The $160 Lesson: Apps Beat Devices | Hacker News Reader

The $160 Lesson: Apps Beat Devices

avc.com

Um, no.

Wow. This is simply an extreme over-generalization of a single use-case being applied to entire industries. The author of the article is also a VC with a vested interest in 'apps'. Shocker.

Nice press-hack Mr. Wilson, but present-day facts and digital computing history are not in your favor.

Moore's law and Gilder's law illustrate that a democratization of hardware and connectivity outpace the ability of generic software to be written to connect them.

The future is in MORE devices, not less.

Granted, the practical use-cases for "generic devices running task-specific apps" grows as interfaces become standardized and increased portable computing power allows for more near real-time workflows from non-dedicated real-time hardware. All modern TVs and Set-top boxes are really powerful computers running "video apps". We are finally arriving at dawn of the "univeral remote", but home media consumption is an extremely small sliver of computing.

Wherever safety, security, and low-attention/muscle-memory/real-time response properties dominate the workflow, a task-specific combination of hardware & software (e.g. a Device) works better. And those devices are getting cheaper and cheaper to produce every day.

For example, look at the large variety of input and monitoring Devices which come coupled with household products (stereos, garage door openers, cars, hot tubs, baby monitors, etc.).

Further from home, Internet routers used to simply be generic Unix boxes. Now routers run their own hardware platforms and dedicated operating systems. The same applies to industrial welding/manipulation robots.

Input used to come exclusively from serial line keyboard terminals. Now a whole range of dedicated input Devices (mice, trackpads, haptic probes, eye-trackers, isometric sticks) and their respective software drivers, provide the vast bulk of user input data.

People aren't going to trust the safety and security of their health, homes, cars, or children to the latest v2.1 update in the App store, but they'll (somewhat unhappily) wait on the latest firmware update while their Scientific Atlanta cable box reboots.

All modern tvs and set top boxes are the farthest thing from "really powerful computers". They're actually the exact opposite of being powerful computers.

I absolutely agree. A fact which further proves my point.

The comparison was being made to previous generations of digital TVs and set top boxes, not to generic home PCs or laptops. Similarly, look at the evolution of dedicated game consoles.

I'm currently working on a long article about home theater pcs actually. should be on HN tonight. would love to get your feedback on it in the comments section here.

Thing is - interfaces are getting standardized. Wireless is available everywhere. A lot of the small devices you have will soon be replacable with a mobile device:

- Door openers

- Car Keys

- Heat control

- Remote controls

- Universal lamp control

- Gas/Electricity meter

Probably credit cards as well.

> MasterCard PayPass is an EMV compatible, "contactless" payment feature based on the ISO/IEC 14443 standard that provides cardholders with a simpler way to pay by tapping a payment card or other payment device, such as a PHONE or key fob, on a point-of-sale terminal reader rather than swiping or inserting a card. [Emphasis mine]

MasterCard is already ahead on the game with this. I believe there's been a trial in the US with this, on a Nokia handset I believe. There's currently a trial being launched with BlackBerry and the Bank of Montreal for a test in Montreal (although in reality it will work with all PayPass enabled machines in Canada, including all Tim Hortons, McDonalds, etc). I believe this test is slightly different in that the system auto-emails a receipt to the BlackBerry user's email.

Paypass also works with visa cards equipped with the proper RFID. If you look at the machine you'll see a small visa logo beside the mastercard one.

I knew visa had their paywave, which IIRC is being used in all the coca-cola vending machines at the Olympics. I have noticed visa's logo on some PayPass machines, however I believe, here at least, MasterCard offered incentives on the machines marked with MasterCard logo's only.

I know PayPass hit the market earlier than Visa, so I believe visa is still playing catch-up. I have read Visa's started trailing its paywave in cell phones, however its first trial was 2 years behind MC's, so I believe it's still 2 years behind MC in its usage of paywave. If paywave hits the market big in say 2012, it'll likely be 2014 until people are using it with visa's.

The trick is that the solution that works best with your environment tends to be a solution that resembles your environment. The iTouch/iPhone ARE OSX, so they obviously work very well with the Mac computers this author is using. Granted, the app may be cool, a lot of his problem was driver-related.

But even the friggin’ Apple keyboard (Made by Apple! Drivers and all!) didn’t work as well as a friggin’ app in this story.

That part makes me wonder. It seems odd to me that a Mac would have trouble with Apple's Bluetooth keyboard. You would think Apple would have gone over that with a fine toothed comb. Is this guy doing something weird?

Using it from 20 feet away? A mac mini buried in an AV cabinet? Hard to say what's wrong when all the information given amounts to "dunno".

We have a mac-mini in our office hooked up to our tv and we use Apple's wireless keyboard and a generic bluetooth mouse. Everyone in the office with an iPhone also uses Air Mouse, Remote, Boxee apps too, but they're mostly for novelty over function. Without the keyboard / mouse though, screenshare from our other macs works best.

Sometimes.

This is why the iPhone/iTouch is so powerful: it's not just a device, it is a hardware platform for anybody who needs to build a small, mobile device. Not just the universal remote control: we've already seen apps that turn the iPhone into a medical device, a musical instrument, and a barcode scanner.

This is also where Android, being more open, has a potential edge -- it should be possible to make even better things given the greater freedom allowed, but at present the massive market share advantage of the iPhone means we're going to continue to see innovation primarily over there in the short term.

I bought Mobile air mouse app for iPhone and it works fine when iphone and computer both are connected to same wi-fi network. As they adverties it also works with ad-hoc wifi network created from any computer. I tried this in my office, hoping to use iphone as PowerPoint remote control. But it doesnt work. As soon as I try to connect the app to the network, Server Application running on WinXP dies. Sent them few emails, they promised to fix it but then never got reply back from the.

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