Socially Mundane

One thing about Second Life, judging from how often my friend’s play, is it’s terribly time consuming and highly addictive. My first life is already time consuming, and I’m just not sure I’m quite ready yet to commit to a second one, even one where I could theoretically be a vampire or superhero or own my own virtual condo on virtual beach and furnish it a virtual hot tub for a virtual party.

Although, if I did own a virtual condo on virtual beach, I could invite the virtual versions of my real life friends over - considering how much Second Life has become part of their real lives, that might be the only way I’m going to see them for a while.

Agreed: “Second Life” is a bad name for a virtual world as it actually suggests “your first life might suck, so come in here and create a second one” - and since we only really have time for one life, what happens to the first when you focus on the second?

To the author of the above: addiction wanes with time. The real issue is the time-consuming aspect.

However, the problem is in the last sentence quoted above.

Andy Ihnatko has a truly interesting piece at Macworld regarding the Google Chromebook (Chrome OS laptop) and the Apple MacBook Air and sometimes it seems like he’s unable to focus. However, just like Apple pre-trains us for their game-changing products, Andy does the same as he finally gets to this point about MacBook Air and iCloud: 

It’s so very clear to me now that just as Superman is the living ideal of Truth, Justice, and the American Way, the 11” Air is the tangible ideal of iCloud. You grab it when you leave the office and that’s it. No syncing, no updating, no need to trust that you’ll find WiFi when you get to where you’re going: iCloud kept your iCloudBook’s files up-to-date as you were updating them on your iMac so you’re already good.

Thanks to the fact that your iCloudBook is a Mac OS device, you won’t need to transmogrify your files between mobile and desktop app formats, as you often must with an iPad [actually a rare need —Ari]. Instead, you can use the same familiar software you’ve got on your office machine.

And if you’re missing an app on your iCloudBook, no worries: connect to the App Store and click a button to install it. All of the work you create and edit on your iCloudBook will have automagically shown up on your home and office Macs when you return.

This doesn’t surprise me a bit. It also is why Google is actually behind the curve with their fancy Chromebook (or whatever it’s called) - internet only laptop computer.

Apple has been preparing us for iCloud since when the MacBook Air was first announced. Hell, Apple has been training us all for the iPad since the day they announced and showed-off the iPhone for the first time.

Whatever it is Apple announces in 2015, they are already likely training us for it. Right now.