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Apple’s “Handoff” Technology Shows Us the Future of Run-Anywhere Applications

40 points by dlevine 12y ago

andrewguenther 12y ago
I'm not sure what the author is trying to say here. They define "run anywhere" as a single implementation able to run on multiple devices, all having access to the same data? Isn't that what databases are for? How does Apple offering a closed-off service only for iOS, Mac, and web apps to sync data the future of anything?
- gkoberger 12y ago
  I think the point is that it never has been a technology problem, but rather a usability one. This particular implementation may not be the implementation, however it's a step in the direction of fixing this problem.
- dlevine 12y ago
  Databases only allow access to persistent data. To accomplish what Apple does with Handoff, they also need to sync application state. Although today's keynote was clearly a demo, it does show us the potential of run-anywhere apps.
  - fomojola 12y ago
    Slightly redundant, but application state really should just be considered additional data: Amazon has done the "resume reading on the same page on a different device" for some time unless I'm wrong. The CHOICE to sync the specific screen in the app as well as the contents of that screen might be a unique thing (and definitely makes for a good demo), but at this point we're just picking how far down the rabbit hole we want to go.
itsame 12y ago
I don't quite see when in the keynote Apple demonstrated the run-anywhere applications that's discussed in this blog entry. These are all different implementations of applications running on their respective platforms, integrated through the cloud. It's nothing new at the most basic level, and nothing new at the application level. What Apple's done is integrate everything in a fairly seamless fashion. Certainly Apple gets kudos for their execution (the proximity stuff was cool), but in the end, integration through the cloud and being able to pick up where you left off is something that has already been demonstrated by Google (along with other companies) with stuff like Chrome syncing and the Google Docs suite of applications.
- massel 12y ago
  I could be mistaken, but I don't think the integration is through the cloud. It looks like it's built on the same tech as airdrop, using bluetooth 4.0 to exchange bonjour data then build an ad-hoc wifi network to transfer data (might skip the wifi for tiny transfers like email contents) Otherwise, the stuff like instant tethering wouldn't work because the devices would never be able to connect - also it seemed too fast in the demo to be making the round trip to the cloud, though that is the nature of demos
  - itsame 12y ago
    Admittedly I can only make guesses as to the actual implementation. It may well be through the cloud, through some Bluetooth/Wi-Fi communication, or maybe even a mixture for all we know. Nevertheless, my point is that the concepts and the high-level integration in and of themselves are not particularly novel. Again that's not to discount what Apple has achieved here. In typical Apple fashion, their excellent execution of existing concepts is where their value proposition lies, and this is no exception.
  - smackfu 12y ago
    The cloud part is that if you handoff between a document in Pages in iOS to a document in Pages in OS X, the document itself can just be opened via iCloud rather than sending it directly. Only the user's current state (scroll and cursor position) needs to be sent directly.
solomatov 12y ago
We already have run-anywhere applications. They are called web applications. I don't see how Apple might improve something here. I can start creating email in GMail on iPhone and continue to edit it on PC and many other web apps have similar functionality.
- dlevine 12y ago
  I cover this in my blog post. Web application are run-anywhere, but lack the performance and low-level integration of native applications.
  - clavalle 12y ago
    Which raises the question: how much of that better-than-web performance of native applications is due to not having to deal with networking which, by the nature of this 'advance', they will now have to deal with?
  - solomatov 12y ago
    When performance is needed, you can use asm.js, webGL, HTML5 video/audio APIs, and in the future other APIs. It's very hard for me to imagine consumer applications, which can't be implemented as web.
- interpol_p 12y ago
  Apple's improvement is in reducing the friction. When the devices are in proximity you literally swipe the icon and are instantly in exactly the same state you left off — on a different device. Web apps don't do it like this, and I think that's an important aspect of the attraction here.
  - solomatov 12y ago
    >When the devices are in proximity you literally swipe the icon and are instantly in exactly the same state you left off — on a different device. Web apps don't do it like this, and I think that's an important aspect of the attraction here. Web applications DO this. Take a look at google docs. Thanks to technologies such as operational transformation, this is possible.
moyaRD 12y ago
Seeing this in the context of Microsoft approach to resolve the problem : “Moving their developers to a common platform for running the same code in every device”. Apple is moving developers to optimize the experience for each device. Microsoft in the other hand is trying to cramp every user scenario to one single device ( surface) and preaching that having access to the app in every device is equal to running the same code. This approach surprises me, because of the excellent cloud solution that Microsoft is promoting , that can be the fabric that connect their app experience across devices. An app is an experience that can be access from multiple devices/platform each one tailor to the native environment. The challenge is to provide a seamless transition between this devices, and that is what apple is trying to do with handoff.
DigitalSea 12y ago
Here we go again. Apple announces a pre-existing technology and people start proclaiming how revolutionary that it is. The latest keynote officially once and for all highlights the fact Apple have stopped innovating. Sorry to say it, but the era in which Steve Jobs steered Apple to the top through innovation is well and truly over. The whole premise of apps sharing data in realtime is something that people have been doing for some time in web applications in particular for sometime now. Throw in Node.js, Socket.io and some HTML and I've created an app that works in real-time on multiple devices and I've recreated what Apple's new functionality does. This isn't new, lets not misguide ourselves into thinking this is a new technological marvel. Native apps have theoretically been able to do this for ages now, Apple have just made it easier for native apps to talk to other apps easier. "I can see a future where developers build a single version of their app that runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac OS X (and hopefully Linux, Android, and Windows OSes, although let’s leave that discussion for another time)" The future is already here in that regard. You can achieve this through web applications. Sure, you don't get the same performance as a native app, but it is definitely already possible. There are already solutions out there like Multimedia Fusion and Flash that allow you to build an app in a non-native language, then compile it for iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Android and more. I would call this write once, run everywhere.
threepipeproblm 12y ago
"The thing that excites me about this announcement is the potential of interoperable, run-anywhere applications." I had to laugh at this.
return0 12y ago
This can already be achieved if we use browser-only apps instead of desktop/mobile.

40 points by dlevine 12y ago

I'm not sure what the author is trying to say here. They define "run anywhere" as a single implementation able to run on multiple devices, all having access to the same data? Isn't that what databases are for? How does Apple offering a closed-off service only for iOS, Mac, and web apps to sync data the future of anything?

gkoberger 12y ago
I think the point is that it never has been a technology problem, but rather a usability one. This particular implementation may not be the implementation, however it's a step in the direction of fixing this problem.
dlevine 12y ago
Databases only allow access to persistent data. To accomplish what Apple does with Handoff, they also need to sync application state. Although today's keynote was clearly a demo, it does show us the potential of run-anywhere apps.
- fomojola 12y ago
  Slightly redundant, but application state really should just be considered additional data: Amazon has done the "resume reading on the same page on a different device" for some time unless I'm wrong. The CHOICE to sync the specific screen in the app as well as the contents of that screen might be a unique thing (and definitely makes for a good demo), but at this point we're just picking how far down the rabbit hole we want to go.

itsame 12y ago

I don't quite see when in the keynote Apple demonstrated the run-anywhere applications that's discussed in this blog entry. These are all different implementations of applications running on their respective platforms, integrated through the cloud. It's nothing new at the most basic level, and nothing new at the application level. What Apple's done is integrate everything in a fairly seamless fashion. Certainly Apple gets kudos for their execution (the proximity stuff was cool), but in the end, integration through the cloud and being able to pick up where you left off is something that has already been demonstrated by Google (along with other companies) with stuff like Chrome syncing and the Google Docs suite of applications.

massel 12y ago
I could be mistaken, but I don't think the integration is through the cloud. It looks like it's built on the same tech as airdrop, using bluetooth 4.0 to exchange bonjour data then build an ad-hoc wifi network to transfer data (might skip the wifi for tiny transfers like email contents) Otherwise, the stuff like instant tethering wouldn't work because the devices would never be able to connect - also it seemed too fast in the demo to be making the round trip to the cloud, though that is the nature of demos
- itsame 12y ago
  Admittedly I can only make guesses as to the actual implementation. It may well be through the cloud, through some Bluetooth/Wi-Fi communication, or maybe even a mixture for all we know. Nevertheless, my point is that the concepts and the high-level integration in and of themselves are not particularly novel. Again that's not to discount what Apple has achieved here. In typical Apple fashion, their excellent execution of existing concepts is where their value proposition lies, and this is no exception.
- smackfu 12y ago
  The cloud part is that if you handoff between a document in Pages in iOS to a document in Pages in OS X, the document itself can just be opened via iCloud rather than sending it directly. Only the user's current state (scroll and cursor position) needs to be sent directly.

solomatov 12y ago

We already have run-anywhere applications. They are called web applications. I don't see how Apple might improve something here. I can start creating email in GMail on iPhone and continue to edit it on PC and many other web apps have similar functionality.

dlevine 12y ago
I cover this in my blog post. Web application are run-anywhere, but lack the performance and low-level integration of native applications.
- clavalle 12y ago
  Which raises the question: how much of that better-than-web performance of native applications is due to not having to deal with networking which, by the nature of this 'advance', they will now have to deal with?
- solomatov 12y ago
  When performance is needed, you can use asm.js, webGL, HTML5 video/audio APIs, and in the future other APIs. It's very hard for me to imagine consumer applications, which can't be implemented as web.
interpol_p 12y ago
Apple's improvement is in reducing the friction. When the devices are in proximity you literally swipe the icon and are instantly in exactly the same state you left off — on a different device. Web apps don't do it like this, and I think that's an important aspect of the attraction here.
- solomatov 12y ago
  >When the devices are in proximity you literally swipe the icon and are instantly in exactly the same state you left off — on a different device. Web apps don't do it like this, and I think that's an important aspect of the attraction here. Web applications DO this. Take a look at google docs. Thanks to technologies such as operational transformation, this is possible.

moyaRD 12y ago

Seeing this in the context of Microsoft approach to resolve the problem : “Moving their developers to a common platform for running the same code in every device”. Apple is moving developers to optimize the experience for each device. Microsoft in the other hand is trying to cramp every user scenario to one single device ( surface) and preaching that having access to the app in every device is equal to running the same code. This approach surprises me, because of the excellent cloud solution that Microsoft is promoting , that can be the fabric that connect their app experience across devices. An app is an experience that can be access from multiple devices/platform each one tailor to the native environment. The challenge is to provide a seamless transition between this devices, and that is what apple is trying to do with handoff.

DigitalSea 12y ago

Here we go again. Apple announces a pre-existing technology and people start proclaiming how revolutionary that it is. The latest keynote officially once and for all highlights the fact Apple have stopped innovating. Sorry to say it, but the era in which Steve Jobs steered Apple to the top through innovation is well and truly over. The whole premise of apps sharing data in realtime is something that people have been doing for some time in web applications in particular for sometime now. Throw in Node.js, Socket.io and some HTML and I've created an app that works in real-time on multiple devices and I've recreated what Apple's new functionality does. This isn't new, lets not misguide ourselves into thinking this is a new technological marvel. Native apps have theoretically been able to do this for ages now, Apple have just made it easier for native apps to talk to other apps easier. "I can see a future where developers build a single version of their app that runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac OS X (and hopefully Linux, Android, and Windows OSes, although let’s leave that discussion for another time)" The future is already here in that regard. You can achieve this through web applications. Sure, you don't get the same performance as a native app, but it is definitely already possible. There are already solutions out there like Multimedia Fusion and Flash that allow you to build an app in a non-native language, then compile it for iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Android and more. I would call this write once, run everywhere.

threepipeproblm 12y ago

"The thing that excites me about this announcement is the potential of interoperable, run-anywhere applications." I had to laugh at this.

return0 12y ago

This can already be achieved if we use browser-only apps instead of desktop/mobile.