Technology

Is Everything an App?

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iPhone Apps.  Android Apps.  Google TV will have Apps.  It seems everything is becoming an App.

Now I'm all for some interesting slang, but I think what we're seeing is something deeper here.

An "App" of course is short for Application, such as a Word Processor, only it seems the term is broadening.  You can turn your book into an App, you can make an App that's a game, you can make an App that interfaces with Social Media services.  It seems that the "App" really is a term for "something specific you do on a piece of technology."

I think this is great because it actually brings out an important truth about our media and our technologies – they're about doing things and getting information.  It's all Apps.

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Frustration Friday: Enough Change, Thank you!

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Apple's iPad comes out and changes everything.

HP comes out of the blue and buys Palm.

The people at SquareEnix predict the death of the console.

I'm typing this Frustration Friday on a Netbook so small yet powerful it would seem like a joke a few years ago.

Facebook's security and privacy settings change hourly (it seems).

Am I the only one feeling that the rate of technology change is not just fast, but getting to the point of being almost gratuitous?

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Why FaceBook and Company Aren’t Really Web Pages

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Facebook has been in the news with it's recent announcements, changes, and of course, new features.  Over and over again I hear the same arguments about Facebook – lack of privacy, settings too obscure or complex, everything changes so much.  Facebook is this giant morphing ball of "stuff" that everyone likes and no one is happy with.

I'd like to focus on the complexity issues with Facebook, the arguments that its too hard to change settings and that when you dig into it, Facebook can actually be quite complex.

The complexity isn't a surprise to me, but I think it surprises many people.  The reason it surprises them is that they're treating Facebook like a web page or web tool, like a Google search or a Twitter feed.  Facebook is not a simple web page/tool.

Facebook is a web-delivered application (bordering in some cases on being an operating system as well).

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