Google's Secret Weapon: Webtop

[Elimentals]

Hey I've said more than once I'm all for getting rid of some form factors -- just don't believe it's ok to sacrifice anything in the process, hence it must be better at doing the stuff that existing devices do.

For example if I could do everything using Google glasses I'd be one of the first to go this route; unfortunately they're no where close to that.

You sound like the millions of people in the past, a sentence I have hear a million+ times in my life.

From the dawn of the personal computer and all its stages, from GPU cards to math co-processors.

Yes my friend if you look at the change from inside it, it always looks like a crap idea and you can never see a reason why anyone would want to use something like that instead of what they have available at the time. In hindsight we can always point and laugh, but trust me while the change happened loads of people never saw how it could be beneficial and only pointed to the flaws.

This for me is one of those moments again. So yes move along, nothing to see, no one is telling you to trough your current PC in the dustbin, or forcing you to buy anything new, so stop complaining.

 

[Park@82]

...

Simple Google search supports this view: http://www.google.co.za/search?q=ne...ooks&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari
...

I don't see how this google search supports your view? It is about as useful as this: https://www.google.co.za/search?q=d...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

 

[Polymathic]

PCs are dying a slow death, in fact in a few years time PCs should be extinct in the home

 

[Bryn]

I really don't see my cellphone replacing my PC. I really like my phone, but really, it doesn't have a tactile keyboard, a mouse, 27" screen, a bunch of USB ports, several TB of storage etc.

 

[Fudzy]

I really don't see my cellphone replacing my PC. I really like my phone, but really, it doesn't have a tactile keyboard, a mouse, 27" screen, a bunch of USB ports, several TB of storage etc.

I think you're missing the point.

 

[opinionhated]

Agreed. PC's aren't a consumer device. It's overkill.

The more successful the cloud becomes the more successful "webtop" will be. And the former is inevitable.

 

[[)roi(]]

You sound like the millions of people in the past, a sentence I have hear a million+ times in my life.

From the dawn of the personal computer and all its stages, from GPU cards to math co-processors.

Yes my friend if you look at the change from inside it, it always looks like a crap idea and you can never see a reason why anyone would want to use something like that instead of what they have available at the time. In hindsight we can always point and laugh, but trust me while the change happened loads of people never saw how it could be beneficial and only pointed to the flaws.

This for me is one of those moments again. So yes move along, nothing to see, no one is telling you to trough your current PC in the dustbin, or forcing you to buy anything new, so stop complaining.

I beg to differ yet again; revolutionary technology makes sense and fits a need almost immediately; this has been my experience in working with many variety of computing solutions since 1981.

In each success case the area they targeted was never in doubt, and I believe this was apparent from the day they were first conceived, more so they were conceived around a recognized shortcomings or stopgap in the market.

This technology and one's like Google's glasses unfortunately do not fall into this category -- I'm sure they sound really cool to a few geeks, and that's where it stops. FYI I think the Google glasses idea was most likely conceived from Star Trek TNG Season 5 Episode 6 (The Game).

Btw are you honestly trying to say technology like mobile phones, didn't make sense the day they were conceived? -- I think not.

And please don't take these things so personally -- this is meant to be an open discussion on technology; if something doesn't make sense to me, I'm going to say so; irrespective of how cool the concept appears to be or how many geeks are favoring it.

Anything good or worthwhile should stand up to challenge.

 

[[)roi(]]

PCs are dying a slow death, in fact in a few years time PCs should be extinct in the home

The death of PCs had been foretold for more than 20 years; hence I doubt a few years quite covers it.

 

[Elimentals]

I beg to differ yet again; revolutionary technology makes sense and fits a need almost immediately; this has been my experience in working with many variety of computing solutions since 1981.

In each success case the area they targeted was never in doubt, and I believe this was apparent from the day they were first conceived, more so they were conceived around a recognized shortcoming.

This technology and one's like Google's glasses unfortunately do not fall into this category -- I'm sure they sound really cool to a few geeks, and that's where it stops. FYI I think the Google glasses idea was most likely conceived from Star Trek TNG Season 5 Episode 6 (The Game).

Btw are you honestly trying to say technology like mobile phones, didn't make sense the day they were conceived and do you really believe these concepts only made sense in hindsight? -- I think not.

Btw don't take things so personally -- this is meant to be an open discussion on technology; if something doesn't make sense to me, I going to say so; irrespective of how cool the concept appears to be.

Anything good or worthwhile should stand up to challenge.

Not all tech was so blindingly obvious to everyone, in every step I can point to people that said its a crap idea/will never take on.

Sure you did not have a problem with others in the past and saw immediately how and what it targeted, this alone does not make you a genius in all future tech either, not everybody is 100% right all the time, the same can be said for me as well.

I am not saying that this is proof that Google glasses will or will not work, same goes for the Webtop and other computing transformations. All I am saying is I see constant change and where it leads to on the long run. It might not be black and white as people want it to be, but you can see a general direction, and I like it. My view might be romantic in a sense that I dream about having it as a so called geek or it might be that I see it making life better as we no longer need to carry something like an appendix that can be forgotten at a moments notice. Also having information from the virtual world overlayed onto the real and enriching my life get a big thumbs up from me.

LOL dude, its the internet I never take things personal, I use it to learn and get other people's view, and in this case you present nothing concrete, but a simple point of view, one that I can understand and respect, I am merely trying to point out why I don't see it in the same light.

 

[[)roi(]]

Agreed. PC's aren't a consumer device. It's overkill.

The more successful the cloud becomes the more successful "webtop" will be. And the former is inevitable.

Guess your dictionary describes consumer different to mine. Consumer yes, mobile yes, portable no.

 

[[)roi(]]

I don't see how this google search supports your view? It is about as useful as this: https://www.google.co.za/search?q=d...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Does it not present articles debating the relevance of netbooks, if so then it meets the intention.

 

[lucifir]

amazing how short-sighted some ppl r .... 10 years ago, did u think half the world would own cell phones?? those things were bricks then and I don't think any1 really wanted them
come people, baby steps .... this is just the start of allowing u to take ur data/processor everywhere and just plug into a large screen/keyboard/etc... and then u have a PC ... rather than having to lug a full blown PC/laptop everywhere, but I am sure the design will change over time and become something hopefully even better

 

[[)roi(]]

Not all tech was so blindingly obvious to everyone, in every step I can point to people that said its a crap idea/will never take on.

Sure you did not have a problem with others in the past and saw immediately how and what it targeted, this alone does not make you a genius in all future tech either, not everybody is 100% right all the time, the same can be said for me as well.

I am not saying that this is proof that Google glasses will or will not work, same goes for the Webtop and other computing transformations. All I am saying is I see constant change and where it leads to on the long run. It might not be black and white as people want it to be, but you can see a general direction, and I like it. My view might be romantic in a sense that I dream about having it as a so called geek or it might be that I see it making life better as we no longer need to carry something like an appendix that can be forgotten at a moments notice. Also having information from the virtual world overlayed onto the real and enriching my life get a big thumbs up from me.

LOL dude, its the internet I never take things personal, I use it to learn and get other people's view, and in this case you present nothing concrete, but a simple point of view, one that I can understand and respect, I am merely trying to point out why I don't see it in the same light.

I doubt anybody questioned the initial concepts around the light bulb, telex machines, TV sets, radios, cameras,...

I too love true transformative technology, but badly thought through concepts only serve to irritate me -- I see it as a sign of lazy minds allowed to flourish in a poorly run think tank;

Not all the Star Trek goodies IMO should be developed

Good to know you are able to separate debate on technology from those targeted around personal attrition -- not many can make this distinction -- good for you

 

[[)roi(]]

amazing how short-sighted some ppl r .... 10 years ago, did u think half the world would own cell phones?? those things were bricks then and I don't think any1 really wanted them
come people, baby steps .... this is just the start of allowing u to take ur data/processor everywhere and just plug into a large screen/keyboard/etc... and then u have a PC ... rather than having to lug a full blown PC/laptop everywhere, but I am sure the design will change over time and become something hopefully even better

As I said more than once I would love to throw away my multiple form factors for a single device (google glasses or whatever) -- my only requirement is that it needs to be way better at all the things those form factors could do; sadly the concepts presented do not; hence they should never have left the think tank until they did.

 

[Elimentals]

I doubt anybody questioned the initial concepts around the light bulb, telex machines, TV sets, radios, cameras,...

You would think that, loads of people laughed at it at the time of invention and thought it not go main stream, but that was because it was so crude at its initual stage that you can not really blame them.

When Humphry Davy connected 2 wires to a charcoal strip back in 1809, loads of people laughed and said there will never be a use for that, yet today we have lighs, hell a couple of years ago loads of people said florecent will never catch on.

When Francesc Salvà connected wires via a acid filled glas tubes in 1804 and could distinguish visually what one the other person want to send via hydrogen bubbles next to its associated letter or numeral people thought WTF do you want to do that for.

Same can go for TV's and radios.

Sure when we see it applied in todays world, it makes sense and we can say where the people around him so bloody stupid or just ignorant?

 

[lucifir]

As I said more than once I would love to throw away my multiple form factors for a single device (google glasses or whatever) -- my only requirement is that it needs to be way better at all the things those form factors could do; sadly the concepts presented do not; hence they should never have left the think tank until they did.

it has to start somewhere .... give it time ... it will get to where u want, but do not dismiss it just because its not there yet ... also, while it may not work for ur specific needs, it will probably work for others, which will allow it get resources needed to improve

 

[[)roi(]]

it has to start somewhere .... give it time ... it will get to where u want, but do not dismiss it just because its not there yet ... also, while it may not work for ur specific needs, it will probably work for others, which will allow it get resources needed to improve

Point taken in general... Except we are talking about Google, who is well know for taking unsound solutions into production and then acting surprised when nobody or limited users adopt them. You only need to look at all the crap Larry Page recently cancelled as evidence of this.

Considering this I am less willing to trust Google with anything new.

 

[lucifir]

Point taken in general... Except we are talking about Google, who is well know for taking unsound solutions into production and then acting surprised when nobody or limited users adopt them. You only need to look at all the crap Larry Page recently cancelled as evidence of this.

Considering this I am less willing to trust Google with anything new.

all companies can projects that they may deem unfeasible, google is just more open about failures than most.
just because u don't see it, does not mean it does not happen
the likes of IBM do more research than most (if not all) other companies and have a huge patent vault, but not everything they endeavored into would have worked out or been feasible ...
point is, just because they canned some projects, does not mean that every project will go the same route ... android for 1 is a good example ....
that being said .... I do like the way google operates, i.e. allow staff to focus on something they passionate about and see if they can make it into a money machine .... this way, no need for extra incentives as the guys want to do the work .. pretty sneaky

 

[[)roi(]]

all companies can projects that they may deem unfeasible, google is just more open about failures than most.
just because u don't see it, does not mean it does not happen
the likes of IBM do more research than most (if not all) other companies and have a huge patent vault, but not everything they endeavored into would have worked out or been feasible ...
point is, just because they canned some projects, does not mean that every project will go the same route ... android for 1 is a good example ....
that being said .... I do like the way google operates, i.e. allow staff to focus on something they passionate about and see if they can make it into a money machine .... this way, no need for extra incentives as the guys want to do the work .. pretty sneaky

I beg to differ; you need to read some blogs of the people that have left since Larry took over I.e. because they thought the company had gone backward in terms of the philosophy you describe... Some even chose to go to Microsoft as they believed it was more open to innovation than Google currently.

I know behind the scenes (in what I call the think tank) many ideas are conjured and challenged Ito their viability; most keep these failures behind the scenes which I prefer I.e. no reason to share crap as it only raises doubt about the competence of your PHDs

IBM cannot be compared to Google as they're far more successful at innovation than most companies, even more so than Apple -- where they've always faltered is in marketing those ideas (a space that Apple succeeds)

Google is no longer the same company of yesteryear... Since Larry has taken
over, much of the fun has gone accordingly to ex employee reports.