Wired's Wish List For 2013 349
jpt.d writes "Wired has a nice article on what they wish to be for 2013. It is not too far fetched either! My personal favorite is the roll up television screen made of light-emitting-polymer. How about another Apple gadget? Their first item is an iPhone bracelet, including the functionality of a 'PDA, wireless Internet, a mini iPod, and, of course, a phone.' Notice the Apple logo in the picture." I'd settle for ubiquitous unmetered wireless network access.
Utility Run Internet Access (Score:5, Interesting)
Let the gov't run the backbones.
Earplugs (Score:3, Interesting)
An alternative to paper-magazines (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean, yes, it would be tragic for those journalistic egos to be deflated by the fact that Joe-shmoe could now publish his thought and be judged based on the quality of work alone, rather than his ability to schmoose editors and such-like.
But either way, I am sure that a forward-thinking publication such as Wired News would certainly advocate publication over such a system, and would quickly realize the futility of wasteful and ugly paper-based approaches.
</asshole>
Combination devices... (Score:5, Interesting)
These two things work against each other.
The display on my phone is not important (especially if I can use it as a simple modem for my PDA), but the button size is. I do not want a combination PDA and phone (think Treo and others) since I want a small phone (since I carry that on me at all times) and will take a somewhat larger PDA since I can choose to carry that or not.
So I want a small display phone with non-small buttons.
I want a PDA with a large color display (I currently have at Clie 665c to give an example).
I want a small watch with small buttons (I have a Nike Triax 42)
I want a small camera with a decent display and good optics (I have a Canon S200)
I want a MP3 player with a decent display and small size (I have an iPod)
One thing I really want is a Bluetooth-like personal network. If I pull out my PDA, I want it to sense my cell phone in my pocket and use it to connect to the internet. I want my PDA to recognize my camera and download pictures from that. if I have a laptop with me, I want it to do the same thing.
So available wireless internet is one thing, but I would rather have workable, wireless personal networks (meaning on my body).
Even better would be the ability to have a neetworked storage device somewhere (wallet, etc) that could work as a networked storage device for everything else I am carrying at once. No more carrying a 10gig iPod, a PDA with a 128meg MemoryStick and a camera with a 128meg CompacFlash card. Ideally the iPod would simply be used as storage by all devices without wires.
This would allow easy modularity without trying to pack everything into once device.
[If someone tries to patent this idea in the future, I suppose my idea cannot be used as prior art. I think I have to actually implement the idea, right? Any non-lawyers out there want to comment?]
Drawing on your retina makes a lot of sence (Score:3, Interesting)
But it's not just for athletes. Technology like that is already being used in medicine (look up stuff while you operate), and I believe that when you couple it with GPS navigation you could do way cool navigational aids (think drawing arrows on the ground, you just follow).
I've been waiting for this a long time already... why can't it be ready now?
Don't hold your breath (Score:4, Interesting)
OK, Internet is a bigger BBS, my modem is 4x faster I've got a 17" monitor and my PC is 50x faster.
In ten years expect things will remain much the same but bigger again. Maybe I'll surf Internet2 at 250k, have a 24" monitor? My PC may even run at 20GHz
Re:Whoopee... (Score:4, Interesting)
I also noticed a PC in the dumpster one time but I decided to pass on thatt one.
wrap-around tv is already here (Score:3, Interesting)
isn't history supposed to be repeating itself? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Earplugs (Score:2, Interesting)
Being an acual Dave Matthews Band fan I would like this for the bootlegs though, screeming teenage girls are much more fun when you're dancing with them, but are an unwanted aspect of bootleg recordings.
Re:Utility Run Internet Access (Score:2, Interesting)
Companies like Sprint do not artificially limit bandwidth. Have you ever price a T3 that crosses a state line? The high cost of long-distance data lines is most of the cost of bandwidth. As long as the Bell monopolies can charge huge prices and states can add huge taxes, bandwidth will remain expensive.
Paper (Score:4, Interesting)
But why paper? Because, unlike any kind of polymers that we'll know of in the near future, paper is cheap as heck. Paper also provides excellent contrast and is pleasant to read off. Not to mention the ability to draw stuff on top of it with a regular pen.
I would personally not be surprised if paper-based computer displays rule the earth in ten years.
The Electronic nose already exists (Score:1, Interesting)
Possible iPhone Interaction Methods (Score:4, Interesting)
In 10 years Apple (or someone else) might be ready to pioneer the holographic interface [slashdot.org] to work with this iPhone.
Possible Output Methods
Possible Input Methods
So in closing... everyone complaining about the size of the iPhone being to small to see anything on, is being short sighted.
Rod!
Re:Robot Slave (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, wheres the AI programs that can run errands for me, like pay the bills online, record my TV shows, remind me about important dates. Oh, an AI lawyer and account would be nice too.
The cars that can drive themselves, and let me read a book on the way to work.
With dual incomes becoming the norm just to live in the USA, where are the time saving robot/AI programs to give us more time to spend with the family. Work a ten hour day, commute for 2 hours, sleep for 8, doesnt leave much time to eat dinner with the family and and wind down from work.
Re:Hopefully (Score:2, Interesting)
-Buying SUVs supports terrorism in a BIG way since those gas guzzling mosters put money in the hands of the criminals doing horrible things worldwide. If they were true patriots, they would stop buying SUVs and demand that our auto industry provide us with alternative fuels.
-Damaging the environment seems to not matter to these fools as well. So what if their grand children or great grand children won't bea ble to play outside because it's too polluted. It doesn't directlry affect them. Selfish bastards.
And then when you confront these idiots with these facts, they get all defensive because they don't want to think about it and hope that some solution will magically appear. Well you know what idiot! You're wrong. It won't! And YOU are a huge part of the problem!
Fuck the war for oil... What we need is a war on US business. Force the auto industry out of business so that someone else can come in to replace it. We need alternative fuels, better mass transportation, and in the end... electric cars. The money being spent on this ridiculous conflict in Iraq would be better spent on re-tooling the auto industry for electric cars, fuel cells and charging station infrastructure. Imagine that... being free of the middle eastern grip. That whole part of the world would be relegated to status: irrelevant. They could nuke each other off the planet for all we care.
Re:Robot Slave (Score:3, Interesting)
yes, your mistake (Score:4, Interesting)
All the time. For example, Medicare/Medicaid is far more efficient than just about any privately run health plan, and government research is highly efficient and has been responsible for most of the real innovations over the last 50 years.
When it comes to big organizations and big projects, the government works very well. The real question is: what big private company has been better, cheaper, or quicker than the government? Enron? IBM? AT&T? Don't make me laugh. Big corporations are command economies but without the transparency and checks-and-balances of governments, and the often do their business free of they kind of competitive pressures that make markets efficient.
I am all for a private sector and free markets in telecommunications. The trouble is that we don't have it. And if the choice is between unregulated inefficient corporate behemoths and public utilities or strongly regulated private utilities, the latter is much preferable and likely to be more efficient.
Re:Whoopee... (Score:1, Interesting)
CBS has a nice story about OLEDs with a shocking video (Realvideo format) of their flexible potential (see sidebar).
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/12/eveni
My wish list for the world 2013 (Score:5, Interesting)
2) A method of world governance that rids us of rogue states that persecute their own populations (Saddam, North Korea et al) and also curbs rogue states with semi-democratically elected leaders who want to attack other states on dodgy pretexts (GWB I'm looking at you)
3) An end to the tech slump, sustained growth in IT sectors, more coding jobs for me!
4) Moore's observation to continue to hold true, more better toys getting cheaper.
5) Following on from that, widespread internet rollouts in the third world. The street finds it's own uses for technology, and the villages will find their own uses for information and commication.
6) Open source software to keep getting better, no more constrictive tech monopolies, and end to DVD region coding and hard crypto staying legal.
Contacts? (Score:3, Interesting)
Contacts require:
- Prescription fitting (you definately should see an opthamologist before wearing them)
- Careful application
- Rewetting in dry climates
- Cleaning/disposal
Sunglasses will always be cheaper than sunglass-contacts because of those reasons.
Re:By the year 2013, I want (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would want a LCD for a desktop that's used for anything besides text.
Re:yes, your mistake (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh boy, there speaks someone who has never worked for a Government doing research.
Really, you seriously think so? Want to back that up with some specific cases, I really doubt that is the case.
Al.The Goggles (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Utility Run Internet Access (Score:2, Interesting)
OK, I'll provide you with unlimited internet access, all the bandwith you can handle. All you need to do is pay the 100 unionized (read: expensive) workers and 10 internet backbone qualified (read: very expensive) techs it will take to build and maintain the connection.
Oh yeah, don't forget, if you want your traffic to leave my network you have to pay the backbones that carry your data to its destination.
Or, you could just quit whining about something you know nothing about and continue paying the $40 a month you pay now that barely pays for your service. Oh, wait. You're a slashbot. You have SETI-at-home and Gnuella running 24/7, and Gentoo RC3 just came out. You're probably costing your ISP money, and it's your grandparents that use their high speed internet access to check their e-mail that are actually paying for your service and theirs.
Why don't we just go to metered internet access? You can pay your bill of $150/month and your grandparents can pay $20/month.
Or you could just shut up and console yourself with the fact that they are paying for your internet access with the Social Security money they started getting at 65 that you won't see 'till you're 80 if ever.
Wake up, dumbass.
Wrap-around television... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Possible iPhone Interaction Methods (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's a possibility you missed: retractible touchscreens. A button on the watch could cause four 1x1 screens to extend in all directions, giving you a plus-shaped pad.
You could fit four buttons on each section and they'd be large enough to easily press with your fingers. For a phone, you'd need 12 buttons, which would be 3 panels. That'd leave enough room for a 2x1 display, which seems pretty decent. In the mp3-player mode, you'd need maybe 8 buttons, giving you a 1x3 playlist. A PDA could give you 4 buttons, a 1x1 scribble area, and a 3x1 screen. You really could do everything like that.
Re:yes, your mistake (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, I have. As have many graduate students.
Really, you seriously think so? Want to back that up with some specific cases, I really doubt that is the case.
The Internet, most basic computer science research, a large fraction of medical and drug development, most of the results in basic physics, etc. A lot of those, are, of course, in collaboration with industry, but the projects are selected and financed by the US government through institutes like (D)ARPA and NIH.