7 ms·

The future of computing?

21 points by adriand 17y ago

swannodette 17y ago
This meme of the iPad as primarily a consumption device needs to die. On launch day you have plenty of very well designed drawing apps, some incredible music apps (including a very nice digital 8-track, http://www.sonomawireworks.com/iphone/studiotrack/ http://www.sonomawireworks.com/iphone/studiotrack/) , and Apple's iWork suite. In the coming months I think we'll see plenty of other quality applications aimed squarely at artists, writers, designers, and musicians. The iPad is the first serious digital sketchbook, one in which you can sketch out many kinds of ideas not only visual ones.
- ryandvm 17y ago
  Come on. The iPad is a TV for your hands and everyone knows it. For every person using it to create content there will be 10,000 just reading email and browsing Facebook. That may be what most people do with their computers anyway, but with computers, a small fraction end up tiptoeing into deeper water and really harnessing the capabilities there for creative expression. The iPad makes that next step impossible. Nobody is going to be banging out a novel on it or learning how to program. Time will tell, but I'm pretty sure Apple is just fine with the idea of people using the iPad to purchase music, movies, TV, and games...
  - swannodette 17y ago
    Few people take using a pen/pencil beyond basic writing skills. Those that do with perseverance make art. The iPad isn't going to change that truth about tools. Not it and nor whatever competes with it. In anycase, you need to broaden your definition of creative - learning how to program is really only one field of creativity (one I love and enjoy) among many.
  - swernli 17y ago
    I'd say the iPad makes the next step harder, not impossible. Just because you wouldn't want to program on it doesn't mean someone else wouldn't. And if someone wanted to write a novel, nothing is stopping them from starting to write it on an iPad, one day realizing they want an external keyboard, then making the jump to a netbook or maybe even writing on the desktop that they can (and maybe already do) sync the iPad with. Personally, I'd be more concerned that this new generation of texters, tweeters, and Facebook wall-posters doesn't have the attention span and grammatical capability to write a novel, regardless of what physical tools are available to do so. I was surprised at how many of my classmates freshman year of college were found lacking in the area of writing skills, and I don't imagine the pervasiveness of terse, abbrievieted, and often shallow communication is improving that.
- adriand 17y ago
  > aimed squarely at artists, writers, designers, and musicians Do you really think writers are going to get any real work done on an iPad? Because if so, I really disagree. The touch screen simply doesn't lend itself to quick typing and rapid text editing. Ignoring artists, designers and musicians - since, after all, most people are none of those - and focusing on writing, I think the iPad has a chilling effect. Writing is perhaps the most important activity the average citizen conducts online, so that matters. People kept writing that the iPad is a computer for mothers - my mother, like many others from her generation, was taught to type, a skill that served her well as a legal secretary. She types very well now. Given an iPad, I expect that although some tasks may be easier for her to accomplish, her lengthy email missives to her children, and her letters to the editor, are going to be much briefer. That's a loss to her family and a loss to civic society. Of course, none of that matters if you look at the iPad as a toy, a sketchpad, or a device mainly intended to consume media than produce it. But if you believe that it is the "future of computing", as many call it, then this is a problem. The iPad may well be - and probably is - the future of content consumption, web browsing, gaming, and perhaps television viewing. There's a difference between that though, and the future of computing.
  - Psyonic 17y ago
    gaming? perhaps mobile gaming, but definitely not gaming in general. Touch screens are horrible for a large chunk of games. I can't even imagine how you'd play an FPS, but maybe that's my limited imagination. And television viewing? Why? Who wants to hold a tv while they watch it? And if you're not holding it, why not watch an actual tv? I guess for watching on the go... but who does that? Kids in the backseat I guess
  - swannodette 17y ago
    Doesn't sound like you've spent much time with the software keyboard. It's quite good. Also there's a reason why Apple makes a keyboard dock and added bluetooth keyboard support. Not sure if your argument really holds up in the face of these facts. One of my favorite iPad features is that Pages goes into WriteRoom mode in the landscape orientation.
  - swernli 17y ago
ryandvm 17y ago
I find it amusing that Apple has come full circle and that their latest incarnations of computing portend a much more dystopian future than anything IBM had in mind in their 1984 Super Bowl commercial.
- anamax 17y ago
  What's dystopian about a Hooter's waitress throwing a hammer at a big screen TV?
loup-vaillant 17y ago
Except, the future is already there: our bandwidth is asymmetric, running our own server is increasingly impossible, and the Internet becomes more and more centralized, like good old closed networks like AOL. The iPad is the symbol of that trend, but otherwise is tiny, irrelevant, even.
- glhaynes 17y ago
  I dunno, with services like EC2 I feel like there's far more opportunity available to me on the internet than there was a decade ago. I agree inasmuch as it feels different in some ways, though.
  - loup-vaillant 17y ago
    Using EC2 makes you the exception, not the rule (and by the way, I would prefer to have a server at home). Most people don't use EC2 (let alone a personal server). They use Blogger. Most people don't send mail. They ask Gmail to that for them. The internet used to be a bunch of interconnected machines doing peer to peer communication. Now, we have a few servers and many many clients. So the future already there. I believe we could reverse the trend and go back to a sane, mostly decentralized, internet, but it will require a collective effort.
- Psyonic 17y ago
  "running our own server is increasingly impossible" Do tell... it seems quite easy and affordable to run your own server now. A VPS can be had for under $50 a month, and if you really need the whole machine, $200 would probably do it. What am I missing?
  - loup-vaillant 17y ago
    This is not running your own server. Your own server should be at your own home, under your own control. That way, if the Police want to have a look at your server it has to subpoena you, directly. That way, data you want remotely accessible won't be in the hand of any third party. That way, mail you send is actually send by you. Eben Moglen said it best: http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2010/feb/01/freedom-cloud-software-freedom-privacy-and-securit/ http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2010/feb/01/freedom-clou...
gxs 17y ago
I'm only speculating here and what do I know, but in my opinion the consumer/creator dynamic is cyclic. Right now, we have a lot of content, hence the reddits, HNs, etc. of the world. At some point the supply for all these aggregators will run low (not disappear, of course) and we'll see a rise in the number of people that author content. And so on and so forth.
- Psyonic 17y ago
  It may have been in the past, but now that the internet allows far fewer authors to spread their work much farther, I don't see it happening. But here's to hoping!
ggchappell 17y ago
In short: Yes, but it's not a problem. Consider the situation, say, 5 years ago. We all watched TV. That's consume-only; no user production involved. We all read books. Same deal. Radio, newspapers, etc. All the same. But, we all also had computers, and we used to them to produce, interact, etc. The point is that we used a number of devices, we did some producing, but mostly we consumed. Now, perhaps a few years from now, when newspapers, radio, etc., are all dead, we will do all this with just one or two devices. But we should still expect each individual to do a lot more consuming than producing. (Note: This is not to say I'm happy with the Apple/Amazon-runs-the-show model of computing. I don't own a Kindle, or an iPhone-OS-anything. Nor do I intend to get one.)
olalonde 17y ago
For some reason, I knew this would involve the iPad vs PC but I still clicked to make sure :/

21 points by adriand 17y ago

This meme of the iPad as primarily a consumption device needs to die. On launch day you have plenty of very well designed drawing apps, some incredible music apps (including a very nice digital 8-track, http://www.sonomawireworks.com/iphone/studiotrack/ http://www.sonomawireworks.com/iphone/studiotrack/) , and Apple's iWork suite. In the coming months I think we'll see plenty of other quality applications aimed squarely at artists, writers, designers, and musicians. The iPad is the first serious digital sketchbook, one in which you can sketch out many kinds of ideas not only visual ones.

ryandvm 17y ago
Come on. The iPad is a TV for your hands and everyone knows it. For every person using it to create content there will be 10,000 just reading email and browsing Facebook. That may be what most people do with their computers anyway, but with computers, a small fraction end up tiptoeing into deeper water and really harnessing the capabilities there for creative expression. The iPad makes that next step impossible. Nobody is going to be banging out a novel on it or learning how to program. Time will tell, but I'm pretty sure Apple is just fine with the idea of people using the iPad to purchase music, movies, TV, and games...
- swannodette 17y ago
  Few people take using a pen/pencil beyond basic writing skills. Those that do with perseverance make art. The iPad isn't going to change that truth about tools. Not it and nor whatever competes with it. In anycase, you need to broaden your definition of creative - learning how to program is really only one field of creativity (one I love and enjoy) among many.
- swernli 17y ago
  I'd say the iPad makes the next step harder, not impossible. Just because you wouldn't want to program on it doesn't mean someone else wouldn't. And if someone wanted to write a novel, nothing is stopping them from starting to write it on an iPad, one day realizing they want an external keyboard, then making the jump to a netbook or maybe even writing on the desktop that they can (and maybe already do) sync the iPad with. Personally, I'd be more concerned that this new generation of texters, tweeters, and Facebook wall-posters doesn't have the attention span and grammatical capability to write a novel, regardless of what physical tools are available to do so. I was surprised at how many of my classmates freshman year of college were found lacking in the area of writing skills, and I don't imagine the pervasiveness of terse, abbrievieted, and often shallow communication is improving that.
adriand 17y ago
> aimed squarely at artists, writers, designers, and musicians Do you really think writers are going to get any real work done on an iPad? Because if so, I really disagree. The touch screen simply doesn't lend itself to quick typing and rapid text editing. Ignoring artists, designers and musicians - since, after all, most people are none of those - and focusing on writing, I think the iPad has a chilling effect. Writing is perhaps the most important activity the average citizen conducts online, so that matters. People kept writing that the iPad is a computer for mothers - my mother, like many others from her generation, was taught to type, a skill that served her well as a legal secretary. She types very well now. Given an iPad, I expect that although some tasks may be easier for her to accomplish, her lengthy email missives to her children, and her letters to the editor, are going to be much briefer. That's a loss to her family and a loss to civic society. Of course, none of that matters if you look at the iPad as a toy, a sketchpad, or a device mainly intended to consume media than produce it. But if you believe that it is the "future of computing", as many call it, then this is a problem. The iPad may well be - and probably is - the future of content consumption, web browsing, gaming, and perhaps television viewing. There's a difference between that though, and the future of computing.
- Psyonic 17y ago
  gaming? perhaps mobile gaming, but definitely not gaming in general. Touch screens are horrible for a large chunk of games. I can't even imagine how you'd play an FPS, but maybe that's my limited imagination. And television viewing? Why? Who wants to hold a tv while they watch it? And if you're not holding it, why not watch an actual tv? I guess for watching on the go... but who does that? Kids in the backseat I guess
- swannodette 17y ago
  Doesn't sound like you've spent much time with the software keyboard. It's quite good. Also there's a reason why Apple makes a keyboard dock and added bluetooth keyboard support. Not sure if your argument really holds up in the face of these facts. One of my favorite iPad features is that Pages goes into WriteRoom mode in the landscape orientation.
- swernli 17y ago

ryandvm 17y ago

I find it amusing that Apple has come full circle and that their latest incarnations of computing portend a much more dystopian future than anything IBM had in mind in their 1984 Super Bowl commercial.

anamax 17y ago
What's dystopian about a Hooter's waitress throwing a hammer at a big screen TV?

loup-vaillant 17y ago

Except, the future is already there: our bandwidth is asymmetric, running our own server is increasingly impossible, and the Internet becomes more and more centralized, like good old closed networks like AOL. The iPad is the symbol of that trend, but otherwise is tiny, irrelevant, even.

glhaynes 17y ago
I dunno, with services like EC2 I feel like there's far more opportunity available to me on the internet than there was a decade ago. I agree inasmuch as it feels different in some ways, though.
- loup-vaillant 17y ago
  Using EC2 makes you the exception, not the rule (and by the way, I would prefer to have a server at home). Most people don't use EC2 (let alone a personal server). They use Blogger. Most people don't send mail. They ask Gmail to that for them. The internet used to be a bunch of interconnected machines doing peer to peer communication. Now, we have a few servers and many many clients. So the future already there. I believe we could reverse the trend and go back to a sane, mostly decentralized, internet, but it will require a collective effort.
Psyonic 17y ago
"running our own server is increasingly impossible" Do tell... it seems quite easy and affordable to run your own server now. A VPS can be had for under $50 a month, and if you really need the whole machine, $200 would probably do it. What am I missing?
- loup-vaillant 17y ago
  This is not running your own server. Your own server should be at your own home, under your own control. That way, if the Police want to have a look at your server it has to subpoena you, directly. That way, data you want remotely accessible won't be in the hand of any third party. That way, mail you send is actually send by you. Eben Moglen said it best: http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2010/feb/01/freedom-cloud-software-freedom-privacy-and-securit/ http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2010/feb/01/freedom-clou...

gxs 17y ago

I'm only speculating here and what do I know, but in my opinion the consumer/creator dynamic is cyclic. Right now, we have a lot of content, hence the reddits, HNs, etc. of the world. At some point the supply for all these aggregators will run low (not disappear, of course) and we'll see a rise in the number of people that author content. And so on and so forth.

Psyonic 17y ago
It may have been in the past, but now that the internet allows far fewer authors to spread their work much farther, I don't see it happening. But here's to hoping!

ggchappell 17y ago

In short: Yes, but it's not a problem. Consider the situation, say, 5 years ago. We all watched TV. That's consume-only; no user production involved. We all read books. Same deal. Radio, newspapers, etc. All the same. But, we all also had computers, and we used to them to produce, interact, etc. The point is that we used a number of devices, we did some producing, but mostly we consumed. Now, perhaps a few years from now, when newspapers, radio, etc., are all dead, we will do all this with just one or two devices. But we should still expect each individual to do a lot more consuming than producing. (Note: This is not to say I'm happy with the Apple/Amazon-runs-the-show model of computing. I don't own a Kindle, or an iPhone-OS-anything. Nor do I intend to get one.)

olalonde 17y ago

For some reason, I knew this would involve the iPad vs PC but I still clicked to make sure :/