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by itsame 4396 days ago
I don't quite see when in the keynote Apple demonstrated the run-anywhere applications that's discussed in this blog entry. These are all different implementations of applications running on their respective platforms, integrated through the cloud. It's nothing new at the most basic level, and nothing new at the application level. What Apple's done is integrate everything in a fairly seamless fashion. Certainly Apple gets kudos for their execution (the proximity stuff was cool), but in the end, integration through the cloud and being able to pick up where you left off is something that has already been demonstrated by Google (along with other companies) with stuff like Chrome syncing and the Google Docs suite of applications.
1 comments
massel 4396 days ago
I could be mistaken, but I don't think the integration is through the cloud. It looks like it's built on the same tech as airdrop, using bluetooth 4.0 to exchange bonjour data then build an ad-hoc wifi network to transfer data (might skip the wifi for tiny transfers like email contents)

Otherwise, the stuff like instant tethering wouldn't work because the devices would never be able to connect - also it seemed too fast in the demo to be making the round trip to the cloud, though that is the nature of demos

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itsame 4396 days ago
Admittedly I can only make guesses as to the actual implementation. It may well be through the cloud, through some Bluetooth/Wi-Fi communication, or maybe even a mixture for all we know. Nevertheless, my point is that the concepts and the high-level integration in and of themselves are not particularly novel.

Again that's not to discount what Apple has achieved here. In typical Apple fashion, their excellent execution of existing concepts is where their value proposition lies, and this is no exception.

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smackfu 4396 days ago
The cloud part is that if you handoff between a document in Pages in iOS to a document in Pages in OS X, the document itself can just be opened via iCloud rather than sending it directly. Only the user's current state (scroll and cursor position) needs to be sent directly.
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