iPhone OS 4 & The iPad - Software is the Hero, Hardware is the Sidekick

Apple's iPhone OS 4 is set to be unleashed this summer, and of course it also foreshadows what's in store for the iPad 3.0 or 1.3 depending. But I believe, the combination of Multi-Touch technology, the sleekness of the iPad and the dynamism of the software that runs it, heralds a shift in the interaction between hardware and software for all future devices.

What do I mean? Apple's software along with the numerous independently produced apps  effectively changes the function of the physical device. An iPhone, and more so an iPad, is essentially a blank slate - a digital chameleon that takes the shape of whatever you need at any point in time. This could mean that hardware will change far less frequently and perhaps, as environmental issues become more urgent, not change much at all, once the necessary physical facilities are in place (like a camera lens).

The implications are obvious: with limited natural resources, paper-saving digital devices also require resources to be produced, so it makes sense that physical devices will become more static, while software becomes more dynamic. Keyboards need not be produced - the only thing that makes laptop a laptop - when they can exist in a digital space, making tablets far more Eco-friendly products needing fewer resources to manufacture. And let's face it, we can store more data in smaller and smaller physical spaces so it's just a matter of time before tablets, or the iPad, will do everything your laptop can.

That said, computers and many, if not all digital devices, can very well find their existence condensed into one device. It may not be the iPad alone, but the race is likely to be which device will be the ubiquitous one. So far the iPhone/iPad duo is way ahead. Where will the money be made? In Software updates. I can see game consoles selling updates rather than machines. UI's will become the cash cow rather than machines themselves. Perhaps Apple's machines will become ubiquitous while other companies merely fall in line and try to provide the best UI within Apple's physical framework.

Anyway, below are the OS 4 specifics:

iPhone OS 4

iPhone's OS 4 will feature multitasking, among other things, (Jobs made it clear that the OS 4 functionality will feature in the iPad 3rd gen and not the second gen - we wait with sweaty palms), along with a 5X digital zoom for the camera, custom wallpaper, spell check, gift apps among the 100 new features. Also, app developers will be able to design products for of the applications on the iPhone.

To be specific MT means you will be able to access apps while using an app, and pick up where u left off in each application. Very simple, but much desired. 

1. Background audio - featuring Pandora and it's millions of streamed tunes, controlled from the lock screen - buy from iTunes. Play anytime.
2. Skype - Receive calls! Pretty much anytime and still receive your iPhone calls. And use other apps while on Skype calls.
3. Sat Nav/Background location - Background location = Keep receiving directions while using other apps. Low power locating using cell towers rather than GPS. Custom services for each app.
4. Push notifications - All to Apple straight to you.
5. Local notifications - No need for a server. All done on the iPhone.
6. Task completion - Operation in apps continue/are completed even when app is not in use (e.g Facebook photo upload). 
7. Fast app switch - No need to relaunch, restart or restore apps. Just start where you left off.

Other features:

• Home screen folders for apps - auto naming, better organization
• Unified inbox - get all mail in one place, organized by thread/conversation, open attachments, switch bewteen inboxes faster
• iBooks - yep. Nuff said.
• Enterprise - Better data encryption for email and app developers. Receive apps wirelessly not just when plugged in to iTunes.
• Games - Social Gaming Network. Challenge and play with friends. Get matched up with others like with XBox Live. Achievements, leaderboards etc.
• iAd - The moneymaker...for Apple and developers. Keeps free apps free. 'Elegant' commercialisation.The exponential opportunity for ads per app, per usage, per user. 

Lot's more on the Apple website. The link's above - have fun!

Why The Internet Is Beginning to Suck

The internet used to be a place where you could find practically anything. More importantly, it used to be a place where you could find what you were looking for, whatever it was, and Google was a fantastic help in your search. But Google seems to be Googling the life out of the Internet.

I don't know if anyone else has search engine issues, but it appears to me that one now only finds what Google is paid to make you find, rather than what you are looking for. Located in the UK, no matter how much I want to find businesses related my field (I'm a professional voice over) in Hong Kong or Abu Dhabi, UK results relentlessly appear. Why? The point of the internet is that it isn't bounded by borders or limited to geographical location, yet still my search results always seem to be guided ever so subtlety by where I may be at any time. 

Do you remember when YouTube really was about YOU? You could find just about anything on it and post just about anything on it. Then Google happened and the rules changed. What we thought were real life events and people were actually corporate advertising masquerading as real life. What we thought was a place that facilitated freedom of information and expression became loyal to corporate obligation and consumer advertising then subject to litigation and copyright infringement. There is hardly any YOU left in YouTube, and nothing seems to have replaced it as a place for folks to do their thing. Why is this?

The Internet was powerful because it was a communal collective. It was made up of everyone who used it. But its potential for profit has led to all the independent fragments being gobbled up by corporate monsters. Hence the Internet has become centralised. Let's face it, how can you refuse a huge payday as a small business owner, like Facebook's Zuckerburg  or YouTube's Hurley? But as the people cave in, the Internet becomes smaller and less of what it was meant to be. Less of what made it a powerful tool. Sometimes we don't even know when it happens. Nowadays, the Monoliths design their products to appear like boutiques and small creative thinkers - only to purvey a prescribed profit driven agenda that we happily(?) fall for. 

Perhaps we don't fall for it - but it's beginning to feel like we don't have a choice. As corporations appropriate all the cyber-estate and make profit the prime motive of the Netscape, we are left to the mercy of the few. They make rules we have no choice but to follow. Or we succumb to the design and accept it as the only option relinquishing our freedom to create, break boundaries and plumb the depths of Cyberspace.

If not for the continual search to monetize the net, we could be enjoying it in all its piebald, multifaceted, multi-collective glory. And indeed, the demand that the internet should enrich the already dominant media firms seems to be a fait accomplis. But we should stop and ask why their profit must take primacy.

In venting my frustration about the hijacking of the internet and ineffectual search engines, a friend suggested that I conduct more research in order to input more specific search terms, in order to get more targeted results. Only problem is that research is likely to be conducted on...ya. Vicious Circle complete.