NewtonTalk.net January 2008 archive: Re: [NTLK] No New Newt [OT]

From: Ed Kummel <tech_ed_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu Jan 17 2008 - 18:11:38 EST

I agree with your statements, but why is that any different to what happens today with *ANY* laptop?
  When I go *somewhere* that has wireless, I instantly connect with whatever wireless network happens to be there that I can connect to. If there is no wireless network, my laptop's bluetooth connectivity connects with my Windows Mobile phone and I use the 3g network to connect to the internet at blazing speeds! (no edge limitation here!) All seamlessly and completly invisible! I don't have to touch my phone or make any adjustments to my laptop, the only indication to my network connectivity type is the icon on my laptop's taskbar changes color!
  As for connectivity to peripherals? Sure...that's not a problem either! I have multiple laptops and desktops at my home and none (except for the servers) are wired (unless I have huge files I need to move...it's nice having a Gig-e network!). I also have multiple printers in the house, one on each floor and in some rooms. Based on the area of the house you are in, when you print, it will print to the nearest printer (that was tough to setup, but it works quite well with multiple access points in the house...)
  If you are on my network, or using VPN, you have access to my RAIDed NAS that has a home directory for all registered users and contains the settings for them as well. This is managed by my AD server. Plus, the family calendar is accessible from within the VPN on a Sharepoint server. Attached to my RAID is a CD-DVD/RW which is also mounted when you connect to the network. Daily backups are performed remotely on your computer and are then copied over to the NAS when you connect to the network...but only when your computer has been idle for more than 3 minutes...
  All this is completly seamless to the user...In fact, because I use roaming registries, anyone can log into any machine and all their settings and files will follow them.

  So yeah...Apple's idea is nice..but it's a bit of "been there, done that".
  Again, Apple takes an already been used idea, repackages it into a nice sleek package and calls it "new technology". In fact, what Apple is proposing is something that I have been doing in almost every job I've had since 2001! I'm not impressed.
  Ed
  web/gadget guru
  http://newton.tek-ed.com (download Newton packages)
Norman Palardy <npalardy@great-white-software.com> wrote:
    <snip>

I got this reply about a similar post on another list.
It's a reasonable anwwer to "What the hell is Apple thinking"

Seems to me that the concepts included in the Air are more important
than the machine itself. This may be the introduction to a new
orientation in computing. It would not surprise me if Apple does not
expect to sell many of these but rather wants to see how the public
reacts.

Look at what is presented in the Air:

--What people are going to end up amounts to a wireless laptop
dock. You set your Air down on your desk, and it wirelessly connects
to the peripherals around it: the CD-DVD drive, the external HD, the
router, the printer, the other computers on the network, and so on.
I think this will catch on. Within a couple of years people will
expect this. Plugging something into something else will be a thing
of the past.

I think also that within not very long, places like Kinkos and
Staples and maybe even Starbucks will have stations with all the
peripherals at them. You bring your Air in and set it down and they
all connect.

I think also, that this fosters a new idea about what constitutes a
network. Now people think of the home network and their office
network. They see them as things grounded in space. I think people
are going to start getting more used to the idea of temporary
networks that form spontaneously and ephemerally.

You go into a coffee shop or a college student lounge and you not
only automatically get access to the WiFi signal, you join the social
network going on in the room, much the way people go see what's going
on at a chat room or a social media site. People will probably
expect this to happen also at events. A political demonstration is
one obvious example, but it seems to me that it will happen at just
about any gathering of a large number of people.

Or in a work setting, I can picture a project going on in a
conference room or something and people coming and going, bringing
their computers and joining the network in the room to collaborate in
the project. Over the course of a day, perhaps all the participants
change, but the network and the project keeps operating as people
join and leave.

--Doesn't open. Until now, people thought of computers as a
collection of parts. Want to upgrade? Fine. Take something out and
put something else in. The Air breaks with that. Computer users
don't open the case. It's more the way people relate to phones or a
disposable lighters. It works or it doesn't. When it stops working,
you throw it away and get another one.

--Touch pad capabilities. Until now, touch pads did a few tricks
besides moving a cursor around, but they were considered tricks. Now
they are considered capabilities. One does not expect to find a
touch pad that only moves the cursor any more than they would expect
to find a new, one-button mouse. The Air makes this attitude
official. Within a very short time, Apple keyboards for desktops
will probably include touch pads. The mouse may be on the way out.

--Solid state memory. Within a few years, having a disc spin will
be as out of date as spinning an LP.

Other features fit this same pattern.

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