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Mobile is Eating the World

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Re: Mobile is Eating the World

#111

Post by JoeAltmaier »

Psylocyber wrote: post #110
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another day, another snarky HN comment... As I said, smartphones morph culture in interesting ways. That's a direct product of having access to all of the things you mention. But people are still fundamentally people. If the world believes that war is necessary, smartphones aren't going to change that. And that belief was one of the main reasons for the dark ages.

HN hasn't changed. Endless, meaningless 'discussions' about non-issues that mainly reflect the inability of socially-inept and newbie programmers to understand the world around them. To fill their lives, they leave paragraph after paragraph of text. It's fun to watch, but I hope things improve.

That's a cynical view. How about: people of every age and level of experience bring what they have to the discussion, and learn from one another. You could do that too, by gently adding your experience to the mix. Doing it without disaffecting your peers gives you extra points.

Re: Mobile is Eating the World

#112

Post by cwyers »

marknutter wrote: post #18
pfitzsimmons wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at the biomechanics, it does seem like a keyboard + mouse + >=20" screen is the optimal setup for doing actual work. A keyboard is simply the most efficient way to get information into a computer (the exception is that some graphics editors work might work better with a multitouch screen, it will be interesting to see if someone builds a touch-first photoshop killer). That said, there might be a convergen…

> That said, there might be a convergence where mobile devices learn to run desktop software, and can be docked to a mouse/keyboard/monitor. I never understand this prediction. That's a bit like saying I don't need a car because I could just dock my bicycle into some sort of enclosure with four wheels. Tablets, smartphones, and laptops/desktops were all built for different purposes and cannot be full replacements for…

It baffles me. Look at the cost of components for any smartphone. The cost of a full-fledged ARM SOC is, what... $20? The cost to turn any such docking station into an actual computer is basically trivial compared to the total cost. You can sync storage over the network without any need for a dock. Why on earth would anyone get a phone dock, rather than a separate machine?

Re: Mobile is Eating the World

#113

Post by wslh »

The problem is the definition of mobile. Mobile seems to be more like a form factor than an operating system. If at the end I can convert a tablet into a full featured PC (i.e Microsoft Surface running Visual Studio) or I can plug a future mobile phone to a keyboard and monitor and run Microsoft Office there then there is no division between mobile, desktop PC, and web.

Re: Mobile is Eating the World

#114

Post by leapius »

Ologn wrote: post #35

I mainly program Android apps, many for my side business. Some people here have said "mobile has peaked". I go around with my Android mobile phone, and I have trouble finding out what time stores close. I have trouble finding nearby supermarkets. I certainly can't find out if supermarkets have an item in stock, or if the item on sale. I can't find a nearby bathroom to use. We are nowhere near mobile peaking. Yes, the…

These new functionalities you speak of in the future like finding what items are in stock nearby are all more of an information gathering exercise rather that technological. We could do all that you talk about now but it would require a massive unified collaboration with shop owners for example to adhere so a common data interchange standard.

I think the challenges are of a more political nature than technological.

Re: Mobile is Eating the World

#115

Post by mark_l_watson »

CmonDev wrote: post #90
mark_l_watson wrote: post #47

I have been hoping for a world where developers and content creators produced reactive HTML 5 web apps that worked beautifully on all devices from phones to laptops to large screen desktops and TVs. An analogy: writing and production tools have been getting better with output to PDF, Kindle, iBook, and print books. The overhead for creativity decreases so more effort goes to producing great content. This is what I wo…

I am hoping for a world where developers have a choice of a technology, without being limited to legacy semi-modernized languages like HTML and JS.

True! Of course technology choices are good.

Re: Mobile is Eating the World

#116

Post by _pmf_ »

cageface wrote: post #6

There is no point in drawing a distinction between the future of technology and the future of mobile. I find Evans' analysis of mobile a bit hyperbolic. Yes the growth of mobile is explosive and, in some cases, it's displacing older technology. But for a lot of use cases small touch screen devices are simply inadequate. It's probably true that a lot of people that used to use desktop or laptop computers just to check…

> But for a lot of use cases small touch screen devices are simply inadequate.

Working in the industrial and automotive manufacturer setup, people buying equipment don't give a shit whether a touch screen is an actual improvement for the people on the shop floor. They buy anything that looks like a tablet and has a touch screen, as much as the workers might curse it.

Re: Mobile is Eating the World

#117

Post by typedweb »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #81
cageface wrote: post #6

There is no point in drawing a distinction between the future of technology and the future of mobile. I find Evans' analysis of mobile a bit hyperbolic. Yes the growth of mobile is explosive and, in some cases, it's displacing older technology. But for a lot of use cases small touch screen devices are simply inadequate. It's probably true that a lot of people that used to use desktop or laptop computers just to check…

> Yes the growth of mobile is explosive and, in some cases, it's displacing older technology. I think the mischaracterization is of what mobile is replacing. It isn't the PC. A PC is primarily a computing device, an iPhone is primarily a communications device. The iPhone and iPad aren't replacing PCs, they're replacing newspaper, radio and telephone. They're only replacing PCs to the extent that the PC had already pa…

> an iPhone is primarily a communications device

That's why I've started calling them 'personal communicators' instead of 'phones'. Sounds a bit more Star Treky as well :)

Re: Mobile is Eating the World

#118

Post by mvzink »

dasmoth wrote: post #94
ams6110 wrote: post #25

From one of the slides: Email is for grandparents I think this varies. I'm not a grandparent, but am close to 50 years old and have been working in computer technology my entire adult life. I have an Android smartphone (got my first one this year) but have not installed any apps on it. Email, web browser, text messages, calendar, contacts, and maps are all there and I can't really think of anything else useful I'd wa…

While e-mail may not be perfect, it still seems to be the best medium there is for people who collaborate best via asynchronous communication. The antipattern of using more synchronous media -- the telephone, in particular -- to force quick decisions is obnoxious and I think ultimately counterproductive.

This is exactly why I think Talko is so cool. Not quite a replacement for email, but has some good ideas.

Re: Mobile is Eating the World

#119

Post by coldtea »

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #104
iaskwhy wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have this theory the so called breakthrough of Apple in the TV business is the iPad and not a big 5k TV screen.

Ben Evans himself says that Eric Schmidt was right when he said Google would own the TV market a few years back - he (Schmidt) just didn't realise it would be Android tablets rather than GoogleTV.

And they also didn't realized that it would be the iPad and not Android tablets.

The latter have not been making any inroads...

Re: Mobile is Eating the World

#120

Post by hderms »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #49
pfitzsimmons wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at the biomechanics, it does seem like a keyboard + mouse + >=20" screen is the optimal setup for doing actual work. A keyboard is simply the most efficient way to get information into a computer (the exception is that some graphics editors work might work better with a multitouch screen, it will be interesting to see if someone builds a touch-first photoshop killer). That said, there might be a convergen…

Your assumption, which I think is wrong, is that WPM (or maybe APM) is the bottleneck for most work. I suspect reading/comprehension, problem solving, planning, usability, and access to the right tool, discovery of tools, responsiveness of tools, teamwork... These things are much more likely to be the bottleneck. As a programmer, I suspect I could probably type the entirity of a days work into the computer in a half…

I think you're right on some counts, but there is a part that I think most people overlook when they dismiss rapid input as being a useful feature.

A lot of modern languages/platforms are able to be used as a REPL console. Same with commandline tools.

Being able to rapidly experiment with bits of code to identify the correct solution can be incredibly valuable.

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