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Comment by floppydisk | Hacker News Reader

Tablets will really take off when someone finally implements the unified stack--capable of working across manufacturers. By this I mean, automatic syncing with my desktop/laptop. If I have a webpage open in my browser, it shows up on my tablet when I open my tablet browser and the changes get pushed back to the desktop when I sign back in. Yes, I know WebOS had/has this, but no one integrated it into the desktop stack. Same goes for documents, email, etc.

Prime example: I create slides for a presentation on my laptop. When I'm done, the desktop pushes the slides to my tablet and I can edit them on the fly, present, whatever. Any changes I make on the tablet then get pushed back to the desktop automatically when they are in range of each other.

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The second part is pretty much Apple's vision for iOS 5, Lion and iCloud.

I hope that it becomes as integrated as the parent comment is saying: I open a page, it's on my iPhone, it's on my laptop, it's wherever my AppleID is.

/That/ would be awesome. But I don't think iCloud will quite be that (yet).

Again, Firefox Sync is already that. Why aren't you using it right now?

Because I don't use Firefox.

Anyway, I had a broader point and was only using browsers as an example. The ideal here is a universal login that allows me to be at any terminal/device and have my working environment there in its entirety (or some device-appropriate representation thereof). Things like Dropbox are nice, but they're certainly no substitute for an integrated, comprehensive solution and offer little or no value to me right now. (Hey I've got an iDisk if I want to share some files with my devices or friends.)

Because I don't use Firefox.

Well, then, given that it solves a problem you have, maybe you should reconsider that.

I get your general point, but your vision seems to require being locked into one vendor, and I certainly don't want that, especially since I don't use any of the vendor's software.

I don't think you'll be locked in at all. Given that iCloud is already a web-facing service which you can use from a browser I can imagine we'll see clients for windows and possibly even android: Apple will want people in the cloud because ultimately it's a win for them. (They'll no doubt boost marketshare as well as "mind" share in porportion to the success of iCloud.)

I'm hoping/thinking this is where Microsoft is going with the streaming OS stuff. My understanding of the patent is that it allows them to load portions of an OS from diverse sources.

The way I see it, they could load the portions you need, not only of your documents, but also based on the class of device you are using. It doesn't have to be streamed from the cloud, theoretically it could be streamed from any device, though cloud syncing is an obvious one as well.

I'm with you on most of the things you say, but I add the further caveat that I don't want multiple 'devices'. If Microsoft can stream OS to specific hardware, we may break out of the 'device' mentality. I have an external monitor on my laptop. I don't consider that a 'device', or my mouse, my keyboard,etc.etc. Can we get to a world where we think of all the objects we interact with as nothing more than I/O. Like a pencil and paper?

I think that's the idea behind iCloud

If I have a webpage open in my browser, it shows up on my tablet when I open my tablet browser and the changes get pushed back to the desktop when I sign back in

Firefox Sync.

documents

Dropbox.

email

That's how IMAP works.

I have my documents, open tabs, bookmarks, history and email all on my Android phone. It already works, and it's amazing.

Talk about fragmentation.

No, what I want is one service, one login that works across all my devices where all I do is login and I'm set. No extra set up. No plethora of services to rely on.

I would love to see iCloud become this. If so, it has a chance at being a killer service.

I don't see why you need to wait, though. The time it takes to set everything up is O(number of devices * number of services), both of which are pretty small, and the benefits you get are O(time you use the device), which is pretty large.

iCloud will never become killer as long as it's locked to one vendor's platforms. The reason why Firefox Sync, Dropbox and IMAP all work is that they're all available across a large number of platforms.

What makes you think iCloud will be "locked"? There's a Window's version of the MobileMe services (as some kind of plugin from what I understand). I don't see why there won't be a similar solution for iCloud.

Btw, Firefox Sync is "locked" to a platform itself: Firefox.

It isn't really locked, it's just that no one else uses it.

Will iCloud be an open protocol? Will I have access to it on my Android phone?

Firefox Sync is an open protocol -- there's nothing stopping somebody from writing a Chrome extension implementing it.

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