Tablets + cloud vs. desktop PCs
March 5, 2012
Windows on an iPad? Believe it. (Credit: Onlive)
As the action moves to tablets, mobile devices, and the cloud, what’s the future for the desktop PC?
Dim, according to OnLive, Inc., which has just introduced Onlive Desktop Plus, which displays a Windows 7 desktop on an iPad, with the full, latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, Adobe Reader, and Flash videos, plus 5 GB of cloud storage.
The trick:a high-speed server farm in the cloud runs the programs and streams gigabit/second screen images to your iPad (limited only by your Internet connection).
A free version is also available, and versions for Android tablets, iPhones, iPod Touches, Macs and PCs, and TV sets are coming.
More on this: see David Pogue’s column in The New York Times.
The Microsoft empire strikes back
Windows 8 interface (credit: Microsoft)
In an attempt to catch up and remain relevant, Microsoft just released a sneak peek of Windows 8, the next major rethink of its operating system, expected to go on sale later this year, Technology Review reports.
In an “If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em” move, Microsoft built an OS that does it all (instead of developing one version of Windows for tablets and another for desktops — as Apple has done with OSX and iOS).
In related news, Ars Technica has an updated iPad 3 rumor roundup.
We’ll see who’s right on Wednesday!
Comments (16)
by Christian Gehman
Moore’s law will continue to speed up and miniaturize the computing component of the online interface. But … does it apply to display technology? e.g., where’s the laser hologram 3D as if real display? … e.g., 3D without a physical screen? without ten thousand bits of plastic, just two light wands intersecting? Do we know this is possible? How many years away?
by Grammar Nazi
“sneak peak” typo; supposed to be “sneak peek”
by Editor
Danke, Herr Grammar. Fixed. I’m usually the one who chides writers for that exact error. Ouch.
by Christian Gehman
It’s for its would be my main peeve.
by Pauldenice
Beyond Tablet computing I just remembered a video about
Six Sense interfaces:
http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/#VIDEOS
I felt that this video was a great illustration of cloud computing combined with very user friendly interfaces.
Does anyone here know if this huge development work has been further used , since the young programmer said he intended to put the code in “open source” on the internet…
Paul.
by izumi3682
Until i can play fully realized virtual worlds like ‘second life’ or ‘world of warcraft’ on my ipad, the technology of ‘tableit’ computers is hopelessly limited…hurry up future!
by izumi3682
“tablet’ typo
by melajara
We already had this proposal with the thin client concept promoted by ORACLE and somewhat SUN too. It never materialized as people prefer to OWN their data (and programs) and not be dependent on yet another possibility of failure (namely a bad internet connection) or cloud outage as I witnessed recently. I completely agree with this point of view.
Besides, it’s a shame to see how downsizing – now to the tablet and smartphone form factor – is an excuse for a sad lack of creativity from the fraction of the software industry targeting before workstations, desktop PC and then laptops.
For example, I’m still waiting for an adequate substitute of the “desktop” metaphor. That kind of interface doesn’t make sense anymore in a world where your average PC is handling millions of files. More “human” (i.e. semantically relevant) ways to organize your data/files should be devised.
Maybe an adaptation of IBM Watson to Personal Information Management tied to the O/S could be a real breakthrough in this field.
by Editor
Good point re obsolete desktop metaphor and a good idea re DeepQA (Watson software) PIM — a sort of personal search engine.
by Pauldenice
The more it changes, the more it is the same…
I remember when working at IBM on a huge 370 mainframe and the first PC were coming out. At the time I couldn’t see the interest of PCs given that I had access to a 2 meg workspace, with 20 meg virtual DASD memory, when the early PCs offered 256 KB space and 512 meg memory
This was of course prior to the concept of “Cloud computing” but in fact all the computing was taken care of on the mainframe.
With current cloud computing new devices become lighter and still allow advanced database management as well as complex computation.on huge servers.
I remember having made a forecast saying in 1975, before personal computers were announced by IBM, that PCs in the future would generate more demand for super computers and disk space than IBM top management could dream of. But unfortunately IBM Top Management wasn’t ready for that kind of paradigm shift.
Back to the future of desk personal computers, nothing precludes to have them linked to “cloud computing based applications”
The with regard to ease of use, I find current full sized keyboard far more user friendly, than tablets, at least for my kind of computer use: writing papers, answering e-mail, participating to blogs and forums.
In addition although I have quite a lot of documents on my computer or available on line on the internet, I still like to browse on my bookshelves, often finding some inspiration just seeing a book cover, when I had almost forgotten I had read it…
Thats where another comment I made on this blog comes back to life: What makes human intelligence better, so far, than artificial intelligence is that it is not perfectly logical nor has an infinite memory, making logical errors ans fixing them, forgetting about a book or a references and rediscovering it may be at the origin of very creative ideas.
For Some bibliography on “imperfect brain superiority” feel free to contact me.
With a tablet, one may have creative ideas too when staying on a nice spot outside, in town, on the country side, in the mountains. So it is a question of personal preferences.
Paul
by Christian Gehman
First index, then find works fairly well … for writers. It’s handy, of course, to give a date code in the file name (20120610) at the start or end of the file name.
by Yoel S.
is this a commercial for onlive? cause i really dont see any big technological innovation in this software. video streaming software existed well before the ipad. also, i doubt if this is any real contender to window 8, simply because windows 7 doesn’t fit on a tablet. even the best video streaming in the world wont change this simple fact.
by Editor
The innovation is not in the video streaming software, as you correctly say. The significant innovation is in the architecture and software developed for the server farm, which is “10 years in the making, according to the company’s founder,” as mentioned by David Pogue (see link). This is a significant achievement. The operating system is in the server farm, not in the tablet, so I’m not sure what you mean exactly. I’m running it myself on an iPad. The only slight annoyance is pixelation due to the limitations of the Internet in sending massive amounts of graphics data over the Internet is real time.
by Yoel S.
My mistaking regarding the server farm, since i thought this was just streaming my own desktop pc, and not some cloud based pc. This is indeed innovation. Regarding my comment about windows 7 doesnt fitting a tablet – that was from UX prespective. thus, this technology is mostly to enable legacy technology to stay on the tablet. What I would want to see is an office suite written specifically for the tablet – which is what i think windows 8 is supposed to bring.
by Editor
“Office suite written specifically for the tablet”: interesting.
by Christian Gehman
So … a phone sized device with a projected hologram display could, theoretically, be all you really need … next year?