Okay so this isn’t a new concept, really just the way I see it happening. This post came about through a conversation I had with two of my friends - Ernst and Benny. We were having the usual Mac/Pc discussion and it all just unraveled from there. The way we use computers now is silly and completely ineffective. We couldn’t have done it another way though it was the route we had to go, to get to the point which I will show you now.
So the problem, why are computers so ineffective? I need to just highlight that it is only ineffective now. When it was designed it was brilliant for what it had to be and that was that the computer needs to be smaller and anyone should be able to have a computer. However with the advent and maturity of the internet and distributed cloud computing this game will and has changed. This change has made it unreasonable for us to have to have a location based machine to work from. Why should I have a home machine and then also have a work machine the thing is I don’t. The concept of having so many machines is silly, and a waste of material to create the physical machine and a nightmare to manage.
I propose that we have a single device much like say an iPod or a Zune that has a larger processor and far more memory and say 80Gb to 160Gb of storage locally (solid state of course). That device can interact with keyboards, mice, printer hubs, screens and more through lets say a USB exchange or to the devices themselves. Your cached data and perhaps some thick client software gets store locally but essentially your profiles and the data relating to it gets stored in the ‘Cloud’ - to use a buzz word.
So how I think it would work is you would get to work place your device on the desk or keep it in your pocket and be ready to work. You simply choose the profile you would like to work with and start. Once you are done at the office you go home to perhaps go work on your blog, or during lunch time you sign into your home profile. You get to seperate the data between them easily with this concept but still have a shared area or profile allowing for moving files and favorites between profiles.
Once at home, internet cafe, a friend’s house or even your car you simply just have to link up your device with the peripherals available to you at the given time and you can start working using keyboards, mice and monitors available. This allows designers to still have huge monitors and tablets; it allows stock brokers to have their multiple monitors and so on. You could be in business development and would need to do loads of presentations; with this model it is fine. You get to simply sign in with your presentation profile - a safe profile with none of your personal items on it - and sync with the boardroom allowing you to present with little or no effort.
The same business developer could be driving to a meeting and needs to have a conference call, he simply would again sign into his presentation or work profile and connect to his car - depending on the model what you have available would vary of course. This concept plays into my post about ‘Radio and the internet‘ where now your car radio is in theory always with you. This system also breaks into a new market and is something I am very passionate about. That market is real-time consumer data, knowing that I just made several purchases and knowing the details about it. This is through your device interacting with the cashier machine and actually allows the transaction to occur - your device will be the authentication method for payments. Allowing me to through some software model and view my data to better manage my life.
This whole concept assumes constant good access to the internet, which is where the problem will start. Software such as Adobe Photoshop would have to change to only bring down file data as needed. I see companies like IBM, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon playing a huge role in this with their products Azure, Surface, Zune, iPod, EC2 respectively. However I think living like this with a ‘Uniputer’ would actually do much more for the economy in terms of productivity and lifestyle. This systems would allow you to better your lifestyle, with the access to your work profile from anywhere you could simply stay home and work as though you are in the office.
I can’t wait for this to be a reality, for me to simply have one device elegantly designed, light, powerful and connected. Having access to my life from anywhere in the world is an amazing concept. Having all your favorites, your trash, your documents etc. all there and ready for you to use. Just add peripherals to taste.