Viewing 8 posts - 81 through 88 (of 88 total)
  • 50 technological advances your children will laugh at
  • MrAgreeable
    Full Member

    So to do like for like you'd really have to compare iPod Touch to the total price in the '80s of a walkman, laptop, Astro Wars, portable TV etc.

    Or the price of a walkman, a library card, a conversation, a newspaper and a few games of Galaxian down the amusement arcade? 🙂

    There's some point to be made in this about the effect of technology on the way we live our lives, but a succinct summary is evading me.

    westkipper
    Free Member

    What about 'the bicycle'? an outmoded device that requires effort and perspiration to use, superceded by modern vehicles that not only are more comfortable, convenient and faster but which express a much greater measure of their owners social status and income.
    Aye right! 🙂

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    What really amazes me is the power of modern mobile phones. In 10 yrs will separate gadgets be redundant? Mp3 players, dedicated gps units, pdas, laptops etc?

    Most of those functions are now in mobiles and at the rate at which mobiles have got better I soon think that all gadgets will be in one unit. No one will have separate gadgets just one do it all gadget. The i phone ( and similar} are virtually there now. ~Fold out screens and keyboards are almost there along with voice recognition.

    The "universal communicator" has been a staple gadget in science fiction since the 50s – its now here.

    Mind you I still don't have a mobile – but it gets harder every year not to have one – universal mobile use has changed the way folk interact and organise their social lives

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    grievoustim
    Free Member

    I'm predicticting a mobile phone/ iphone that essentially is a laptop within 5 years. carry it in your pocket – plug it into an external monitor and keyboard when you are at home/ work. some kind of folding screen/ keyboard for when you are on the move

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    As for Working from home? What a crock of shit! I’ve yet to meet anyone who genuinely “Works from home” it’s middle management speak for Skiving, generally the email arrives about 16:45 on a Thursday informing the rest of us that “Tomorrow I will be working from Home”…

    You're a genius, my boss has this very minute said those exact words! 🙂

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Or the price of a walkman, a library card, a conversation, a newspaper and a few games of Galaxian down the amusement arcade?

    Hah. Libraries are not ideal in any way; conversations – well people still have those believe it or not, only now they can have them with their friends even when they are not there; and I'd rather game for free whilst I am otherwise in limbo ie on a train than take time otu to a scuzzy arcade and play crap games.

    some kind of folding screen/ keyboard for when you are on the move

    Unlikely.. the tech for manufacturing folding keyboards wont change much, and it's still expensive to make unlike chips. Plus, laptops are actually a very pleasing form factor with which to work, and that won't change. People's laps, eyes, fingers etc will stay. They might end up weighing 200g and the battery could last a week, but they'll still exist like they do now.

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    Molgrips – how do you know trhe tech won't change much? Thats the beauty of this stuff = its unpredictable. Virtual keyboards in some form and folding expanding screens in some form will come I am sure.

    You have a box the size of a mobile – a screen unfolds from it and it projects a keyboard ( or some other interface)

    molgrips
    Free Member

    A keyboard is a mechanical thing, so it needs small bits of plastic/metal to be machined and made. That kind of manufacturing is very expensive to do and can't really get any cheaper.

    The reason that computing technology gets cheaper and cheaper is that there's a huge research and setup cost to make silicon chips, but actually churning them out once done is very cheap. So the chip manufs tool up for top of the line computers and charge a ton for them. So then they find a way of making them even better but they are still tooled up for making the previous stuff so they can keep churning it out at smaller and smaller cost.. so it proliferates into more and more cheaper kit like phones, watches, ipods etc etc.

    This doesn't happen with mechanical things cos tooling up is less of an issue but each item is expensive. So it's either dead expensive or really crappy. Or both 🙂 There have been fold-out keyboards for PDAs but I've neve seen anyone use them – too much trouble I suppose.

    They have done a thing that projects a keyboard onto a table with lasers and you can type on it, but again it didn't seem to catch on. I suppose no-one wanted it 🙂

Viewing 8 posts - 81 through 88 (of 88 total)

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