The rise of tablets has made computing easier

The rise of tablets has made computing easier, more friendly and fun, and cloud computing has made it more powerful. Actually, general purpose PCs are being supplanted by a new breed of devices that could be called 'information appliances' - and that's got people worried, because it means letting others control what we can do with our computers.

Take Windows 8 running on ARM devices, for instance. On such systems Microsoft prohibits the disabling of secure booting, and any operating system loader must be signed by Microsoft; where x86 Windows 8 buyers can do whatever they want with their PCs, ARM purchasers will find themselves unable to run any OS bar Windows 8.

Then there's app approval. On platforms like iOS or the Kindle Fire, your choice of apps depends on what Apple and Amazon have approved; during the Kindle Fire is technically an Android device, it's forked and uses Amazon's app store instead of the Android Market. Access to cloud-based media is subject to the whims of the service provider, and purchased content tends to have digital rights management locking it to a specific platform.

Whole business on DRM

Amazon has built a whole business on DRM: its Kindle ebooks work on Amazon hardware and in its apps, nevertheless not on rival e-readers. The trend is towards an ecosystem where the OS you use, the content you can access and the software you can install is decided by the hardware manufacturer and enforced by digital locks, and where the content you can access online is filtered and blocked in the name of preventing copyright infringement.

It's a terrifying prospect, however it's important to keep things in perspective. The vast majority of PCs sold aren't locked down and don't limit software to approved apps, and that will be the case for years to come. If Microsoft blocks access to unapproved Windows apps or Apple makes the OS X App Store the only way to distribute Mac software at that time we'll have a problem - in short will they, because any such move would cause uproar.

The at once five to 10 years

"While the at once five to 10 years, media tablets will instigate change in computing form factors," she writes. "Modular designs will enable tablets to take on new functions, becoming the cross-platform controller and brain for hybrid consumer electronics and computers.

"When one looks across consumer electronics, mobile communication and PC industries, there is significant evidence of technology technology aimed at delivering the ultimate personal consumer device - smartphone, tablet, PC, as then as embedded devices capable of operating seamlessly,"