Lots Have Changed

We're been away...well, that's not quite true.

Neglected "The Place To Be" is more like it.

Anyway, we're back to spew our opinion(ated)s on just about everything we can think of. And in this recession, we'll talk a bit about having fun and yet not try to break a bank doing it.

So, we'll share with you a lot of our bargain bin tips (hopefully you'll do the same) and maybe we'll just get through this in one piece.

Mobile Convergence

First, I want to apologize for not updating for the last 10 days. Work, families, alignment of the stars. You get it.

Mobile Convergence. Is the time here yet? What do I mean by it?

As a kid about eleven or so, I was really caught up in technology. In the 80s, there wasn’t really much to speak up in that respect. The kind I'm talking about are ones that did not exist at that time. Some still do not exist. Yet.

We're still stuck on Earth. We don't have flying cars or moon bases. We've not yet terraformed Mars or mined the asteroid belt yet. People spoke of colonies on the Moon and Mars by 2010. Riiiight...

What technology was I basing the future on during my pre-teen years? I had calculators (solar-powered...wow), Walkmans, and some pretty cool digital watches from Casio and to be honest, the term "computer" was thrown around quite a bit but I really did not have any idea what a real world computer is at that time. I was given boxes of punch cards used by computers but I had no idea what they were.

We had Apple IIs, Commodores, and others from Texas Instruments. But nothing mobile.

So a lot of what computers and handhelds that I thought are suppose to be like came from television shows and cartoons. While we had some pretty cool gadgets from Star Trek and other sci-fi shows, it was anime that really got a hold of my imagination.



The laptop-like devices and handhelds that do it all are pretty much staples in sci-fi anime. Today, we have computing power in our laptops and smartphones only science fiction writers of yesterday dare dream of. Gadgets that are pretty close to those I've seen in anime.

So, is mobility where we are content or is there still a long way to way? I think what we have today is only a glimpse of what is possible in the next few years. The ultra-mobile PCs and Apple's multi-touch platform will make our iPhones or Thinkpads look ancient compared to what is coming out in the next 3-5 years. Or 10 years.

My only grip is the lack of breakthrough in battery technology. The failure of UMPCs to catch on thus far can be blamed on the anemic battery life of such devices. The focus these days seems to be chip, screen, and component efficiencies.

Just as before, I dare to dream and continue to do so and believe that each of us will one day carry with us a mobile platform that allow us to do it all. No matter where you are on the planet.

Now, what you would like to see in mobile devices (of any type) 5 years from now? How about 10 years from now?