Network Device?
2 April 2009
Is it a mobile blog post, if I’m writing it from my G1? That’s a definitve no from the interface perspective, because I’m using the same backend in textpattern. It’s a definitive yes, when it comes to my typing speed.
We are obviously at a breakpoint. Apple desolved itself from the “Computer” in their name, because they started to be something more then a computer and software maker. When will we stop calling devices like the iPhone or the G1 mobile? Wouldn’t be “Network Device” – or something similiar – be much more apropriate?
Since I’m writing this blog post from my mobile device, I’d like to ask you to continue discussing this idea in the comments.
Well, at face value, “mobile” still seems valid: It denotes devices you can (feasibly) carry around, as opposed to a stationary computer installation (which are not going away anytime soon).
That said, as a technology guy, they’re all just computers to me, and I find the UI conventions of the respective software platforms to be a more interesting axis for classification.
My Nokia N810 mobile, for example, offers fairly desktop-like workflows (it’s application-centric, has a clipboard, something akin to a task bar – and by virtue of running Linux and an X server, features ports of many common Linux desktop applications), as opposed to something like the chaining of interface cards found on Android (which calls them “Activities”) or Palm’s webOS that is built more around the idea of quickly progressing through specific, finite tasks than concurrent multi-tasking.
So on that end, you now have mobiles that can be very much used like a traditional stationary system, and as the novelty of “I can carry it around!” has worn off, it becomes more about “What do I want to be able do with this thing I carry around?”.
— Sho · Apr 2, 02:25 PM · #