The iPad Pro and the Future of Computing
Like many stories these days, this one starts with a tweet. A discussion ensued on Twitter, and my friend and colleague, Stephen Parker, posted a response on his site.
On Twitter, my thoughts focused on the App Store as the single source of applications for iOS. It's certainly an old argument, but I think still relevant, especially for pro apps.
But there's more to this than the policies of the app store, which could easily be changed if Apple desires. The bigger issue is iOS as the platform for the future of computing.
It is pretty well known that apps on iOS are limited to operation inside a sandbox. This sandbox limits access to the filesystem as well as various APIs and capabilities. These limits have a lot of practical benefits for mobile devices, such as increased battery life and security. However, they come with a serious cost.
There's an entire world of capability and possibility available in the operating system and services running below the application sandbox in iOS. This world is simply off limits to developers outside of Apple.
If we think of something like Siri, such a service simply could not be developed and delivered by a third party. It simply requires integration and access beyond what is capable by a sandboxed application.
If iOS is the platform for the future of computing, shouldn't it allow developers outside of Apple to help define that future? Or instead, must we wait for Apple to invent the future and maybe provide a way for developers to tap into it?
The truth is that Apple won't always be the source of the major breakthrough innovations in technology. Apple makes amazing products, but I also want to see them continue to make amazing platforms where innovation can flourish, as they've done with their past operating systems.
The world's first web server and Tim's workstation at CERN.
Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web on a NeXT computer. NeXTStep was a brilliant operating system that went on to become the core of Mac OS X. Shouldn't the future of computing live up to its past? Shouldn't it be possible to build and deliver the next big advancement on the iPad Pro running iOS? This is what comes to mind when I think of a "pro" computing device and I believe this is what we will lose if iOS is the computing platform of the future.
I agree with Stephen, the future is anybody's game. And this is why I think it is so important to ensure that creativity and innovation are able to flourish outside of Apple. If iOS is destined to be the platform for the future of computing, it must take this into consideration so we do not lose the ability to participate in the creation of the future.
RIP Rdio
As you may have heard, Rdio is shutting down imminently. As a long time Rdio subscriber, this was pretty sad news to me. It seems the obvious replacement is Spotify, but there didn't seem to be any good way to migrate an Rdio collection to Spotify.
Enter RIP Rdio, a little web app I cooked up to help you transfer your Rdio collection. It uses an export CSV file that can be produced by this Chrome Extension. Once you have that RIP Rdio will lookup and add all the albums or tracks from your Rdio collection to Spotify's "Your Music" collection.
If this sounds helpful, please give it a try and let me know if it works for you or not. If you are interested, the code is on Github. It's written in Go with the frontend largely ripped off from the Spotify web api example project.
The Web We Have to Save
The hyperlink was my currency six years ago. Stemming from the idea of the hypertext, the hyperlink provided a diversity and decentralisation that the real world lacked. The hyperlink represented the open, interconnected spirit of the world wide web — a vision that started with its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee. The hyperlink was a way to abandon centralization — all the links, lines and hierarchies — and replace them with something more distributed, a system of nodes and networks.
The concept of the open Web typically is discussed in context of protocols and ISP traffic management, but I think it is important to remember that we should also consider the openness of the sites and services where we create and upload content. Most of the social media services we use today are designed to keep us from navigating away. Content within the network is favored over external links. Furthermore, it may be difficult to impossible to export your data stored within the service. Instead of leaving our data locked into someone else's platform, we should favor systems that support and encourage acces over the open Web.
In Support of Net Neutrality
It makes me very happy and proud to see Squarespace taking action on this issue.