I Want Power Nap in Everything

Yes, I’d like to be able to power nap as well, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

Ok, this one ranks pretty high in the “first world problems” category, but many of us now have five or six “devices” in our homes: desktop, laptop, phone, tablet, a couple of consoles… And every other day, we get update notifications on one or more of those. Worse, if we turn one on after a couple of weeks, STOP EVERYTHING, THERE’S AN IMPORTANT UPDATE!

I’m kind of OCD with these things. I just have to do the updates as soon as they show up. I almost envy those of you who are able let the counter badge rank up into the double digits. I think that would kill me. Literally. Brain explosion.

So basically, apps and system updates are becoming sort of a plague for me. And for other also, I’m guessing. A few months ago, Apple came up with a clever (and obvious) auto update feature for their newest laptop: close the lid, it goes into “Power Nap” sleep mode. It’s a “low power connected state” where it’s basically off, but still downloads and installs the updates on its own. This connected standby concept isn’t new, and I had been hoping for something like this to come along for ages, but for some ungodly reason it hasn’t been implemented widely before.

This might change soon though: Sony has implemented it in its upcoming PS4, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Microsoft did the same in the next Xbox. But let’s not stop there: Apple will certainly implement the feature in all their new computers, and likely iOS as well at some point (iOS 7?). From there, it’ll become widespread enough that it will be a de facto standard feature, and others will have to implement it as well.
And as I was saying, I’m starting to hate updating so much, I want it in everything: phones, tablets, consoles, desktops (including all “app store” like installed software), set top boxes, watches, glasses, frying pans, shoes… Ok maybe not the last two. Yet.

Is that too much to ask for? No? I didn’t think so. Thank you, tech industry.

March 2nd, 2013