h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What's the next big thing just waiting to be invented? Hmm dunno. I'd quite like to see watch sized phones, that would be cool. Other than that I'd like to play around with a tablet first and then see if that gives me any ideas. What kind of gadgets do you think we might be using in 50 years' time? No idea, but they'd better be cool :) Do you think the makers of technology create stuff we don't really need? Maybe, if people really didn't need it then they wouldn't buy it. So it's in their interests to make stuff that we at least want if don't need. Few people need to be on the interet all of the time, but lots of people want to be on the internet. So some stuff we probably don't need but it makes life better/easier. In terms of medical science are we on the verge of any 'game-changing' breakthoughs? The recent developments in creating synthetic DNA spring very much to mind. And the breast cancer vaccine being trialled in mice as well. http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/31/breast-cancer-vaccine-proves-successful-in-tests-on-mice-moves/ I know there are lots of projects that study proteins and stuff like that to see what they find, and the info still being sent back from Voyager 2 and the teleportation of particles. So there may well be some cool breakthroughs soon. Has there been an invention in your own lifetime that's really made a difference? Hard to say, probably yes but I'd need to compare life without it to really compare it and see the effect it would have. Obviously tablets are a big deal atm and there's a conversation on h2g2 about it here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F19585?thread=7529702

Watch phones have already been invented: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2009/08/the_watchphone_gadget_or_gimmi.html

Not sure they've really taken off - in much the same way as the fact that many mobile phones and computers have the capability to make video calls, but are rarely used. An invention view of "the future" that it turned out we didn't really want or need.

P.S. Nice tablet article Menthol Penguin.

I think the next big thing is multimedia integration. Everything from Internet, TV, Games, Communication, Organisation and Entertainment in the home from one universal supplier. Microsoft, Sony and Apple are already pushing hard at a basic level for it.

Either that or the death of satellite TV in favour of Broadband TV, years away yet I know but Sky TV over here in the UK are starting to make the change ever so slowly.

> I think that the next big thing is multimedia integration. Everything from the Internet, TV, Games, Communication, Organisation and Entertainment in the home from one Universal Supplier<....

Arthur C. Clarke speculated on this some time ago......

He said that we already have it!!!

I agree!

It is called..............................................THE BOOK!!!

Read a book! Do you not picture the characters in your mind's eye???

Do you not learn from books??

Can you not read and re-read difficult passages at will?

Can you not refer back to it without not having to go through a number of steps to find what you want??


No.....

The Internet may not die, but it WILL die before books do!!


GT

To the question of a single entertainment 'hub' from which all the stuff is sourced is kinda pretty-much already here... well at least in my house:
Big PC, thousands of albums on it, hundreds of books on it, countless radio stations through it, TV channels etc, plus the internet... anything that I can't be bothered or won't fit on the harddrive of the netbook can be remotely accessed by the netbook over the WiFi network in my house, so I can access all that stuff plus the internet etc., from the netbook in wahtever room in the house I@m in, ; typically this is my streaming stuff o the main PC harddrive (books or music mainly but moovies as well), to the netbook and thence into the HiFi spekaers etc., in my bedroom, but I could as easily stream it to the netbook whilst I was in the bathroom, in the garden (if I had such a thing as a garden), and thinking about it, I could sit in the pub near my house and still pick up my WiFi so be able to access it all....: Plus if I had the I could buy a betterer mobile phone and so be able to access all the same stuff remotely from wherever I was over the mobile broadband connection I already have on the phone

Currently the main things missing in my house are:
A WiFi kettle. (This would be so* useful; Rather than sending a TXT or an E-mail to my lodger in the front room, to tell him to put the kettle on, I could just send a message directly to the kettle)... actually it'd be handy if the coffee machine was on the WiFi too

A Fridge/freezer connected to the internet/WiFi network; so it could automatically add items to the online grocery basket of the supermarket I use, as each item runs out/gets low, effectively automating the process of doing the grocery shopping... (of course you'd still need to add any other items yourself that you need one week, but not the week before etc).


Hmmm... Actually it would be handy too were the cupbaord on the landing connected to the WiFi, so it could automatically add bathroom products to the online grocery basket as I ran out...



"Maybe, if people really didn't need it then they wouldn't buy it. So it's in their interests to make stuff that we at least want if don't need. Few people need to be on the interet all of the time, but lots of people want to be on the internet. So some stuff we probably don't need but it makes life better/easier."

Oh, I do think we need* to be on the internet all the time... no really I do...
*counts*
I have three broadband connections. Cable connection to the house, which goes into my WiFi network. Mobile broadband on the mobile phone which i use a lot on the train or when away from home. Mobile broadband on teh netbook for when I'm not in my home WiFi range

We like the idea of a Wi-fi kettle. Throw in a Wi-fi biscuit barrel and our lives would be complete.

wi-fi biscuit barrel

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Thanks smallrabbit, if you want a bit more tablet stuff and phones as well there stuff on my blog http://my.opera.com/mentholpenguin/blog/.

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Add google to that, they are now doing tv boxes with android on them, so it's certainly getting towards a central point of the future. How well google TV takes off is another thing entirely.

But somebody will find ways to make sure that it costs us!!



GT

True, but it's whether it's worth the cost that's important. And what the cost is, it's "free" to do a Google search, because they puts ads there that's based on the information you send them. So the cost is your details not money.

I oughta point out I've never* owned a TV... we have a big* monitor in the front room, a slightly decrepid PC plugged direct to the router, and some nice speakers... Plus with the monitir I seem to recall you actually get a higher definition than on a HDTV

yes. yes. yes! WiFi biscuit barrel; a biscuit barrel that monitors biscuit consumption, and automtically buys more when it sees your running low

Add to that, everythign* in the house connects via WiFi to the home network/base station; the boiler, teh fridge, the washing machine, the doorbell, the house phone, the freezer, then you can also access into information or control any/all of these remotely from your handheld network device, like a mobile or your PDA/netbook, so your out, you can immediately see how many times your doorbell has rang, check messages on the home phone whilst trying to buy a bunch of roses from Brian on Birmingham newstreet station, and nudge the thermostat control up a tad if its turned out to be a colder day back home than you thought......
Nearly home.... start runnign the bath... turn the oven on to warm up... and of course put the kettle on to boil so you can make a cuppa tea soon as you walk in through the door... the door of course which you open using your PDA/mobile phone, by sending a message to the home network/base station, telling it to open the door as you walk up to it


I'm not lazy... really I'm not... it'd just be cuel OK?