State
and 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?