Stephen Downes
Stephen's Web
Footprint in your pocket and head in the cloud -The Little Black Device
Is the iPod dead? Maybe not, but the shift from mobile players that are mere storage devices - such as the old iPod - to devices that access content live from the web is well underway. There are various ways to access this data - through a telco's 3G network, through WiFi, and in the future, through 802.11n networks or WiMax - and (importantly) the cost of accessing that data will (begin to) decrease. But which route will we take? The closed and proprietary model offered by Apple and the Kindle, or something that is (or appears to be) more open, such as Android. The Apple products may be cool, but historically, people have opted for open, which is why the Mac, despite its cool factor, historically never rises above a small percentage of the overall market. Dick Moore, Tools and Taxonomy, December 15, 2009 1:53 p.m.. [Link] [Tags: Apple Inc., Wireless, Networks, Cool] [Previous][Next]Comments
Re: Footprint in your pocket and head in the cloud -The Little Black Device
"The Apple products may be cool, but historically, people have opted for open, which is why the Mac, despite its cool factor, historically never rises above a small percentage of the overall market."
This observation seems a little too simplistic - and a little too pretentiously factual. I am not so sure that historically people have opted for the open; why then is the world of operating systems still dominated by Microsoft's proprietary Windows, even though free alternatives have been around for such a long time? [Comment]
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Re: Footprint in your pocket and head in the cloud -The Little Black Device
Ok Stephen. Enough already with the Apple bashing. You know what comes standard with Mac OS? Perl, Python, GCC... Buy a Mac. Work with it for a year.
The best web developers use Macs.
--
Daniel Lemire
http://www.daniel-lemire.com/ [Comment]
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Re: Footprint in your pocket and head in the cloud -The Little Black Device
OK, first of all, I have been using a MacBook Pro for more than three years, and have owned several versions of the iPod, so I can bash Apple if I want.
And when Apple sets up a closed system where the only programs that are allowed to run on your computer are ones that they 'approve', then I will bash them. Especially when they set up this environment that makes even websites into separate programs.
Microsoft's Windows (to address the other commenter) may have been proprietary, but it was open in the sense that anyone could develop both hardware and software for it, and many of its APIs were documented. This meant that people could build however they wanted on Windows, which resulted in better (and more) applications, which is why Microsoft prospered, and Apple didn't. [Comment]
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Re: Footprint in your pocket and head in the cloud -The Little Black Device
I agree with your objectsion to Apple being locked down and a closed system.
However, I'm not convinced about "historically, people have opted for open". I think the majority opt for "cheap and easy", which is why both Apple and Linux have failed so far to break Windows' dominance.
NB - I'm not saying that Windows is the cheapest option, or the easiest to use platform. However, you can buy a Windows PC much cheaper than an Apple PC, and since Windows generally comes pre-installed it is a path of far lower resistance to use Windows than to install Linux. [Comment]
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Re: Footprint in your pocket and head in the cloud -The Little Black Device
That the iPhone is a "gated community" is certainly true but there is nothing stopping you from writing an app for yourself and 100 of your closest friends. The documentation for doing so is readily available and probably cheaper than all of those paper mags I bought so that I could type up BASIC apps and run them once or twice.
That's OK for apps but the place where openness and unlimited distribution really counts is in the area of content. While iPhone-optimized web sites are nicer, they are not strictly necessary. Web sites, blogs, wikis, etc. anything that uses HTML, Javascript, CSS, MPEG-4 Video, etc. is quite accessible with an iPhone or iPod touch. Add to that Apple's recently released frameworks for iTunes LP and Extras (movie extras) which could be a forerunner of a new kind of rich, interactive eBook/eMag/eText format, and you have the makings for a greatly enhanced level of expressiveness.
The closed nature of the App Store benefits developers. This is why developers are shying away from Android. There are too many different versions and devices floating around.
We have a choice as to how we disseminate our ideas. If you're in it for the money, the app store is good for you. If you're in it for some altruistic purpose, then you want to target those apps that enable the dissemination of open content such as the Safari app for iPhone and that part of the iTunes app for iPhone that accesses iTunes U directly. There's also a bunch of apps for blogging, twittering and so on.
I'm not nearly as worried about Apple and Google as I am about the folks who will be exercising control over the emerging 4G networks: WiMax (Sprint/Clearwire, now just Clear) and LTE (AT&T). These folks will hold hostage all of that great open content that we are creating under open license (CC etc.). Ironically, the better we do, the more power we transfer to the keepers of the pipes. Sure, you'll be able to create a super personal learning environment on the network but not if you are poor. [Comment]
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