Apple’s New Concept: Easy Computing

So Apple announced its long awaited tablet this week, and many have commented, analysed, cried in despair and praised the oversized iPod. One thing that I have seen yet though is a deeper look at what it means for the computer world and computer users going forward. I’ll take a stab at it.

What Aunt Edna Needs

It seems that at least half the tech world is disappointed that they won’t be able to code C# or run photoshop on their iPad. I humbly believe that this is due to a very deep misunderstanding of the concept that Apple introduced this past Wednesday. Indeed, more than just a new device, they have created a new kind of machine, that many of their competitors will try to replicate in the coming months and years:
The ”easy computer”. Or “everyday computer”, or “home computer” or “casual computer”. I chose to call it the former, but this is what it essentially boils down to: in the past 10 to 15 years, many people have begun “needing” computers to do very simple things. Email, photos, the web, etc. They never needed computers before, and the computers we know weren’t designed for them, or even to handle these simple tasks. Computers as we know them were designed for intensive, professional, serious uses. Think of your mom, your uncle, your grand parents… They do not need, nor do they really want a complicated machine to do all these tasks. How long has your aunt Edna been using a computer, and how long has she stubbornly refused to learn how to install a program, how the file system works, or the difference between Internet Explorer and Firefox. More importantly, she doesn’t care about all this. She wants to answer her email, go to that cooking website she likes, and look at the soccer practice pictures you sent her. Remember: your aunt Edna is not you. You might care, but to her these are over complicated and useless headaches.

All these “new users” (who didn’t care about computers until 10 years ago) don’t really use a computer to its fullest. They only came to computers with these uses that have been created recently. Let’s take an arbitrary number: most, if not all of the time, they use 20% of the computer’s capabilities, and the other 80% are in the way. Well, an ”easy computer” will provide them with these 20% they need, hassle free.

The Easy Computer

Here’s the best analogy I could find: a PC can do gaming. Some might argue that it’s even the best gaming platform out there. Yet the real gaming industry is on consoles. Why? They are simple. You hook them up to your TV and you start playing. Sure, some games are huge on the PC, but most games will sell more on an Xbox or a PS3. I’m talking about “real” gaming (another argument could be made here about what the Wii is, but it would actually only support the point of this article). This comes to the great despair of the same purists who will belittle the iPad for not being able to achieve the same thing as a “real” computer: “a console isn’t as cool as a PC!” they’d say. That’s not the point. It’s not supposed to be. I’d encourage you to think of the iPad as the equivalent of game consoles, but for “casual computing”.

Don’t get me wrong: it is fair to criticize the iPad itself. No webcam is a disappointment, no Flash support is annoying, no multitask is downright painful. But make no mistake: your aunt Edna won’t care. She’ll see a nice, cute, easy to use tool that will enable her to do all these things she does on her big, clunky computer. And without the fear of messing something up. And guess what: you’ll be happy too, because she won’t have to call you every other week to fix something she did because she refuses to learn how to use that big computer (most of which she doesn’t need anayway).

The Netbook argument

Many people say they wanted something more akin to a netbook. A “real” OS that they can tinker with and use “like a mini computer”. But these netbooks fail: try as they might, they are not a real computer. They are small, they lack power, and their OS isn’t designed for that form factor. Again, I’m certain that some people have a need for them, but they are in the minority.
The point is: netbooks try to do too much, and they do nothing well. An “easy computer” will do less, but it will do it well. And for most people, that “less” is all they need.

The Concept

It might not be obvious, but I’m not really talking about the iPad here. I’m talking about the idea that the iPad introduces. It’s a new idea, that seems obvious once we’ve understood it: computers don’t have to be what we think computers are. They can be more simple, more usable, less capable, and more adapted to the uses that some (most?) people have. Apple isn’t the first company to try and achieve this. In a sense, netbooks were trying this also, and I’m certain many others have tried before. But they have failed, on the large, wide consumer market sense of things. Just like others had failed at MP3 players or smartphones before Apple entered the market. Will the iPad succeed? I think it will (it’s sexy, which is what matters to most), but maybe I’m wrong. What I really don’t think I’m mistaken about though, is this idea that they have  introduced a new concept in the tech world.
Easy Computers are here to stay, and Apple won’t be the only ones to make them…

An email about the young earth belief

Yesterday I got an email by a listener of The Phileas Club. I often get emails and answer them privately, but after writing this one I thought that it was summarizing my thoughts on the topic enough that I should make a blog post about it. So here is the original email, and my answer.
Quick note: the topic is sensitive, and in the past we have managed to keep these kinds of debates very civilized on this blog. If you chose to comment, please keep that tradition alive, thanks!

B.’s email:

I recently started listening to your show and started from the beginning and have been slowly catching up to the recent shows. I was a little disappointed at the sara palen talk because of the anti religious tone it took but let it go because i figured that was going on in the media at the time as well. Then I got to episode 10 and was completely offended at the comment you made that something should be done to people that preach the young earth theory. Evolution is not fact, it might be the majority view but remember that the majority also thought the world was flat at one point. There are scientists that use the same research as evolutionist and show it to back the theory of a young earth. I don’t expect you to change your view on this subject but I think you should know that our comment upset me.

And my answer (I didn’t address the Sarah Palin comments or the other details, as I thought they weren’t really the core of the issue):

Hi B.,

First of all let me thank you for taking the time to write to me; I really appreciate it.

That being said, I’m very sorry but I’m afraid that I cannot subscribe to what you’re saying… The “young earth theory” is not a theory, it’s a belief. The people who support it aren’t scientists, they’re spokespeople for organisations that have other agendas. A theory is supported by verifiable fact, and no fact comes to support the idea that the earth is 6000 years old. No scientist worth their salt, and no one who understands the meaning of the word, will give any credit to it.

This is my whole argument: by treating this “idea” as a theory, we validate it and lead people to believe that there might be some truth to it. There isn’t, and we should stop indulging it altogether. Don’t get me wrong: you are of course free to believe whatever you want, but believing something like that is very simply ignorance and missinformation, not “just another theory”.

Read more

A Feud of Epic Proportions.

[UPDATE 2 - Surprising settlement]

For Immediate release:

A few hours ago, minutes before the official end of the duel, the Parisian Bureau of Ethical Affairs ruled that this e-battle was causing a substantial amount of harm to the online community, and should be resolved peacefully.
I have thus decided to lay  the matter to rest, and as the offended party I will declare the matter a draw as of this moment ( the rules of Internet Dueling clearly state, in section A12 – amendment C: “Dude, the offended party can, like, totally declare the duel a draw”). The world can sleep soundly tonight, and we are all relieved.

On a personal note, I will say that I suspect Mr. Merritt will be especially relieved, as his score was obviously a disappointment: trailing well bellow the 50% mark for most of the duration of the poll, he mostly failed to reach the majority he needed to prove his point, and was (according to expert analysis) set to lose altogether had the process reached its conclusion. No thanks are required, I only do what’s best for the common good.

We will now go back to our daily lives, glad that the worst has been avoided.

[UPDATE - STUNNING DEVELOPMENT!]

A few days ago, the podcast “The Movielicious” released its fourth installment where the hosts gave their reviews (kinda) of the movie “The Hangover”.

Not long after that, tech personality Tom Merritt launched a vicious attack on Patrick Beja’s character. Being a man of honor, Patrick responded in the only way he could: with dignity. He requested that this terrible feud be settled in the olden tradition of Internet Duels, in the form of a courageous poll: he knows he is severely handicapped by Mr. Merritt’s inexplicable popularity on “The Twitter”. But Patrick is ready to stand for his ideas and suffer the consequences of his bravery.

This poll will last for roughly five days (until Friday July 10th). Please vote according to your conscience.

The state of Wow’s design

It’s been roughly six months since the last expansion came out, so I thought it would be a good time to give my thoughts about how the game has evolved and where it is today.

Short disclaimer: this is, as usual, a very long article that I’m pretty sure a lot of people won’t have the time to read. I’m ok with it; my short little fun blurbs have a much better home on my twitter page, and I aim my blog articles at some slightly more in depth analysis. My aim here isn’t to just state what I like or dislike, but rather to take a longer look at the hows and whys of the choices that were made, and try to understand the philosophy of this type of game design. I would recommend this article to any Wow fan, but also any MMO enthusiast who doesn’t have the time to get to level 80 in Wow and explore the intricacies of Blizzard’s designs.
So anyway, if you have a little bit of time to waste I hope you enjoy it and it brings something to your day!

Ok, here we go: Read more

HIW #16 – Anniversary Spectacular!

Veronica Belmont, Turster, Felicia Day, Scott Johnson and two other guys you may or may not have heard of are all garthered for one great hour of podcasting!

Listen to the show:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

You can also use iTunes, the RSS feed or the the MP3 file. And remember you can find this episode and more at the official How I Wow blog at howiwow.org.

A word from Patrick: I couldn’t have dreamt of a better way to celebrate this amazing year of How I Wow goodness. I think this show embodied everything that I like so much in podcasting: it’s about friends taking the time to come together to share a moment of pure enjoyable fun. I hope we will have many many more.
And for those who were in the chatroom and enjoyed the “director’s cut” version: thank you so much for being with us. The sole fact that we were sharing it with all of you made it what it was.

The new Frenchspin site

Hi all, and welcome!

I’ve been talking for a while about the fact that I was having problems managing all the different blogs I set up over the past couple of years. Most of them are podcast blogs that don’t really see much activity outside of the show’s schedule, so it only makes sense that I would put all of that together in one convenient place.
Furthermore, it will allow me to add content much more easily in the future.

Please note that the “individual sites” (or minisites) are still sort of available through the use of categories: if you’re only interested in The Phileas Club and nothing else, you can go to the show’s minisite (available through the navbar on the top menu) and that’s all you’ll get.

I hope you enjoy the new organisation and the new homepage! As usual, all the comments and feedback are very welcome.

What Twitter needs now.

“Again with Twitter?!”
Yeah I know… Twitter is here, get used to it.

Alright, so what does Twitter need? First one who says “a business model” gets a cookie. Yes, they do need that, but let me take a detour through the user side of things for a moment and I’ll get back to that in a minute.

As I have said before, Twitter’s simplicity is its strength. I don’t think they should give it up for anything. Others have tried to “enhance” the user experience by adding threading and things like that. An interesting idea on paper, but it does take away some of the product’s usability. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a hater; let’s just say it’s different and the crowds seem to be gravitating towards more simplicity.
So Twitter has to stay simple, but there is still room to expand. And I think topical conversations is indeed something that could enhance the user experience tremendously. If done right, and in the spirit of the product.
In comes the #hashtag. We all know that you can use these to specify what topic you are talking about. This is incredibly useful and I strongly believe Twitter should make it its next big push. So to put things clearly:

@notpatrick thinks @twitter should embrace #hashtags and make them the second arm of the community.

Read more

The beauty of Twitter.

Alright, so everyone has heard about it. Some of you probably use it. But most people have a very hard time explaining what the heck Twitter even is…
So I’ll try my hand at this. The aim is to write a short description of why so many people love Twitter so much, and explain why it is a major new form of communication, just like email and instant messaging were in their time.

If I do things right, next time your friends ask you about Twitter and you go insane trying to explain it, you can just send them to this article and they should have a vague idea of why it’s such a great tool.

Read more

The problem with democracy.

Democracy isn’t a perfect system, it’s just the best one we’ve found yet. And as with anything that’s not perfect, you’ve got issues that can become pretty freakin’ annoying after a while. On the Internet, which is probably the most extreme form of democracy we have, everyone can express their opinion equally. And it seems that most of these are: “THIS SUCKS!”

I’m sure you’ve come across this idea yourself: whether it’s on the net or in real life, it sometimes seems like people are never happy. About anything. “People” will bitch and moan all day long, and all you hear about in the news is controversy. And from there it’s easy to go to the conclusion the rest of the world is a bunch of dumb saps that will always be unhappy, no matter what the topic is.

Well, while I agree that most people are probably dumb saps, I still think that this view is a sort of optical illusion. The thing is, there is no idea in the world that will get a unanimous approval. And I mean none, like, ever! Go with me on this: try to think of an idea that would garner universal approval in a modern western society. Even the brightest, shiniest, happiest proposal would get a couple of groups of people who would violently oppose it. As long as it’s something “realistic”, it will make some people unhappy.

Read more

No November episode!

Hi everyone,

Ok, I’m late and I’m sorry, but unfortunately there won’t be any episode for November.

We did record a show, and it was a pretty exceptional one too: Eyal from Tel Aviv joined myself and Turki (whom you all know) for a good 90 minutes conversation. It was a really good, especially since it’s not very often that a Saudi and an Israeli get together for a friendly chat…
Well, when I finally got round to editing I found that the recording of the file didn’t go well and that the audio was completely unusable. “Big giant bummer” would be the official reaction to that. I tried to organize a re-record of course, but unfortunately it didn’t work out and now I feel like it’s a bit too late for a November episode anyway.

I’ll try to do something special for December, maybe earlier than I usually do. But in the meantime I’m really sorry for letting everybody down. Thanks to everyone who keeps supporting this show and for all the nice messages I got via email and twitter about this, it’s really appreciated.

So that’s it for now, and I’ll talk to y’all (*wink*) again in a few weeks!

PS: If you still want to get your november “Patrick’s silly perspective” fix, you might want to swing by Tom Merritt’s and Roger Chang’s excellent show “East Meets West“, where they were nice enough to invite me a couple of weeks ago. We had a great chat that I think you’ll enjoy on episode 141.

Next Page »