What tech innovation are you waiting for (not bikes)?

Since the recent wet squib of an Apple event, more people than ever are questioning Apple’s lack of innovation and perhaps the tech industry is running out of ideas that get people wanting to upgrade. What are you waiting for that will make you splash the cash on a new phone/computer/whatever?

Does the tech industry need 650b to make the bytes come alive?

I’m keeping my eye on drones. The DJI Mavic is getting close to something I want. Just a bit smaller, cheaper, smarter and I’ll get one. Won’t be long.

650b ought to be enough for anybody

Brain implants that allow me to connect to the internet by thought, paid for with neural advertising.

Hover board obvs ……………..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

cars lorries etc. not driven by humans

I want mobile data to be cheaper. Unlimited data (on a network that isn’t shite i.e. not 3) would make a difference to a mobile worker.

I also like Google Now/Cortana/Siri to be much better, so you could really talk to it and get good responses on everything.

I want self driving cars, preferably collective pooled community ones that I can simply ask my house for and one turns up within 5 mins to take me to the train station. Or better still, I want a train station near my house.

I want fusion power with cheap clean electricity.

Unlimited data (on a network that isn’t shite i.e. not 3)

I think you may have a slightly dated view of Three. The signal I get on that network is better than my old work phone on O2 and the new one on Voda.

Seamless, in the background. unlimited storage/retrieval.

It should be available to us but everyone is too focused on marketing “the cloud”. Get rid of the branding and get it working without you noticing.

For me it’s all about how we interact with objects where the big innovations will be. Kit is kit, it progresses but is more about new applications of existing or even old technology (carbon fibre is a classic example), but true innovation is doing something that is completely new and unexpected. For me interacting with devices via buttons or physical contact will seem as old fashioned in 5 or 10 years time as having to get up out of your comfy chair to walk across the room to press a button on the TV to change channel does today. It’ll be voice or gesture control, or even thought control, integrated with AI so devices learn your behaviours, likes and dislikes and anticipate your needs.

VR (the generation after the current stuff)
OLED TVs (becoming affordable and the issues with motion blur addressing)
Drones/quadcopters (as per 5thelefant, like the current £1-2k models but at around the £500 mark)

Longer term I’m hoping there will be a big battery tech development in the next 5-10 years but despite the amount of money going into battery R&D it seems just incremental changes are happening for the moment.

One thing I’m not particularly excited about is the IoT, I can see some uses & benefits but security is really going to be a minefield. If you think people taking over webcams etc. is an issue at the moment then things are going to get 1000000x times worse. The company I work for is doing a lot of IoT related work (with a focus on security, although I’m not involved in any of it personally) but even if that turns out to be (mostly) secure it’s the cheap commodity stuff made on a shoe-string coming out of China etc. that will be the stuff with mass appeal and that’s the stuff that will cause a meltdown in Internet security (and performance). The majority of people just have too much inherent trust in this sort of tech and assume it’s secure out of the box etc. which is something criminals will continue to exploit

Agree with Google Now/Cortana/Siri/Alexa to actually work. We have an Amazon Echo and it is good but you quickly find limitations and areas where it could be improved actually quite quickly.

Fast broadband for everyone. Tech that allows this to every house

Over the air charging, proper wireless.

Removing the need for interconnect cables on the back of TV’s and stereos

Amalgamation of TV services into one, so I don’t need Freeview, Now TV, Amazon Firestick, Apple TV, Etc to get all my content. One place for all content.

Laserpants, smartcheese

Agree with Google Now/Cortana/Siri/Alexa to actually work

My kids don’t do what I ask them, so I have little hope of this 😆

Over the air charging, proper wireless.

Rumour has it this is exactly what Apple is working on.

One place for all content.

Isn’t this the intent of their new TV app they launched last week? Obviously there will be licensing issues preventing it being ALL content, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Bionic parts to replace my aging bits, Fridge that makes my food for me.
Consequence reminder app on my phone- ” No don’t try that drop it’ll hurt!! ” Told You”

Network roaming for UK customers in the UK – why the hell not – surely it would save a fortune on infrastructure and get rid of dead spots for most

Proper augmented reality, Google glasses for the mainstream linked to the ai assistant. Mostly as a precursor to the culture neural net

Built-in car satnav that isn’t rubbish.

+1 for battery tech. That’s what’s holding back a lot of portable tech. Either that or better, lower-power display tech.

I think you may have a slightly dated view of Three. The signal I get on that network is better than my old work phone on O2 and the new one on Voda.

But nowhere near as good as EE….?

Problem with voice control is that when there are other people around it’s annoying. Buttons will always have a place I suspect.

IoT, I can see some uses & benefits but security is really going to be a minefield.

I think most of these recent problems are caused by the old default password nonsense. Won’t take much effort to get around that imo.

Bionic parts

Better than that, elixir of youth. If we could live to say 150 and be fit and healthy. Retire at 100. Oh and a cure for cancer, obv, which is part of this.

Not technology as such, but perhaps enabled by it – I’d like to be able to work much more flexibly more easily instead of being a slave to the man. Ok so it’s possible now but it’s not without risks and faff. Working when I want/need to and from *wherever* I want.

Oh and a teleporter. Imagine how that would compeltely transform the world and its economy…

Rumour has it this is exactly what Apple is working on.[/quote]

As in your phone just charges from radio waves wherever it is, rather than having to sit it on a charging pad? Some quite fundamental physics reasons why that’s not happening. Though a quick google suggests some people have been peddling snake oil – and the Apple stories appear to date to the start of this year and were talking about the phone they’ve just released, I’m not sure of the origin of any stories, but journos appear to be credulous.

Voice control is old tech – the future is thought control. Buttons might always have a place, but I suspect at some point they’ll be marginalised.

People are freaking out enough about Google listening to what you say – imagine if it read your thoughts all the time!

Some quite fundamental physics reasons why that’s not happening.

There’s a rumour that Tesla had worked out how to do it, but took the idea to his grave. How true that was I don’t know (you’d have thought we’d have figured it out by now if it were true I suppose).

Godzilla

There’s also a rumour that Tesla figured it out but wrote it all down in his own cryptic shorthand code that no-one’s been able to decipher.

You have to remember that pepole like Tesla and Edison, operating in late Victorian Amerca needed investment from private individuals and companies. They weren’t working at universities. So to secure and compete for as much funding as possible they had to publicise themselves hugely. That’s why Edison is so famous in America for being a genius and other scientists (Rutherford, Bohr et al) are confined to textbooks. And to a large extent where our mad scientist/inventor/genius/prodidgy/Tony Stark type figures come from in popular culture.

And the fact Tesla had a cryptic shorthand code and became mentally ill plays right into the hands of the romantic conspiracy lovers. Great story, but there’ve been plenty of geniuses since then and they are all of the opinion that beaming power to devices is not practically possible.

Plus – think how worked up people get about the radio emissions from phones, which are tiny. Imagine if kilowatts of power were being focussed all over the place..!

As in your phone just charges from radio waves wherever it is, rather than having to sit it on a charging pad?

Not quite but nearly. I interpreted the rumours as still requiring some sort of charging device to be plugged in, but the phone needs to be nearby rather than actually on it. I’ve tried to find the article but no luck.

On the thought/EEG stuff, lots of movement in this area. I had a Google Glass unit hooked via Bluetooth to a Neurosky Mindwave Mobile headset EEG detector. Very simple but allowed me to take photos and post them to Twitter with the “power of my mind”. Lots of other controller stuff going on (even cars in China). Oddly, of all the modern controller tech, EEG is one of the older ones and goes back to the early 1980s and work by Atari.

On “what next” it’s all about the batteries for me: a laptop that can do 20hr straight would be good.

A toaster that toasts the second round of toast the same toastedness as the first toast on the same toastedness setting immediately following toasting one.

Orgasmatron

Phones that are really smart. ie. they don’t work when people shouldn’t be using them. Like, when they’re driving, walking through a crowded shopping precinct, supposed to be paying attention to their kids, crossing roads… etc etc.

A robust, long lasting elbow replacement would be nice.

Gigabit (up and down) fibre.

But, in the shorterm a device that’s like Sky+ but for legal streaming.

Something I can log-in with my Netflix, NowTV, 4od, ipLayer etc, rather than lots of different apps, and it tells me when the tv programmes I like are available.

Zero-fat Curries, pizza and cheese.

Phones that are really smart. ie. they don’t work when people shouldn’t be using them. Like, when they’re driving, walking through a crowded shopping precinct, supposed to be paying attention to their kids, crossing roads… etc etc.

Self-driving cars will sort that out on the road – so perhaps we need self-walking legs for the pavements?

Nearby is possible, but the basic physics means it’s going to be a fairly inefficient. Might be a small thing, but doesn’t seem like the best way to go when we’re trying to reduce energy consumption – that and what molgrips says about irradiating everybody (strangely the sort of people who complain about phone masts don’t seem to bothered by things like this).

I guess I’m not the target market though – I don’t even see the huge advantage of a charging mat over one of these[/url] which you just drop your phone in (I have a similar thing for my phone, though the contacts are slightly different).

Well if we’re doing proper tech innovation, then not batteries at all – miniature fuel cells.

I can’t see that selling 😥

I don’t even see the huge advantage of a charging mat over one of these which you just drop your phone in

In my car I have a (magnetic) phone holder on the dashboard. I get in my car and whilst I’m putting my seat belt on with one hand I put my phone on the holder with the other. Every time I do this I wish that the holder charged the phone, but instead I have to plug an unsightly wire in.

I can’t see that selling

It’ll be compulsory on all phones!

a laptop that can do 20hr straight would be good.

I have a big workstation replacement laptop for work, a Lenovo W541.

If you removed the guts of this, fitted the tiny insides of one of those tiny ultra portable devices, you’d probably get 20 hours.

Actually if you simply used the battery from the Lenovo with my MS Surface insides you’d get about 16 hours of runtime. So it’s possible, but people just want lighter weight with their lower power devices.

Wireless charging is about 3-4 years old and good.
Hangover cures might be good, body regrow and mind transfer. Best thing for this is read an Ian banks culture novel

Mobile data signal as good as wifi and covers 100% of the earth. Incl my works toilet where I currently only get a G signal. 🙁

Pill based food that satiates and tastes. Like in Charlie and the Chocolate factory.

Have for breakfast and lunch, proper food for tea/dinner (whatever you want to call it)

and teleportation.