Towards The Perfect Device
Towards the perfect device
© Jon Collins July 2003
The question is, can one size fit all? Yes, and it’s small, argues Jon Collins
“There can be only one,” Sean Connery told Christophe Lambert in Highlander. That is the correct spelling, by the way, Christophe is a Frenchman, which is why he always appears to get less than his fair share of dialogue. But I digress. “There can be only one” is a mantra that could equally well be applied to the device market, as anyone who has lugged around a PDA, laptop, mobile phone, external CD player, MP3 player and camera will tell you. The list doesn’t include the other essential - a portable printer - but I don’t want you to know just how sad I really am. There can be only one, not least to save on osteopathy bills, but also to solve the inherent issues of integration, communication, synchronisation and software compatibility between the lot of them. Whatever this “one” is, it needs to perform all the functions of the rest without compromising on performance. Potentially an impossible goal. Indeed, maybe it is impossible, which is why I’d like to propose a different approach.
I have recently been experimenting with these USB storage devices that seem to be proliferating at the moment. Natty little things, they plug and play with the most recent versions of Windows and Linux, meaning that the data they contain can be accessed on any recent computer with a spare USB port. Handy for backups, neat for file transfer, a good little floppy disk replacement I thought to myself. But then I started thinking a bit harder, and their true potential started to become apparent.
For example. I’m currently using a USB storage device for all of those things. But also - and here’s the (hopefully) clever bit - I have an email application that I run from the device. It’s called nPOP, and the beauty of it is that it is self-contained - it doesn’t use the registry or any external files or directories to run. This means, I can plug my USB device into any Internet-connected computer and check email across all my email accounts, without having to specify them one by one and without relying on an email service provider. Sure, there are such things as email providers with Web access, and I could configure one to check my email, but they are rarely sufficiently functional to provide the full service. This package also provides an address book, it can work with attachments, and so on. So, when I travel, I can rely on the fact that there will be computers where I am going.
This USB-storage-device-centric model can be extended to encompass other applications. Of course, first it is necessary for them to be hot-plug compatible, and the majority of modern apps are not. Which brings me to the leap of faith, and something which I shall be checking out. What about Java? If a standalone Java virtual machine can be installed, then an entire operating environment is provided without recourse to the host operating system. There are already a plethora of productivity apps (i.e. small, useful ones) for the Java VM, including instant messaging software such as Tipic. And PIM software, though I haven’t tested the packages I have seen. Even if Java isn’t appropriate, maybe a browser-based approach would work, for example using CGI. It should be possible then, to develop a portable environment.
What about those common apps, such as Word and Excel, I hear you shout. Spot on, good point. The answer is, that the common bloatware packages are already commodity items, and do not require any user information. Therefore they can exist quite happily on the host computer, separate from the user’s own apps that exist on the USB device. When I plug in to a computer, I would expect there to be a basic suite of apps. Fortunately, in most internet cafes, they already are.
While we’re on the subject of what-abouts, what about all that other stuff, MP3, cameras and the like that I mentioned? USB storage devices already exist that are also MP3 players. There are already MP3 players that are cameras, or vice versa - it’s difficult to tell sometimes. So, given the above, it is not unreasonable to expect a device which is storage, camera, voice recorder and music player in one (not to mention mobile phone). Given developments in this area, it’s probably a matter of months away. All some savvy manufacturer has to do is bundle a similarly useful software suite on the device, enabling it to plug and play and become a truly portable environment. Provide Java VM’s for multiple platforms, and support SD Cards, and it really will enable anyone to work with anything on the move. Indeed, the software suite could equally well exist on an SD card as the device itself. We just need a mobile device supporting Java, which is USB storage compatible, with an SD-card slot, and we have everything we need. Given all this, it becomes apparent that maybe we’re not looking for a single device after all, rather a USB-compatible storage mechanism that will work with everything we throw at it.
There is no technological reason why everybody that wants to, couldn’t be carrying a complete application environment on their phone, MP3 player or just on an SD card in their wallet. That’s possible today. Add some imagination and we could talk about having some e-money on the device, which is deducted by the host computer in micropayments per minute used. We could also recommend public kiosks – such as those provided by BT – supporting this model, and proliferating as people realise they no longer have to lug unergonomic hardware whose weight is determined largely by their inadequate batteries.
It sounds simple, but imagine if everyone was doing it, it would bring the truly mobile world one step closer.