Thin devices
For the first time in life, i lost a phone. I didn’t have too much emotional response to that event, because my phone was 4 years old and i had a spare one, so i wasn’t stuck. But it did make me notice what i had been taking for granted and how i’m using information.
Terminals
Back in 60s and 70s “computer” was a monumental entity. And what visually looked like PCs of more modern era were in reality just machines designed to interact with an entity.
After having to spend time recovering different accounts i wish my phone was just a terminal - a relatively easy to replace piece of tech to interact with computers.
Imagine a world where you’re not locked into OS or architecture, you can offload any sort of compute load to any machine of your choice and stream back the result. Kind of like Stadia, but better. We’ve crammed SO much power and energy into these things, but maybe it would be better if they were simple. Just providing enough for stable networking.
In this paradigm phones should be able to process anything, not exclusively entertainment, through streaming.
Cameras
Most valuable things on the phone for me were photos that i haven’t uploaied yet to any cloud storage / backup drive. That is, of course avoidable already but i argue local storage should be so minimal that you’d have no option of keeping them photos for months.
2FA
One happy discovery for me was that Google Authenticator restored all my 2FA integrations from it’s cloud storage. Wait. What’s the point then? All we’re checking is that i have a way to access it (i.e. i have access to gmail account). So it’s actually 1.5FA.
What would be ideal 2FA provider? My opinion is Apple’s aproach is a nice example. Mesh of devices (not exclusively phones) that are connected can all authorise, but new devices cannot revoke access from other points.
Notifications
If phones were terminals then it would be a responsibility of computer / network to manage notifications. Many services like IFTTT would fit right in with even less complexity. And nerds like me would love it too, because it’s the ultimate configurability of your attention.
Closing thoughts
I don’t think this is a mass-produced future, it’s looking like we as consumers are attracted to more complexity and power in handheld devices, while attempts to make it simpler are either unfruitful or clumsy.
But maybe energy costs and monopoly / privacy concerns will impact products in that direction somewhat.
