“Technology, when done ambitiously, is a form of art and as with painting, it’s always interesting to see how three different artists have approached the same subject,” Andy Ihnatko writes for Macworld.
“All art is autobiographical in nature, or so I heard in between naps during my Art History classes,” Ihnatko writes. “It’s hard for me not to look at iCloud and the other new cloud services offered by Google and Amazon and think of them as emblematic of the companies’ views on the world.”
Ihnatko writes, “What I find most remarkable about iCloud is that (unless there’s a lot more that Apple hasn’t shown us yet) it’s not a destination: it’s a highway system… Google’s attitude is 180 degrees away from Apple’s…. [and] Amazon is the friendly neighbor who will always lend you his electric weed trimmer.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
As always, Andy gets to the heart of the matter and expresses the issues cogently. It’s the highway for me …
As always, Ihnatko proves he’s such a dunce with his lame attempts at self-derecating humor and his so-called Mac wisdom. He’s like Mycroft Holmes to John Dvorak. And like John Dvorak, he just never goes away.
i hope that’s not your real appearance. I’d expect a lot more sophistication from someone your age.
Spare us your hipster twattery.
So, you read an article by someone you’ve previously learned you don’t care for? Have LOTS of time on your hand, don’t you?
This is a forum is it not? Opposite viewpoints are permitted yes? So let him express it. Pandora is a regular commentator. I don’t find him offensive at all.
Thanks for the support, BLN!
@ shinolashow: I really don’t know what sort of sophistication is required to slavishly go along with the crowd. I expressed my own opinion: I simply don’t care for Ihnatko’s style or his content. So I come down on people who are Rob Enderle haters?
@ His Shadow As for hipster twattery, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Maybe I’m just not sophisticated enough.
@ Grigori: No, in fact I didn’t read the article. I read the MDM story above. But there’s also this: simply not caring for someone’s articles doesn’t automatically exclude that person from my reading list. You occasionally can learn from reading those that you either don’t agree with in general or whose style doesn’t appeal, but their opinions do matter. It’s just silly to exclude an entire segment based on personal opinion.
No wonders your name’s pandora.
And I thought he was smoking weed
Not when I made the original comment but right now’s another story…
Google’s cloud is the paternal God that Freud describes in Future of Illusion, the father figure all human cultures inevitably create when we grow up and fear assuming control of our own destinies. If you live your life right, this God will eventually own your soul for eternity, but if you piss it off it will reign a Holy Storm of Badness on you by cutting off your access to your stuff and relegating you to analog hell.
iCloud is the magical little brownies and faeries who fix your boots in the night, who take your lost tooth and replace it with a Whole Shiny Dime while you sleep. You don’t know how it works, and you’re glad you don’t have to think about it. But your stuff is still your stuff.
Amazon is a book store that happens to sell power tools. Why? It’s not sure. The company has no strategy.
Mmmm… Magical brownies… I’ve eaten a few of those. 😉
My wife was a brownie
Did you eat it?
O boy!
Pretty funny!
Amazon is basically the Walmart of the internet.
…and a wondrous mart it is.
Thanks for the eye-popping insight.. What does that have to do with the Inahtko piece?
I love the Beloved Andy, but with all the obscure references, I fear he’s been spending a lot of time with Dennis Miller lately…
Really, iCloud is an impersonal force. But if you must look at iCloud and compare it with theology, then iCloud receives info and and sends info somewhat like God interacts with us, those who possess the Holy Spirit–which in this case, is like possessing iOS5. To complete the Trinity, a Perfect, Bug Free Device on the network, one which had to be sacrificed to supply every other end point on the network all that is required to sustain their connection with iCloud, would be like Jesus. (There needs to be more built in to this part of the analogy but the gist is there) The good news is, that sacrificed Device was miraculously raised again by iCloud (here’s where iCloud needs creative abilities) and now resides at the iCloud server farm and perfectly connected again. Those who reject iCloud and the sacrifice paid by the Device are not part of the network. Their choice. Sad, because, wouldnt you want your Mac connected to iCloud??
🙂
Thanks
Wait… What?
How provincial of you!
Even if iCloud cpould be likened to religion, it wouldn’t conform to your limited concept.
ICloud is a highway
Highways, yes they can fit into my analogy.
I’ve heard of two… Highway to Heaven & Highway to Hell.
And yes, narrow is the way that leads to salvation. (provincial is tremendously accurate)
Narrow also often leads people away from rational thought and respect for people with different views and beliefs.
How do you use a ChromeBook or a Cloud player without internet service? I find myself in rural areas without mobile internet service, or on airplanes without WiFi service a lot. Both of those products would be useless to me in those situations.
I prefer the Apple model – I can work and listen to my music without an internet connection, then when I do get back to an internet connection everything that needs to sync will.
iOS + iCloud makes a lot of sense to me.