Is this a technology reset as Apple shifts the weight back on the programmer
Are we at a pinnacle point in the shift of processing speed and applications size…?
im realising how different things are changing thanks in many way to apples view on how things should be and really we seem to be going through a technology breakdown and rebuild as having been working with the new Apple iPad iPhone and also iTunesLP, i have come to some interesting conclusions on what Apples is doing
I might be wrong but im pretty deep into the core of this stuff and having been into computers as a geek for over 20 years I do understand its workings and what seems to be happening is very interesting in deed.
I would like to use a bloated PC windoze machine (that needs scraping because it’s so slow) and the flash plug-in as my main example reference points in this explanation.
I’m starting to get this feeling again that i used to have when i was running my little music rave world it was a feeling that i knew who was doing what and who the real movers in the scene were and a clarity i can not really explain but im getting this feeling again and it’s a good feeling as since working on my new albums in this new media delivery system that is Apples world im seeing simplicity on a frustrating scale.
I can see how they are almost single handedly changing the computer scene or moulding it the way they want it to go with the new html5 and scraping intermediate apps.
Apple are one of those unique few that can see a much bigger picture and in computers i have always just been one of millions in the crowd like a raver in one of my raves (im like that) and apple are the rave organiser but i have been in control like Apple in the past being the rave organiser for many years in my music scene and moving the scene how i think it should move so I understand the big picture more than just someone in the crowd even if thats all i am in the computer world.
Working on the ipad and iphone I knew I was just in the crowd of ravers dancing to the music but I can suddenly lift myself up and get a better view over the crowds as to whats going on and im looking at what im doing and seeing things that never clicked before because I was so engrossed in the moment of making an app for the iphone or ipad or iTunesLp.
What have I realised?
We are all so amazed by these innovations apple have brought out that we haven’t really seen the big picture and im looking now and realising that apple is actually in the mids of scrapping (or trying to scrap) pretty much everything thats been before and bringing the world of computers back to basics all be it with the latest and fasted hardware improvements we have today.
Programming for the iphone or iTunesLp’s is simplistic at best but also frustrating for me because im used to having some software app like flash do all the hard work for me and the whole world is used to this way of working in every part of their computer programmes
As we switch on our computers we run different programs that let us do the least amount of tasks but still get the maximum results out. this has been the convenience of computers for many years and why they have become so essential in our lives but now having been working on Apples products i have realised that they want to try and scrap all those “intermediate applications” and reset the human programming with the computer in a way that is more direct and streamlined and by taking out the mini ‘intermediate programmes’ that do all the hard work for programmers the flow of the software should be more efficient (but only if the programming is good).
What i mean to say is that (think of an old p.c. computer) over the many years we have always needed more memory and more hard drive space and more processing power because our applications are now all BLOATED with all the add ons and updates and and and …
In order to get the minimum input for the maximum output these programs were getting more and more bloated with more and more intermediate applications running in the programmes making them bigger and slower on processors that were actually getting faster and faster.
Think of it like walking the wrong way up an escalator with a bag of programmes (suitcase) thats getting bigger and bigger
As much as the escalator is moving you’re actually staying in the same place and so the processors are getting faster and faster but the programs we were running were getting fatter and fatter and that weight was taking longer to process because they were running all these intermediate programmes to get the results we wanted so we were/are not actually seeing enjoyable speed improvements and in some cases slower speeds on new software even though our computer processors are running faster…
The Apple ipad is actually a simple platform and simple i don’t mean rubbish i just mean simple as in pure it has no bloated apps to run between the software and the hardware you have to code directly from your code via apples sdk to the computer there is no compilers like flash in-between but flash can fill the gaps and make your results look amazing with out doing the programming and taking this app out of the loop mean to still make your end results look amazing at the end you have todo the hard programming work yourself
It’s really as basic as basic can get as everything “in between” is stripped out ,not allowed its all about the work you put into the programming is what you see coming out of the hardware. This makes its very tedious and slow to make the results your used to seeing in flash with 2 clicks of a button (and flash did the animation for you)
It’s like going from the latest computer generated pixar movie in 3D back to Disney black and white celluloid frames being had drawn and painted one by one
Why has apple chosen this route?
I suppose its pretty obvious really as the only thing that has really evolved is the hardware and all thats doing it holding us in the same place as the programmes are getting fatter and more bloated so we don’t actually move forward when hardware advances also running the top processors is expensive when you’re a computer manufacturer. wouldn’t it me cool if you could use a cheap processor running slower that actually gave faster results than the fastest processor because the application was more streamlined making it run faster on a slower processor.
I don’t know about you but honestly have you seen any real speed improvements on computers these last few years even though processors have got faster and memory has got faster ? I don’t see real improvements that make me go “wow mores law is working I can feel it!”
But apple seems to be clearing the board its “get rid of all intermediates because they slow things down” all the program will run smoother and faster .
So there are many upsides for Apple in this approach as they don’t need the expensive processors to make things go faster in fact they can get much cheaper components for processing due to the efficient applications they will be running.
It’s a cool and shrewd move that only Apple could have pulled off and it opens up their hardware to looking faster and cool compared to the old bloated computers others are still trying to make that have to carry all that baggage up the escalator plus Apple can spend their money on the new stuff like touch screen innovations rather than the latest fastest computer chips.
The drawbacks
Well this is the really hard bit to swallow, by shifting the creativity back on the programmers to draw every frame you make and programme all this extra code to complete any task a lot of applications will seem less colourful and less impressive as the work needed is now back on the programmer who is used to the two click and the intermediate program fills all the blanks and so as good as it is for Apple its defiantly a counter weight putting the strain back on the programmers to write every bit of code for every bit of software.
And thats the bit I personally find so very frustrating as it really is like going back to the beginning and yet we have to try to still look as impressive as people are used to expecting which is painfully slow and difficult to programme without the help of these intermediate programmes.
I see it like being a magician as its all smoke and mirrors to trick the user into thinking they have the same as any other programme out their but the difference is the apple stuff is much harder right now to get the end results as we are doing animation the hard way one frame at a time. I know the benefits will come down the line as these two systems split apart and cps start to get slower and macs start to seem faster but right now it’s a real bind and finding programmers that have creative flair is not al that easy I have always found either a great creative who programmes bad or a great programmer who has no creativity so this is really difficult times ahead for me in what im doing.
Mark Ruff Ryder
Music is my life computers is my geek
