State and why sync is dumb

Stateand why syncing is dumb

About me

• Tom Hughes-Croucher

• http://kid666.com/blog

• Day job as a Web Developer at Yahoo!

• Secret Mobile jock

State of a presentation

• Idea

• Questions

• Open discussion

State (of mind)

• Sync is about moving data

• State is about continuity

• State is transient

• State normally only matters for a short amount time

How do I get there?

How do I get there?

Where is the state?

• Both computer and mobile have map clients

• Both map clients know the location of 45 Foubert Place

• When I grab my phone and leave my desk I don’t want to repeat the same action

State, State, Revolution

State, State, Revolution

Where is the state?

• iTunes and the mobile device both understand playlists

• iTunes may have the same tracks as the mobile (increasingly likely)

• When I grab my phone and leave my desk I want the sound track to my life to follow

Adding state to sync

• Two kinds of sync

• Data sync

• e.g Calendar, Todo list, Music Tracks, etc

• State sync

• Quick update of ‘where am I’

Discussion

• Some open questions

• Should devices automatically ‘carry on’ tasks

• Should all shared applications pass state?

• Should state timeout?