I've been talking with my partner about this for some time - discussing what pcs, laptops or whatever you want to call them will look like in the years to come.
Well --- sometimes the future hits your right between the eyes sooner than you thought --- it's here. Albeit in a VERY primitive form.
First the link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703373404576148190633168766.html?mod=WSJASIA_hpp_MIDDLEFourthNews
Here's the story in a nutshell: Motorola has come up with a smart phone slash pc. It's a pc or rather the brains of a pc in a handheld phone.
So how do you use it?
You can use it as a stand alone or plug it into what's called a dock. That is a brainless pc. A pc without any of the stuff that usually makes it a pc. It's just a keyboard with a screen. It has no CPU. No memory... Zilch.
But - plug in the smart phone/pc and the thing comes alive.
Here's the catch. As is always true with any new technology, it is primitive and clumsy at first. Remember the first calculators? The first modems, browsers or search engines?
Translation: It can do some things, but not all that a regular laptop or pc could do. And what is does do, it doesn't do as well, as fast or as efficiently as the real deal.
BUT and this is the big but. It points to the shape of things to come. You see, as memory and processing capacity continue to grow by leaps and bounds, my partner and i have discussed many times that eventually, everything would likely devolve into the phone.
Your TV, computer, music station, phone, internet etc. etc... would all eventually be scrunched into the size of a phone. Problem is : While we humans find those size gadgets handy to carry around, we don't feel the same way when it come to using them. Such mundane things such as typing become a real bitch on something that small. Especially when you have elephant fingers like me.
So - imagine this scene. In a few short years, everybody carries her own pc/phone all-in-one work/play/communication device in her pocket or purse. She arrives at the office. The pc on her desk is a dummy. A box without a brain like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. She sits down docks her pc, and off to work she goes...
Or she finds herself in an airport. No pcs. Just dummies to dock into... You get the picture.
And on the run - she has the same functionality, albeit on that annoyingly small screen.
BUT what comes next?
What happens when everybody tires of those damn brainless boxes that either have to be carried around (just like laptops today), or the idiot boxes on their desks.
What happens when people get used to having the world at their fingertips and now want that same desktop experience without the box?
That's when something really interesting could be in store: Ever seen a hologram? You know - one of those things at the museum. It's just a projection - in thin air. You see an image, and as you move, the image seems to move or change too.
Hmmmmm.... What if something like that could be perfected to create that all-elusive keyboard and monitor for your smart pc/phone?
Imagine it: You hit a button or activate a voice command for Hologram, or whatever trade name it's called by. It deploys. You see a purple (that's what i imagine anyway..) mini-genie-like apparition. It's a keyboard that can be displayed on any flat surface in front of you and a screen that projects into the air in front of you.
But here's the best part:
With such a technology, by adjusting the angles from which it is visible, you can make the keyboard ---and hence every keystroke--- 100% private. Only you could see it because it would be uniquely adjusted for the angle of your eyes only. Same with the monitor.
You could be in the middle of the most crowded airport, office, maglev train or hotel --- and with the appropriate encryption--- having an absolutely private session.
Ready to leave? Turn off hologram and put it away or continue in hand held mode...
Well --- sometimes the future hits your right between the eyes sooner than you thought --- it's here. Albeit in a VERY primitive form.
First the link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703373404576148190633168766.html?mod=WSJASIA_hpp_MIDDLEFourthNews
Here's the story in a nutshell: Motorola has come up with a smart phone slash pc. It's a pc or rather the brains of a pc in a handheld phone.
So how do you use it?
You can use it as a stand alone or plug it into what's called a dock. That is a brainless pc. A pc without any of the stuff that usually makes it a pc. It's just a keyboard with a screen. It has no CPU. No memory... Zilch.
But - plug in the smart phone/pc and the thing comes alive.
Here's the catch. As is always true with any new technology, it is primitive and clumsy at first. Remember the first calculators? The first modems, browsers or search engines?
Translation: It can do some things, but not all that a regular laptop or pc could do. And what is does do, it doesn't do as well, as fast or as efficiently as the real deal.
BUT and this is the big but. It points to the shape of things to come. You see, as memory and processing capacity continue to grow by leaps and bounds, my partner and i have discussed many times that eventually, everything would likely devolve into the phone.
Your TV, computer, music station, phone, internet etc. etc... would all eventually be scrunched into the size of a phone. Problem is : While we humans find those size gadgets handy to carry around, we don't feel the same way when it come to using them. Such mundane things such as typing become a real bitch on something that small. Especially when you have elephant fingers like me.
So - imagine this scene. In a few short years, everybody carries her own pc/phone all-in-one work/play/communication device in her pocket or purse. She arrives at the office. The pc on her desk is a dummy. A box without a brain like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. She sits down docks her pc, and off to work she goes...
Or she finds herself in an airport. No pcs. Just dummies to dock into... You get the picture.
And on the run - she has the same functionality, albeit on that annoyingly small screen.
BUT what comes next?
What happens when everybody tires of those damn brainless boxes that either have to be carried around (just like laptops today), or the idiot boxes on their desks.
What happens when people get used to having the world at their fingertips and now want that same desktop experience without the box?
That's when something really interesting could be in store: Ever seen a hologram? You know - one of those things at the museum. It's just a projection - in thin air. You see an image, and as you move, the image seems to move or change too.
Hmmmmm.... What if something like that could be perfected to create that all-elusive keyboard and monitor for your smart pc/phone?
Imagine it: You hit a button or activate a voice command for Hologram, or whatever trade name it's called by. It deploys. You see a purple (that's what i imagine anyway..) mini-genie-like apparition. It's a keyboard that can be displayed on any flat surface in front of you and a screen that projects into the air in front of you.
But here's the best part:
With such a technology, by adjusting the angles from which it is visible, you can make the keyboard ---and hence every keystroke--- 100% private. Only you could see it because it would be uniquely adjusted for the angle of your eyes only. Same with the monitor.
You could be in the middle of the most crowded airport, office, maglev train or hotel --- and with the appropriate encryption--- having an absolutely private session.
Ready to leave? Turn off hologram and put it away or continue in hand held mode...
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