Comments on: Why apps and not gadgets are the future of tech

By: AH

AH — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:57:23 +0000

Hermione – we’d have the full cloud obviously, but we’d also have our little clouds. The fogs, I call it – but what people call “the cloud” is already a mis-used term.

Eg., if I use google apps, that’s not the same “cloud” as an app running on Amazon S3. The cloud is made up of lots of smaller clouds, and we’ll have our own little clouds (fogs) each in which we can run apps and save data. No more “iphone” app, you just install the app in your fog and it’s available to you on all your devices.

Closed-off platform specific apps and proprietary data stores are not the future.

By: hermione

hermione — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:01:06 +0000

I think Technology is an evolution, operating systems get better, devices get better the not so distance future might be an updated version of the iPhone or Android …I don’t think a new device will just jump outta no where.

AH thanks for the history – but why will we only have a little fog? why won’t we have access to the entire cloud?

By: Iain Haywood

Iain Haywood — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:55:27 +0000

This made me think about how we define “gadgets” (taking gadgets in this case to represent computer devices rather than electric whisks…) now compared to a couple of years ago. When I think of PDAs, which were the rockstar gadgets of the nineties, they were effectively inspired by the same ethos as iphone/droid-era smartphones, in that they were vessels for apps rather than inherently functional. But look at how naff PDAs look now. It’s now only proper and perpetual connectivity that makes a convergence device work, and apps that allow some kind of collaborative/hive function, and in this sense I absolutely think that apps as we know them now have replaced gadgets.

By: james mcdonagh

james mcdonagh — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:54:23 +0000

Totally agree that tech would be so much nicer if integrated into one object.. But will this object really be a phone? Phones have led the way over the last few years however what to stop a new gadject emerging, that will still be able to carry voice calling but NOT be a phone as its main function..?

I have many gadgets that i bought on impulse and soem of them are still boxed (like the i-touch) I think in total I must have around 15.

By: AH

AH — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:53:46 +0000

The future is “just apps”. We oscillate between online and offline apps, but today’s web apps are just like the original terminal client apps: you had to be on the network, data was stored on the network, etc.

Then local computing because powerful and apps ran offline and data was stored offline. Computers were pervasive but didn’t talk to each other.

Now the internet is pervasive, computers are talking to each other, and (some) apps are going back online again. We buy devices because the PC doesn’t fit in the pocket or because we need a certain function (e.g., 3G radio).

The future is apps that work online and offline (both modes are useful), and people having “personal computing power” rather than “personal computers”. Your own little bit of fog rather than the full cloud.

And maybe at that point everything will actually work together.

By: hermione

hermione — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:50:28 +0000

But Barney – the quality will very quickly get better and better on mobile devices.

By: hermione

hermione — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:48:39 +0000

Ha ha! No parade … But why then are people still being fooled into buying separate devices that do the same thing as an app on your PC?

Because of the novelty factor?

you’re right, the past is apps, the now is web apps, the future is….?

By: Barney

Barney — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:45:34 +0000

We wont be using Facebook in the future (and maybe not Twitter unless they actually do something properly)

Apps are definitely the way forward. You’re totally right – one device with tonnes of apps is far greater than 1 million devices in my bag

Although I’ll still need other devices if I’m looking for proper quality (digital SLR camera, video recorder etc)

But the iPhone is fine for silly on-the-go photos and vids.

By: AH

AH — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:42:04 +0000

Not to rain on this particular parade, but tech as been “about apps” since the invention of the affordable general computer in the 60s

I have tonnes of apps on my PC. Apps are very much the past and the now of tech, not just the future.

I agree with “gadgets are not the future”, though.