Digital Revolution

Smartphones and smartwatches excel at providing timely information. Apps send push notifications for updates. Reminders keep people on schedule. Weather apps provide forecasts based on current data. Drop detection instantly calls medical aid during emergencies. There is a reason why timely information often rely on data collection, especially sensors, rather than algorithmic prediction. Generic chaos is not computationally predictable in the long run, but can be approximated with live data in the short run. Since everyday life is filled with chaotic events, data collection provide superior ability for smartphones and smartwatches with just right ergonomics to offer timely information. Maps apps are great examples. Store hours, contact information, and travel routes, etc. help users navigate the world. Data are massively collected and updated to keep information relevant. Beyond current success, however, it's conceivable that more types of live data can greatly improve usability. Ro...

Microsoft announced Windows 365, a cloud virtual Windows desktop. A variety of devices, including smartphones and tablets, can access cloud virtual Windows desktop anytime anywhere. Windows 365 attempts to place Windows in the hands of a even wider audience that some speculates that the future of Windows isn't Windows 11, but Windows 365. Will cloud virtual Windows desktop replace PC desktop? The majority of PCs already run Windows. Windows on Windows really seems like a very Microsoft idea. But what are the uses? While there are use cases like training AI for research, aerodynamic simulation, 3D animation rendering that cloud virtual machines excel, it's difficult to find common office tasks more conveniently executed on the cloud rather than locally. The ambition to replace PC desktop with cloud virtual machines likely will end up like Linux. Linux aimed to provide a free and open alternative to Windows on desktop, but became largely a enterprise server/cloud component. Win...

Tablets provide unique opportunities for instructional content. In addition to traditional paper content, tablets offer further possibilities like 3D, video, live data, etc. Many contemporary materials like PDF textbooks resemble raw digitalization of print content. There is much room for improvement. Traditional paper textbooks render 3D materials into static 2D pictures. It's difficult even for professionals to reconstruct original structure in 3D. Let alone interactivity. Consider DNA molecules. Traditional textbooks mostly can only describe the structure as a double helix. However, with live 3D interactivity on tablets, fragments of DNA may be explored and examined to check that the double helix indeed follows chemical constraints, like Watson and Crick did. In quantum mechanics, the Schrodinger equation for hydrogen atom is solved as a combination of various functions. Except for the ground state, it's difficult to visualize what happens in a hydrogen atom. With colors and...

As a person who entertained the possibility of flat-panel devices of various sizes in 2004, it's necessary to explain the form and function of such devices for historical account, especially when the anticipated devices resemble modern smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches. Talking about form and function sounds like a designer's perspective, but the issue is actually pervasive in engineering. Consider a universal Turing machine with a infinite tape. If modern computers faithfully preserved the form of such Turing machines, they would never become useful for a great deal of applications, but remain a academic interest. Transistors, integrated circuits, multi-touch sensors, and GUI, etc. all matter to make modern gadgets so powerful and easy to use. It's about form and function. The starting point is modern surveillance gadgets that take advantage of on-device or cloud AI to perform intelligent tasks for the user, like keyboard autocorrection, handwriting recognition, maps...

The retirement of Aperture and iTunes U arguably signals Apple's focus on big business at the expense of small things. Perhaps Apple felt others are better at it, but there is charm people find in small things that big business lacks. Aperture's retirement made Adobe Lightroom the ubiquitous photo-editing app. The target user for Lightroom is professional photographer. For journalists, businessmen, and scientists that need a professional photo-organization app, however, Lightroom is way too fancy and artistic. It's fine for Lightroom, but for Aperture, what a loss! iTunes U's retirement followed the stagnation of the app. There is little innovation into the field of learning and research. It's a pity that next generation of app and content ecosystem for tablets isn't there yet, or perhaps iTunes U's fate would be different. Other small things that Apple didn't form a market for business include fonts, stationeries, stickers, etc. Would Apple collect the...

It's a economic pitfall to argue for more or less regulation, but not more good regulation and less bad regulation. Good or bad depends on human judgement. However, human judgement is clouded by prejudice, error, and hubris. In this context, regulation is a extremely serious issue that a enterprise may rise or fall at the whim of the government. In the pursuit of antitrust against big tech, politicians threaten to break up giant tech corporations if their business practices are anti-competitive. What constitutes anti-competitiveness is open for debate, but as a first impression, it seems that Boeing and Airbus, or the financial sector, together with their anti-competitive behavior are perfectly fine for politicians. Perhaps the target for antitrust is political, so what? Even if we ignore the politics, it's hard to argue that breaking up giant tech corporations is necessary to restore competition in the industry. Few tech sectors are actual monopolies. Most of them are oligopo...

Apple introduced Quick Note with its iPadOS 15 release. Notes goes systemwide. The purpose is to capture thoughts anytime anywhere. It sounds like a small update, but could become a significant step to free tablets from its niche status. First, it's better app interoperability that users no longer need to constantly switch to the Notes app. Second, and more crucially, it makes exploring the world mindfully on a tablet easier. Tablets hold delicate balance between smartphones and laptops. Smartphones and smartwatches clearly beat tablets for timeliness. The arrival of Magic Keyboard is proof that tablets haven't found confidence in their own form, but need to borrow from laptops for productivity. Quick Note is a step forward for tablets to break the status quo, so that the original tablet form may embody mindfulness. Tablets have unique form that mindfulness rests. Smartphone screens are too small that exploring the world is too heavy a task. Laptops are too clunky, which re...