dattaa's Profile

I should clarify my previous statements a wee bit: I agree that the Mac is not going away anytime soon given the iPhone. On the contrary the iPhone MultiTouch/OS X thin client experience makes Mac OS X all the more central to a Mac user's experience and OS functionality. Yes - you're right - we'll continue to use our Macs for intensive, finely-detailed tasks. But I DO think that Mac OS X WILL steadily absorb and incorporate the winning elements of iPhone OS X thin client. MultiTouch, for example = simpler more intuitive app UIs that takes full advantage of touch screen interface, instant voice/video-based IP messaging and much easier, more direct way to get tasks completed by leveraging the exponentially-growing power of the CPU, the internetwork and its distributed and diversified resources. So - let's imagine a possible scenario - you're leaving on a vacation with your family. You don't want to bring your desktop Mac with you but do want to have 24/7 access to your Mac while you're away. So what do you do? You take along your iPhone, or your iWhatever - a portable device that runs OS X thin client with a MultiTouch screen and UI. You bring along the files you think you might need, storing them locally on your iMobile device. I'm not saying the original iPhone v1 will be able to do the types of tasks I'm going to describe, but by v3 or so it will! As on-board CPU, memory, file storage, battery power management, network access, etc. scale-up so will iPhone's functionality expand in kind. Plan to see more and more of Mac OS X's apps and functionality turning up in one form or another in iPhone and, vice versa, more and more of iPhone's UI turning up in Mac OS X. They will form an integrated and expanding Client/Server/Client relationship that will join them at the hip by enhancing each OS's ability to access the other OS' powerful features and advantages. So - back to our vacation - you are checking your email, your voice/video messages and viewing attached files, etc. and, Murphy's Law, a fire starts that you hadn't planned for during your vacation. You have to act - now, fast and smartly - to put the fire out so you enjoy your vacation with your family and still have a job to come back to! Out comes your iPhone. You video iChat with three of your co-workers and determine what to do, delegate the actions and schedule another iChat the next day to follow-up and confirm conflict resolution. Next, you upload the files your co-workers will need to your secure .Mac work folder and email them the access info. You need to edit some of those files before uploading them so you remotely boot and access your work-based Mac's OS X screen, open the files, make changes, save them and directly FTP them from your work Mac to your .mac work folder and let your co-workers know they're available. Whew - now you're free to return to your vacation with your family. The next day you log-in to the scheduled video iChat with your co-workers. They got the files, used them for the actions required, and the fire's put out - quickly, professionally and with precise expertise. OK, OK, I may be way off in my estimation of what's actually possible using the iPhone, iPod, iUltraportable, iWhatever over the next few years. But this is where Apple and this new UI is headed. It will be directly and powerfully linked to the home-, work-based, wired Macs running Mac OS X via services running on OS X Server and other web-based services. Apple mobile devices will exploit and leverage these web-based services, processes and applications like never before! They will feed off each other for innovation and functionality! iPhone will drive back-end services development and back-end services will drive iPhone app development. And Mac OS X, the thick client in the middle of this thin client/server interplay will also benefit. It's a synergistic, win-win-win all around and the ultimate winner is the consumer who gets easier to use, more and more powerful and smarter and smarter functionality from their Apple universe = iPhone, Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, Mobile Carrier Network and 3rd party network servies, etc. iPhone and its progeny WILL strengthen Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server and all subsequent products and services that develop due to iPhone's success.