Wired's Wish List For 2013

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.

Comments

Re:instead of using "sound recognition technology

[Thomas M Hughes]

The way the ear plugs were described in the article, it sounds as if its more then just for getting a good night's sleep. Instead, you could set them to only hear one person, and then put them in, and have a decent conversation in an incredibly crowded room. Or you could set them to listen to a movie, so when someone's cell phone went off, you wouldn't hear it. Etc, etc.

Hopefully

[Kurt Russell]

the end of the combustion engine.
Sigh..

self-darkening contacts won't work

[trelanexiph]

This sounds cool, but really it's not going to be easy, or desirable. The automatic darkening lenses are nowhere near perfect, and don't notice sunlight but UV light. Ask anyone who wears them in a car, they don't darken because the windows/windshield have a UV coating. Quite frankly in combination with the HUD display, I'd like to see what electronics can be built into sunglasses in the future. obvious note: IANADR (I am not a Doctor, but I work with an optical lab where doctors write perscriptions for these lenses)

Shurely Shome Mishtake

[squaretorus]

When did government ever do anything better, cheaper, quicker than industry? Net access will stay in the private sector because any government can't afford to make it public for a list of reasons starting with 'they can't afford it' and running through to 'they'll fuck it up anyway'.

Net access is a commodity already - pretty soon it will be a utility in the same way petrol stations are. Think petrol stations - not roads. I dont have to sign an exclusive lock in 12 month deal with shell to fill up my tank - and soon enough I wont have to sign up to a long deal for access either - hopefully.

The question is - is 2013 soon!!!

Re:Shurely Shome Mishtake

[unborracho]

I think you missed the point of what the author of the comment was trying to say. He acknowledged that net access is indeed a comodity, which seemed to be a point that you were refuting (maybe you didn't mean to come across the way, but that's how i percieved it).

I would think though, that by adding more pipes throught the U.S., would just create more tech jobs and that internet would eventually come to the point where phone service is now, that companies actually start to compete over high-speed lines (in my city the only service you can really get it roadrunner, or pay a FORTUNE for a high-end dsl line).

We just need to keep laying those fiberoptic wires across america, and it'll come, all in good time.

Old and bitter

[Vollernurd]

Sitting here in my slippers typing by the light of an oil lamp, I wish for nothing more than:

1) A mobile phone that works properly;
2) Digital TV that works properly;
3) A DSL modem where the drivers have not been coded by sadists;
4) Good health;
5) Peace and quiet.

I must be getting old before my time.

Now where's my cocoa?...

Re:Old and bitter

[Wirr]

You should consider moving to Germany.

1) A mobile phone that works properly;

Our mobile phones work flawlessly for at least 10 years now. 100% coverage and full interoperability between the diferent providers. And of course SMS and MMS.

2) Digital TV that works properly;

I'm using digital TV for at least 5 years now. It is fully standarized and works flawlessly including an electronic program guide on all channels.

3) A DSL modem where the drivers have not been coded by sadists;

You can get DSL nearly everywhere in Germany, and the drivers while not exactly works of art work quite well. I prefer hardware routers with buildin modems anyhow e.g. Draytek Routers

4) Good health;

Well our health service is quite exellent.

5) Peace and quiet.

No problem either.

Re:Old and bitter

[Anonymous Coward]

You should consider moving to Germany.

As someone who moved from the US to Germany, I feel I need to point out a few things about your claims. Don't get me wrong, I like living here, but flawless it's not.


1) A mobile phone that works properly;

Our mobile phones work flawlessly for at least 10 years now. 100% coverage and full interoperability between the diferent providers. And of course SMS and MMS.


And you pay out the ass for it. Phone service here is ridiculously expensive compared to that of the US. For 30$ a month in the US you can call anyone anywhere for some huge amount of minutes (when I was there it'd by you 2000 minutes) compared to here where you get charged extra when you call someone on a different provider. Hardly anyone uses text messages there because it's so damn cheap to just call the person and have a quick conversation. This carries over into the normal market here where deutsche telekom bends you over the desk every chance they get, compared to the US where *gasp* local calls are free.


2) Digital TV that works properly;

I'm using digital TV for at least 5 years now. It is fully standarized and works flawlessly including an electronic program guide on all channels.


I haven't really seen much digital tv here, perhaps because it's not very widespread, or perhaps it's so widespread that nobody notices it. Maybe I even have it because I've got the teletext electronic program guide you're talking about (which sucks btw-looks like it was written for the Atari without the fun and even worse 'playability' even though there are a lot more buttons on a remote than the original joystick). If this qualifies me as a digital cable subscriber, I can tell you that it isn't flawless. Several of my channels have varying degrees of fuzziness (snow) at varying times throughout the day.


3) A DSL modem where the drivers have not been coded by sadists;

You can get DSL nearly everywhere in Germany, and the drivers while not exactly works of art work quite well. I prefer hardware routers with buildin modems anyhow e.g. Draytek Routers [draytek.de]


The original poster was complaining about the quality of DSL modems, not the availability. I agree that it's available here, but it's still expensive in my opinion (55$ for 1.5 down, but only up to 5000MB, and then you start paying by the MB), thank you Deutsche Telekom. The quality of modems shouldn't really be limited by geography, so I'll just move on to the next point.


4) Good health;
Well our health service is quite exellent.


For how long? The social system here is almost to the point of no return. Granted, a large majority of the problem isn't directly related to the health care, but mostly due to unemployed people taking advantage of the system. I pay roughly 50% in taxes so people can sit around on their couch and watch TV. I support health care and wouldn't mind if that was the only place that the money was spent, but in the future the Germany economy and social system as a whole will take it on the chin. The population here is getting smaller which could result into a collapse, as the base of the pyramid gets smaller than the top.


5) Peace and quiet.
No problem either.


I agree with this. If you want peace and quiet, this is the place to come. Don't even think about going shopping after after 8pm during the week, 4pm on Saturday or at all on Sunday. Everything's dead because all the stores are closed, so peace and quiet is not a problem, but not very convenient.

I have a few other problems with this country as well, but there are a lot positive aspects too (good beer, driving as fast as you want on the autobahn-2 things not to be done together, btw). I enjoy the country on the whole and plan to stay another 2 years or so, but I just figured if the original poster was actually going to consider moving to Germany, he should get both sides.

where are the enabling technologies from?

[g4dget]

To make something like that go, we need better battery technologies, better wireless technologies, better display technologies, and better processors. Let's see, those are being developed by a lot of small companies and some big ones like Toshiba, Ericsson, Kodak, TransMeta, Via, etc. Whether we get nifty looking designs like that write-PDA/telephone depends entirely whether those other companies manage to pull off the enabling technologies. It seems almost insulting to give the kudos to the design company that then puts them together in a nice looking but functionally fairly obvious package.

And I don't actually foresee all those things coming about so fast anyway. Small OLED screens will hopefully be widespread in 10 years, but they'll still be expensive as wall covering. Noise cancelation of non-periodic signals is hard. And the market for mood-ring-contact-lenses seems even smaller than the market for mood rings.

Re:Robot Slave

[Dicky]

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.

Well, I've got an 'AI system' which records TV shows for me - even suggests new shows it thinks I may like, based on what I've recorded before. It's called TiVo. And I've got an 'AI system' which reminds me about important dates. It's called a web calendar. Oh, and apart from a very small number of bills, I pay everything except for my credit card bill using Direct Debit. Okay, it's not AI, but they do get paid automatically, and I track them (and pay my credit card bill) online...

Hopefully the end of SMTP to reduce spam

[CPgrower]

Hopefully by 2013 we'll be using a new email protocol with server authentication. Didn't the author of Q-mail suggest such an implementation?

rob

Re:By the year 2013, I want

[eatdave13]

Hear, hear!

I can't belive my ears when I hear a salesperson pitching an LCD as a gaming display, and I can't believe my eyes when the sheep actually LOOKS at the LSD-flashback-inducing thing, nods, and shells out the $700.

Some people would mortgage their house for razorblade underwear if someone told them it looked sexy.

The Internet

[leerpm]

Without the defence department's initial backing, the internet would probably not exist in it's current form today.

Contradiction?

[Dirk Pitt]

world governance...rids us of rogue states that persecute their own populations (Saddam)... and ... curbs rogue states with semi-democratically elected leaders who want to attack other states on dodgy pretexts

This contains everything that seems to be wrong with people's concerns about war -- please explain it if I'm misunderstanding. You seem to believe that Iraq is a rogue state, the gov't does slaughter its own population, and that it would be generally a better world should Saddam et. al. be usurped.

But then you say that GDub's pretexts are dodgy? The people against war seem to cry that they are the unheard minority -- but keep in mind they are just that, a minority. Depeding on the poll you look at, 60% - 70% of Americans are in favor of war in Iraq. If they halted war every time there were significant numbers of protestors, Americans would probably all be speaking German right now. Or hell, speaking with British accents.

And I *really* don't understand why it's so many Slashdotter's and other's wish that we follow a One World Order(tm). The prevalent opinion seems to be for smaller government and smaller business, but, what, unless it's the UN or some entity like it? As far as I know, the US as a sovereign nation has the right to follow its own course, even if it's contrary to that of the rest of the world.

Frankly, I'm not saying I'm for a war -- but it's sad to me that those that are against such efforts have yet to construct an cogent argument for their cause that's more than just a personal attack on the US's incumbent Executive.