Word for an Internet-enabled computing device

[Benjamin Barrett]

Fair enough. Clearly, though, those citations are by the tech crowd for the tech crowd, and "appliance" has not yet spread to Diva Espresso (or to me, but I will keep the word in mind for possible use, thank you.)

BB

On Sep 26, 2011, at 2:49 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> I just saw references to "appliance" in Wired, PC Mag and a few other
> places just this week (current articles). So the "out of use" claim is
> at best exaggerated. I also just sent out another message with a brief
> explanation. That part of Wiki description is just wrong. On the other
> hand, AFAICT it has now been truncated to just "appliance", which, I
> suspect, is slightly more preferable to "device".
>
> VS-)
>
> On 9/26/2011 5:35 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>> According to your citation, the term has called out of use. I'm not familiar with it, though I think it's no less unattractive than "computing device" :)
>>
>> BB
>>
>> On Sep 26, 2011, at 2:30 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>>
>>> I thought the generic term was "appliance"--as in "internet appliance".
>>>
>>> From Wiki:
>>>
>>>> An Internet appliance is a consumer device whose main function is easy
>>>> access to Internet services such as WWW or e-mail.[1] The term was
>>>> popularized in the 1990s, when it somewhat overlapped in meaning with
>>>> an information appliance, Internet computer, network computer, or even
>>>> thin client,[2] but now it has fallen out of general use.
>>>>
>>>> Internet appliance was contrasted with any general purpose computer.
>>>> The basic design idea behind Internet appliance is that it can be made
>>>> cheaper and much more usable by narrowing its functionality and
>>>> limiting available configuration options. Modern smart phones and
>>>> tablet computers do approximately the same things, but are more
>>>> powerful, more successful in the market, and generally not classified
>>>> as Internet appliances.
>>>     VS-)

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