. It was called "The Computer for the 21st Century" unless you were thinking of a different one.
It's quite a vision for 1991:
Re: Apple’s Magnum Opus
#7I think this article pretty much nails a key part of it. What Apple wants to do is implement a seamless digital world that Just Works. (It remains to be seen whether it does in fact Just Work.) Oddly enough, you could accuse them of, once again, stealing ideas from Xerox PARC (and, once again, be redirected to Douglas Englebart et al) ... the kind of thing Apple is demonstrating with iCloud, iOS5, and Lion is essenti…
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Re: Apple’s Magnum Opus
#8Am I the only one that thinks Apple is using revolutionary technology to work toward the perfection of a deprecated computing paradigm?
I mean, yes, iCloud makes computing work like magic, but it sort of ignores what post-web computing means. Computing anymore isn't just about working on the same documents on any device that you own seamlessly (that part is, to be sure, great), it's about sharing and collaboration. iCloud gives you access to your docs and photos and music wherever you are, but it doesn't seem to do anything to let you share your digital life.
Am I wrong? What am I missing?
Re: Apple’s Magnum Opus
#9Am I the only one that thinks Apple is using revolutionary technology to work toward the perfection of a deprecated computing paradigm? I mean, yes, iCloud makes computing work like magic, but it sort of ignores what post-web computing means . Computing anymore isn't just about working on the same documents on any device that you own seamlessly (that part is, to be sure, great), it's about sharing and collaboration.…
I see your point but find it hard to accept the idea that letters to teachers, school assignments, price quotes, proposals, contracts, sales presentations, and reports are "deprecated" because the cloud enables other kinds of documents.
Re: Apple’s Magnum Opus
#10I think this article pretty much nails a key part of it. What Apple wants to do is implement a seamless digital world that Just Works. (It remains to be seen whether it does in fact Just Work.) Oddly enough, you could accuse them of, once again, stealing ideas from Xerox PARC (and, once again, be redirected to Douglas Englebart et al) ... the kind of thing Apple is demonstrating with iCloud, iOS5, and Lion is essenti…
Isn't GNUstep working on an evolution of OpenDOC? I thought I read or heard about it once, but couldn't find much info on it. OpenDoc is something I really want to work.