Concept: Seamless Computing
So a while ago, Bill Gates offered Microsoft's dream of Seamless Computing. What I think the mogul got wrong was the concentration on audio and video. [Now, from the start, I should mention that I'm an Apple guy; the examples I'm about to use are going to be Apple based, but there is no reason why Windows couldn't use the same technology.]
The center-piece of their vision is Microsoft Media Center. While this is a legitimate starting point, I would wager that the user would be better served through other means. My concept of seamless computing looks like this:
I've got two computers, a desktop and a laptop. Right now I can use the laptop to remotely connect to the desktop a la thin client. But doing this means that my ability to use the desktop machine is hindered by the speed of my connection (or even availability of a connection). Why not use powerful syncing technology to make these machines symbiant? Using Apple's Rendezvous technology (or ZeroConf for other folks) would allow the computers to auto-discover each other on a wireless network. All I'd have to do is walk up next to my desktop with my notebook in hand. The computers get to talking and start synching up with the latest changes on either machine. For the most part, these updates will be complete by the time I can sit down in my chair and turn on my monitor. It's like I was never away. As I work on the desktop and the laptop is charging, my work is being updated between the two machines. Time for class -- I get up with my laptop and when I open it up during a lecture, the bookmarks I've created are available.
This is easy, so let's take it a step further. What if I have a cell phone. Any of my contacts in Address Book on OS X should be immediately available on my phone (and more importantly, vice versa). Now, I won't want a complete copy of every app from the desktop/laptop on my phone, but I will want my email. Discretion is important. If I was lucky enough to have GPS navigation in my car, it would be important to have certain locations stored there as well as the corresponding events from iCal, etc. This is seamless computing.
Sure, multimedia is there too. But the ability to have available my Information for Life is more important. The ability to aid communication is more important. In general, Apple has been better at managing this information than Microsoft.
Another important aspect I will cover next time that was overlooked by Mr. Gates is making hardware and software that is context sensitive -- not just in the sense of how information should scale to different devices, but how it should respond to the context of a situation in space and time.
The center-piece of their vision is Microsoft Media Center. While this is a legitimate starting point, I would wager that the user would be better served through other means. My concept of seamless computing looks like this:
I've got two computers, a desktop and a laptop. Right now I can use the laptop to remotely connect to the desktop a la thin client. But doing this means that my ability to use the desktop machine is hindered by the speed of my connection (or even availability of a connection). Why not use powerful syncing technology to make these machines symbiant? Using Apple's Rendezvous technology (or ZeroConf for other folks) would allow the computers to auto-discover each other on a wireless network. All I'd have to do is walk up next to my desktop with my notebook in hand. The computers get to talking and start synching up with the latest changes on either machine. For the most part, these updates will be complete by the time I can sit down in my chair and turn on my monitor. It's like I was never away. As I work on the desktop and the laptop is charging, my work is being updated between the two machines. Time for class -- I get up with my laptop and when I open it up during a lecture, the bookmarks I've created are available.
This is easy, so let's take it a step further. What if I have a cell phone. Any of my contacts in Address Book on OS X should be immediately available on my phone (and more importantly, vice versa). Now, I won't want a complete copy of every app from the desktop/laptop on my phone, but I will want my email. Discretion is important. If I was lucky enough to have GPS navigation in my car, it would be important to have certain locations stored there as well as the corresponding events from iCal, etc. This is seamless computing.
Sure, multimedia is there too. But the ability to have available my Information for Life is more important. The ability to aid communication is more important. In general, Apple has been better at managing this information than Microsoft.
Another important aspect I will cover next time that was overlooked by Mr. Gates is making hardware and software that is context sensitive -- not just in the sense of how information should scale to different devices, but how it should respond to the context of a situation in space and time.
posted by Matt James at
11:44 PM
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