Apple Rant #9: A lot has changed but still far away -> Vision: All data is one, Apps apply structure

Some months have passed and Apple announced some surprising features that have the potential to bring us further.

But I believe that we are still not where current technology could bring us actually.


Vision:

All data is one. Everything is an information and the purpose of a program is just to represent the one data in whatever representation one chooses.

The topic is quite complex but I try to give a small example:

Calendar

• Today I have to create calendar entries and specify certain parameters.
• Most often the program does not allow to use whatever information is already existing, but you will need to copy partial information into this calendar entry. Each Program might have different capability.
• What one needs is the capability to use all data and structure a calendar entry around this with possible additional information to clarify things.
• It is not possible to add just any data, the size is limited as well as is also the type of the data.

In my vision this does not matter, data is one and the program is just the viewer that display data and to it's capability. Some program will show what it can while the rest of the data is accessible but might be garbled, another program might add a visualisation or other representation that no one else can do but all operate on the same data.

Apple has added two critical pieces to make it work in 2020. One is that it is opening up the data storage for all programs (via iCloud Drive) and the 2nd is the expansions.

One program is extensible, i.e. you can use existing capabilities and extend very easily what has already existed and not try to reinvent the wheel (have a look at the million PDF viewers out there).

If some clever guy creates something marvelous new he can now actually work with the data and not having to copy data. But here is something critical missing. The clever new guy must be able to add data and the old program should instantly benefit from it in some way, whatever way. One must be able to see that there is more data than the original program can correctly display and allow this data to be viewed via an extension (which can be the other new guys program or whatever possible, even just plainly display compact binary information).

Everyone talks big data (not me, I don' t really understand it). But I easily understand by experience that one should have unlimited access to all data and use whatever clever algorithm to try to make sense for whatever purpose one might be looking at data.

Today's operation systems and application programs are archaic and limit us in all our capabilities, we have to spend so much time in trying to work around the limitations or to try to understand what someone has deemed the correct way to work with data. 

As in the calendar entry, allow anything, everything but as soon as it has certain properties make it appear as a calendar entry. Whatever that might be. Be extremely open about filtering capabilites and allow any program to access data which then tries to show to the end user what it can. Allow it to alter what it can, but in such a way for everything else to just continue to work.

Let's have google web history for everything one does and not only by trying to fill in diary items or posting to your timeline. It should be done automatically with some neural networks based (as you can easily see, I have no clue about what I'm talking) learning algorithm to decide what one entity most probably wants to see at each point in time.

One data, limitless possibilities make it now.

Apple as have many before might go into the right direction but the move is not bold enough for me as I want to be benefiting from this still in my lifetime.

Currently I use about 5 programs for calendar and about the same number of programs for PDFs. This has to go. not the number of programs but that they operate on the same data and not having either multiple copies or different data storages for partial information.

Don't forget the limitation of almost all calendar programs to put tasks directly into your calendar and not somewhere near the calendar. Outlook 2013 can still not do it, from 2007 or 2010 you could place it below the day, which is not within the day.

Also reminders in iOS are not displayed in the calendar on the day.......