I've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow,
It's cloud illusions I recall,
I really don't know clouds, at all
- Joni Mitchell
I watched Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and
couldn't help but feel that I was watching the end of an era. Even with
a healthy Steve Jobs, the reality distortion field was not quite as
evident, and for the first time, it appeared that Apple was reacting to
the computer industry, not the other way around.
Apple is trying to transfer the successful elements of the portable
iOS to OS X, which makes sense from a business perspective and from a
software perspective, as my friend, Mr. Mike points out. You want
everything to be similar so an iPhone purchaser can move right to
buying a MacBook (or whatever Apple is going to call it in the future).
Of course, I'm going to grouse a little that OS X 10.7 Lion
requires more advanced processors than 10.6 does.
This is a losing cause, as any owner of a PowerPC Mac knows. Apple
is marching forward, past Intel chips and into it's own home grown A
chips. I either buy a newer machine or grouch in the background.
Fester, fester, rot, rot. It's hard being a curmudgeon.
It's gotten so bad that I had to use my iPad to view the conference,
because the computer I use at work (an iMac with an Intel Core 2 Duo)
couldn't show it. Hmmmm, I can't wait until iOS 5 shows up; by
updating iTunes, I can let the cloud update my music libraries on my
iPod touch and iPad.
I'm a little concerned about Apple's use of the cloud. All of it
seems to be application based - and it requires an upgrade in hardware
as well. It's just another example of Apple trying to keep everything
in the garden.
I'm not too sure that I won't just switch to using
Google to provide my cloud services. Google doesn't care what
equipment I am using or what operating system I have.*
Is it possible that iCloud is an example of Apple reacting to the
market, rather than the market reacting to Apple? The old Applephile in
me is wary - is Apple going to be the new Microsoft and no longer be
the pesky Rebel Alliance constantly providing an alternative to the
Dark Empire?
Will success ruin Tab Hunter? (He's a movie
star from the sixties.) I just hope it won't apply to Apple.
