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

April 2003

[Enrico Pulatzo]

It really is an article about the future!

X^2

[absurdhero]

you know, that X squared OS by Apple they show on the 2013 wristband is nicknamed Parabola.

Utility Run Internet Access

[FunkSoulBrother]

BY 2013, we need to have net access (whether wireless or wired) run like a utility rather than a commodity. There is no need to have companies like Sprint trying to make a killing by artifically restricting what really should be a near-limitless resource (bandwidth).

Let the gov't run the backbones.

Internet access

[bm_luethke]

I too would settle for unlimited wireless internet access everywhere. While we are at it I would settle for a few million and a supermodel wife who is also a contortionist.

apple

[Anonymous Coward]

I've never really cared much for apple products, but damn i want that watch...though there may be problems with the scroll/whatever action if the motion detector always responds to quick wrist motions :)

instead of using "sound recognition technology

[Error27]

just put a blasted alarm clock in them...

Sheesh.

Re:instead of using "sound recognition technology

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like Bush Junior is already using these... he's tuned out the protesters, the United Nations, and the only voice he can hear is his daddy saying "kill them all, W... kill them all..."

Robot Slave

[ufoman]

I hope by 2013 I can own a robot that will get first post on /.

Re:Robot Slave

[BrookHarty]

Actually, where are the damn robot servants? The ones who can cook/clean/fetch beer.

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:Robot Slave

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope by 2013 that GNU/Hurd will see a 1.0 release.

Combination devices...

[singularity]

The problem with all of these combination devices is that no device is going to do everything well. I have a somewhat small wrist and larger watches seem huge. At the same time, I want a large color display for my PDA.

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?]

How about....

[tankdilla]

A few things i'd like to see by 2013....
Pets that eat poop instead of make it (Thus creating a circle of life between real and artificial pets.)

A 300 GHz computer with 64 GB of RAM that won't skip or delay even if it wanted to.

Reassurance that 1 term of a Bush in charge and bad economic times can equate to 2 terms of some other guy in charge for 2 terms and good economic times, and an occasional scandal that keeps things interesting.....

Oh yeah, world peace and smell-o-vision.

Don't hold your breath

[Anonymous Coward]

10 years ago I was posting messages to BBSs with a 14.4k modem, a 14" monitor and a 7MHz PC.
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

iPhone user interface

[rf0]

Am I the only one who sees a problem with the interface of something like the iPhone. Taking it is going ot go round you wrist the only reasonable interfaces are very small button, or voice recognition. Button would be to small and I don't like the idea of having to stand in the street shouting "Ring Wife".

Also how do you speak? Do you have to shout at the braclet or will you have to hold it up to your ear and look like a prat? OK it does have an earphone but its still a fun image :)

Rus

hey now

[Rhinobird]

640MB of RAM is enough memory for anybody.

Hopefully

[Kurt Russell]

the end of the combustion engine.
Sigh..

Re:Hopefully

[happyhippy]

Knowing the US itll be more like SUV's the size of dump trucks.

Re:Whoopee...

[Doppler00]

I found a 17" monitor next to a dumpster recently. Really, it was better than most of my old ones. It's amazing the useful things people throw out simply because something "better" has come along.

I also noticed a PC in the dumpster one time but I decided to pass on thatt one.

wrap-around tv is already here

[trelanexiph]

With a bit of work (And hopefully photos of my new house and this setup upcoming) a wraparound TV isn't all that impossible. Using a wrapping screen and an LCD projector this should be only minimally hard to achive. I'll post pictures when/if I get this working in my new house. I'm thinking of throwing the front speakers BEHIND the wrapping screen so they aren't in the way.

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!!!

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.

Paper

[fredrikj]

Light-emitting polymers aside, I think one much more interesting field of progress is paper-based dynamic displays. I recently watched a feature about this, and it seems that the technology isn't far off.

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.

Possible iPhone Interaction Methods

[canowhoopass.com]

In 10 years Apple (or someone else) might be ready to pioneer the holographic interface to work with this iPhone.

Possible Output Methods

• Earphone - Music, beeps, and speach.
• Wrist Watch - Vibrations, lcd display, music/beeps/speech
• Eye Glass Hookup - Display readout, images, movies, to optional ($$) digital eye glasses.
• Holographic Display - Flies out from watch when needed. (Why Not?)

Possible Input Methods

• Buttons on watch Old fasioned but it works
• Voice - Speech recognition
• Video camera on board - It can determine light levels, and perhaps even facial recognition
• Motion Sensor - Flick of the wrist to change modes.
• Interactive hologram - coupling a hologram with the motion sensor, the iPhone can allow you to hit buttons out of thin air.
• Eye wear - Coupled with the digital display, it can track your eyeballs to determine your wishes. It can also look/record forwards. If you get too close to something (like walking into a tree) it'll turn off.

So in closing... everyone complaining about the size of the iPhone being to small to see anything on, is being short sighted.

Rod!

I'll show you a vision of the future

[edog1203]

"Smell you later" replaces "goodbye" in the English language.

Apple? 2013?

[shiningsun]

Shouldn't they be predicting that Apple will be out of business by 2013?

yes, your mistake

[g4dget]

When did government ever do anything better, cheaper, quicker than industry?

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:yes, your mistake

[g4dget]

Oh boy, there speaks someone who has never worked for a Government doing research.

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.

Moore's Law.

[fluxrad]

A 300 GHz computer with 64 GB of RAM that won't skip or delay even if it wanted to.


I think Moore's law will put you around 1.5THz in 2013.

But your system will still skip and delay because you'll be running Windows 2013.

My wish list for the world 2013

[StrawberryFrog]

1) A cure for HIV that is cheap enough to be rolled out in Africa. Failing a cure, a vaccine to stop new infection would also halt the pandemic.

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.

Actually . . .

[DrMrLordX]

I found this article to be horribly unrepresentative of how technology, particularly entertainment/information technology, progresses. Wherever technology goes, pornography is already there, waiting for it. Seriously, there wasn't any mention of technology in that article geared towards the production, distribution, or enjoyment of pornography, nor was there any mention of technology designed to enhance or simulate sexual experiences. Can any serious discussion of future technology exist WITHOUT mention of the pr0n industry? I think not. This article is, therefore, worthless.

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.