Glimpse the Present
In a recent post, Jeremy Zawodny talks about the future of “our newfound connectedness and battery life:”
I’ve noticed a lot of interesting technology announcements and trends. I’m sure they’re news to no one, but I just happened to think of them together for the first time, today. And it’s clear that they’re painting a clearer and clearer picture of the future. Or at least they’re trying to.
He mentions the gaining popularity of WiFi, low power CPUs, fuel cells, the advance of mobile technology, and Bluetooth’s gaining popularity.
What will we do with our newfound connectedness and battery life?
I realized several months ago that technology has reached a point where I could do the vast majority of my work on a PDA. Think about this. PDAs such as the Palm Tungsten and the HP iPAQ feature:
- Clockspeeds in the hundreds of MHz
- Availability of external or thumb-based keyboards
- Bluetooth for net connectivity and synchronization with other devices
- WiFi available built-in or on a CF card
- GSM/GPRS available built-in or on a CF card
- CF cards passing 6GB of storage
Add to this the piquing of public interest in Bluetooth enabled accessories such as headphones, storage devices, and displays, and you have a winning combination.
Toss in something similar to the Martian NetDrive, maybe something built on a 2.5” laptop drive and a battery — something like a Bluetooth/802.11 enabled iPod, that I could toss in my backpack or keep in the trunk of my car, something to allow me to get past the 6GB (current) limit of the CF form factor, and I’d be set.
I’m still waiting for reliable linux support on one of the top PDAs, and still hoping for an Apple PDA, but the technology is definitely here. The market just needs a little nudge in the right direction…