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The Future of the P.C.
scarcrowman writes "This is an interesting article on the projected future of what we call the 'P.C.' It is becoming more 'Personal' than ever."
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he produced this laughable piece of crap http://homecomputer.istheshit.net/
did you forget to take your meds?
Want to know what's actually going to happen?
Cellphones are going to become all-purpose digital interfaces. They're going to have several wireless and wired network connections (likely different profiles on a software-based universal transceiver), and they will automagically choose that connection that fits your predetermined profile, whether it be cheapest (some network connections will be free, either through donation or through corporate sponsorship), or fastest. Your employer will likely offer a free network subscription as part of their benefits package.
Those cellphones will have large fold-out/roll-out screens to accompany the regular small screen, fuel cells instead of batteries so they'll last for weeks, really fast cpu's and huge harddrives (it's just a matter of time before the first cellphone with a 100 gb disk arrives).
Everywhere you go there will be expansion stations that network with your cellphone (wireless network or standardized docking station) and extend its functionality, by providing TV-in/out, more storage space, a decent screen/keyboard/mouse, and so on. You will have these at home too. They won't be required for using most software, but will make it handy. Additionally, you will carry around feature boxes, that will connect to the cellphone (wired or wireless) to extend its functionality. The cellphone itself will be more modular too, it will be possible to replace the cpu with a faster version. Still, most people will upgrade their cellphones regularly, since even in the future they can't build motherboards that accept new cpu's indefinitely.
Most of your documents will be stored online. You will synchronize the contents of your cellphone either manually or automatically. Only those documents that have changed will be uploaded. The remote filesystem will be versioned, so you'll never lose an old version of anything. After all, storage space is getting ever cheaper, so where there is a choice between a tiny bit of convenience and saving gobs of disk space, the convenience wins. That's why gmail provides a gigabyte of space, and that's why we have to expect that everything we do will be saved to disk at some point in time.
The boxed software business will disappear almost entirely. Software is meant to be subscribed to, not sold over the counter. Its business model does not lend itself to selling for a one time fee, since most of the cost of software is after the first sale (maintenance / support). This will not mean the death of open source, since you'll be able to subscribe to free software too. This will work a bit like debian, only more user friendly. With upgrades being tested by bleeding edge communities, and then flowing out to the "regular" users, who can choose to let them install automatically, or at the time of their choosing.
The phone will become the financial hub. It will securely log in to your bank. It will behave like a debit/credit card, where you will wave it across some gizmo, and then punch in a PIN on the phone for approval. In fact, likely credit cards will just become payment profiles on the phone, whhere you select one depending on how you wish to pay. This will likely be combined with some kind of biometric test, like a fingerprint scanner. Since scanner technology will follow the path of OLED screens (wrt becoming cheap, small and powerful), all phones will have built-in high-res scanners, in addition to the high-quality cameras which are already just around the corner.
Those who can't afford to be part of this brave new wireless world will be even more cast out of society than they are today. The gap between rich and poor will grow. The GINI coefficient will become ever higher. Lots of people will still complain about the growing poverty gap, and yet the politicians will still do nothing about it, since white middle class will still be their bread and butter, and white middle class won't allow funds being diverted from the rich to the poor.
And as for the PC, well, beige boxes were always inconvenient an