Speaking from the Mac OS X Conference, Mr. O’Reilly was quoted to say Apple Computer is pushing th e envelope in a software revolution that soon will see most applications reaching out from the box they are running on and connecting to other devices & Pc’s and PDA’s and related.
Sometime in the future, Mr.O’reilly said, all software will be like the iTunes Music Store, a digital jukebox that will allow consumers to purchase music off the Net and load it onto a walkman Mp3 player like the iPod.
Mr.O’reilly, a longtime industry observer who operates tech book publisher O’Reilly & Associates, cited Apple’s iTunes, iPhoto and iChat as proggies that network out to the net and devices like Bluetooth celPhones to extend their functions. With iPhoto, for example, people could publish their photo albums on their Web site or even go online to purchase extra prints or an album of their pictures.
Mr.O’reilly said the old ways of stand-alone multiplatform software & the unconnected word processor & spreadsheets have becoming passé. Even the idea of making a distinction btw software platforms such as Mac, Windows and Linux is no longer making sense.
“The platform is no longer the box sitting at your desk,” Mr.O’reilly said.
To illustrate this opinion, Mr.O’Reilly asked how many people in the room of Mac OS X programmers were Linux users? Quite a Few raised their hands. But when O’Reilly asked how many used Google as their search engine of choice, there was a wave0-like show of acknowledgement.
Mr. O’Reilly said, “You’re all Linux users.” Google is a Linux app running on the world’s greatest Linux cluster, he said.
Apple is the first old-world computer company to get this," said Mr. O’Reilly. “Apple has started to take that network concept, the idea of reaching beyond the single device, and they’re starting to build that into their applications.”
However, Mr.O’reillysaid the implementation of this idea is often inconsistent. For example, Mr.O’reilly noted that songs can be bought online through iTunes, but it is not possible to buy stock photos through iPhoto, Apple’s digital photo repository.
Just Like with iTunes allowing music to be shared across a local network using Rendezvous, Apple’s 0-config network technology, also there does not seem to be a equivalent ser, with iPhoto for sharing pictures, Mr.O’Reilly had stated.
“It’s a crime that iPhoto doesn’t allow me to share photos,” he said.
O’Reilly suggested that networking tech like Rendezvous or iChat lists should be incorporated with all of Apple’s software. If Im’ing were added to the Address Book option inc’d with OS X/ Jaguar, the results could something similar to Friendster, the wildly popular dating/socializing network , Mr.O’reilly said.
“Reason I’m excited about Apple is I think they are a real leader in this area, but they are not thinking hard enough how to complete the picture,” he piped in with.
Mr.O’Reilly noted there are several points of fact to be sorted out before many apps could operate successfully in a global Network. Example, managing id’s and permits that would be core competencies of the next gen of networked apps, Mr.O’Reilly also said you may; want your wife to be able to automatically share your calendar and rolodex type contacts. Now some may not want the whole world to have that or similar type of access. Mr.O’Reilly also pointed out issues surrounding intellectual prop. And 2 way networked info flow, and the “hackability” of apps in today’s world. “Hackers” show us the way technology should flow at and how to protect our networks from those of the same modem pool as those that show us how to protect ourselves from the evil brethren.
During a Q&A Pow-wow, Mr. O’Reilly said his suggestions received mixed replies from Apple, that it was difficult to make the cogs turn at such a huge Corp. But Mr. O’Reilly also added that it can happen; both Google and Amazon.com opened up their API’s after almost 2 decades of prodding.
To be on equal footing to MS, the company’s dot-Net strategy is a platform for building Net-enabled software, a fact Wait neglected to mention. Now MS, like Apple, recogs that apps aren’t as useful when they stand alone whereas networked can enhance and expand as it branches out
[COLOR=DarkOrange][SIZE=1](Damn I didn’t know I could this myself)[/SIZE][/COLOR]