Imagine... a world where your next personal computing device is the last one that you would ever need to buy. Where you would never need to worry about operating systems, software patches, or viruses. Where you always had enough processing power, memory, storage, and top-of-the-line graphics. Where you could access all of the very best software applications, regardless of their platform. Where you had a constant connection to all your favourite digital services, and your battery lasted for days, perhaps even weeks, of full-on use. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, this is the world of the Stream Tone. A world that does not exist in some far off future; this could be, figuratively speaking, our world a mere five minutes from now. All that is needed to make it a reality is the creative convergence of certain technologies that are already available and in use today.
Personal computing is changing from an old world of local services, provided by local devices, to a new world of remote Web-based services, provided by cloud computing-based data centres. The STREAM TONE: The Future of Personal Computing? is a 408-page academically-oriented non-fiction book that explores, in some technical detail, what might be required to make a comprehensive move to this exciting new world, and the many benefits that move could bring. This book not only attempts to make a thorough evaluation of the technology ecosystem that will be required to create this future but also considers many of the implications of such a move. Along the way, it also discusses a wide range of currently-available technologies and how they could possibly be used to enable this future.
