#casual computing

[donttalkaboutdust]

According to Jones, the idea of “mujicomp” revolved around the notion that ubiquitous computing needs to “become sexy and desirable… able to be appreciated as cultural design objects rather than technology… they should be tasteful, simple, clear, clean, contemporary, affordable in order to be invited into the home“.

Pasta&Vinegar » Blog Archive » Matt Jones on mujicomp and mujicompfrastructures at Technoark

[borismann]

I really like the idea of what Google has done with Google Docs and what Apple is trying to do with iCloud in general, pushing the filesystem out of the way to leave in place just a document metaphor

“I broke it” vs. “it’s broken” « diego's weblog

More on the theme of shifting to casual computing.

[borismann]

I left this comment on Doug Belshaw's post on whether Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion – and specifically iCloud integration – was creating lock-in:

Why would you use / recommend Pocket, a proprietary reader that gets between you and native web content?

All the big guys are creating ecosystems intended to create stickiness or lock in. I am not being an Apple apologist – I agree they are trying to create lock-in with iCloud. I have yet to save any documents with the app that created them, and for the most part keep it turned off since I have files on Dropbox and contacts, calendars, etc. through Google.

The Google syncing is through relatively open standards (IMAP, CalDAV, CardDAV.

Dropbox is an app and the files are "just" files.

I'm not sure what open standards would replace / replicate iCloud? Should operating systems with cloud features require first-class hooks so that competitors can implement compatible interfaces? Google Drive, MSFT Skydrive, and Dropbox?

These are all interesting questions as we head farther away from "professional" computing, to casual / mass market computing.