Slashdot Mirror
Asus Says Netbook Is Dead, Hello Wearable Computers
pinkgadget27 pointed us at a story where the ASUS chairman waxes poetic on the end of the Netbook class that it pioneered, ChromeOS replacing Android, and the future you probably didn't know about: Wristwatch Computers.
But don't hold your breath.
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
Yeah, because we all know how easy it is to use a 1"x1" oval viewing screen strapped to your wrist, to view large PDF attachments, for example.
Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
A dupe from Dick Tracy, that is.
This "wearable computer" crap comes along every 5 years. It's still the epitome of lame, even by slashdot standards.
Wristwatch computers. (One more thing for my cat to attack.)
IMO, this is simply yet another attempt to manufacture a "need" where none exists as in The Next Big Thing...
Is it the future already?
How soon till I can flip open my wrist panel and call Star Command?
Just so Asus is aware. If the netbook is truly dead after only 26 (or so) months then you did not 'pioneer a new class of computer', you 'started a short-lived fad'.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Really? I thought the point of the article was that its death was inevitable, and that wearable computers are the future. How does that translate to "Netbooks are dead already"?
But hey, if you filter out editorial stupidity from slashdot we will have only one or two "news" every week or so.
Anybody remember Microsoft's smart watch? No?
Ahhh, my years of wearing Casio watches finally pays off.
I can wear it as I commute with my personal electric flying machine to my shiny new, high paying "Green" career.
Are the editors working from the Gernsback continuum today?
...Wristwatch Computers.
hahahaha HA HA HA oh god, oh god... it kills me.
You know, I can just believe that we can cram everything but the input and display into that small of a space -- but the human interface problem makes any further degree of minaturization rather pointless for general-purpose computers. In select circumstances, you can get away with a lack of keyboard or a mini one, but really -- anything you plan on using heavily you want to have a decently-sized display and an input device with more than two buttons.
But even if you could solve the i/o problems, there's another more damning one: energy requirements. You need a power source for it. And there just doesn't seem to be any real technology innovations that are going to give you the energy densities you'd need to make it work for awhile.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
I've always wanted a pipboy on my wrist, FO3 style so I can check if my legs are broken and how many HP I have left. It could certainly come in handy for things like that.
I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar.
We already have wristwatch computers for decades. That's what electronic wristwatches are, those that Casio has been pumping by the barrel since the the 80s, such as this one. Naturally, nowadays we have more computing power available in a smaller form factor but that doesn't mean that we haven't been wearing computers for ages.
Slashdot, fix your code or at least hire someone who is competent at it to do it for you.
Obviously, current user interfaces would suck on a watch.
However, give that puppy *good* voice recognition and speech output, and then they're on to something.
However, at this point in time, it doesn't seem like we've got the processing & battery density necessary for this to work well. Eventually, though, who knows?
That kind of wearable computer would be pretty cool. Make it a touchscreen, and add in some kind of adjustable/inflatable cushioning between the inner shell and the user's forearm so wearers can adjust for fit and comfort. But don't add the nuke (of course).
No size of portable computer from wristwatch to 17" notebook will ever be obsolete. Different tasks require different sized screens, and people who do those tasks will always want the most portable device they can do them on. Yes, for some tasks that will mean a wristwatch. But for many others that means a smartphone, or a netbook, or a desktop computer with three 21" monitors.
Haven't we had this discussion before?
lysergically yours
Now I can finally calculate how much to tip waitresses on my watch! Oh wait, they invented that two decades ago.
Gives real-time stock market quotes, forecasts the weather, beams distress signals from anywhere in the universe, and tells the time in over thirty-six thousand time zones. (from the back of the action figure box)
I'm going to go back in my box and will think within the limits of my box: MS Sucks Linux Good I read too much Slashdot.
I can't see myself ever wearing or wanting something like that.
You know Fallout 3 and the Pip Boy isn't a bad idea. Imagine a PDA/cell phone on the wrist. I like the idea.
Using the Freedom of Speech while I still have it.
The concept is an exciting one. Sci fi has been toying with the idea of "wrist pads" and other wearable sophisticated electronics for decades now. However a fundamental problem remains: the power source. Although some effort is being made in that area too. I just don't want to think about where they're planning on storing the batteries...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
PIP Boy
The reality of wearable computer is context sensitive information. Not comprehensive feature sets.
You put the following into a wearable PiP Boy computer and they'll sell like mad:
SMS\Instant Messaging
Current Fuel Prices at bookmarked gas stations
RSS Feed (We have ad those on pagers for 3 decades)
TO DO Lists
Calendar\PIM
Digital Rolodex
Vitals (heart rate, blood sugar, pill timers)
Integrated cell phone to a head set or in-canal ear piece
Memory slot for MP3 player
Grocery Lists
Bank RSS feeds (think Mint.com for mobiles)
as well as remote car entry, light timers, etc so as you approach the car or home
2 USB ports with some storage space
GPS and Navigation.
Look at the wrist watch vs pocket watch.
Look at the cell phone vs the wrist watch.
I actually foresee a primary cpu until (pehaps shoulder mounted backed against the shoulder blade, see Macross Plus for a report with s similar looking deal) with context sensetive nodes (the main cpu links to various accessories like a watch, shoes, camera, etc.)
Yeah If I could get get a VATS until to go with that..
-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
This would make viewing and participating with certain types of "vivid" media a little more challenging to say the least.
"i lost my dignity on a slippery wiener"
I think that the prediction that there needs to be more content before mass market success of tablets is right on.
At breakfast this morning, one of my non-tech friends was talking about the TED talk on wearable computers where spacial glasses would create virtual keyboards and displays on walls, tables, etc. That is what I would to see available soon :-)
For now, the Android platform is looking good: easy to develop apps for, mobile devices support voice commands, etc.
Ever? Science fiction writers say screens will go away, replaced by glasses or contacts or other type of worn HUD which can show things in an arbitrarily wide field of vision. It ain't reality yet, of course, but it doesn't really sound all that far-fetched.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Everybody I know still wants a 9" netbook for $200.
It's a perfect time for being wasted.
A perfect time to watch the stars.
- Burden Brothers, "Beautiful Night"
Sorry, but I won't believe it until confirmed by Netcraft.
"A revolution without dancing is... a revolution not worth having"
Back in my day we strapped our TI-82s to our hairy forearms with duct tape and we liked it!
mmmm...forbidden donut
In the long run, wearable computing has seemed inevitable to me since about 1994 or 1996.
What happened in 1994? That's about when I got my first laptop, which got me used to mobile computing. I used it to take notes in lectures. Then in 1996 I bought my first PDA, the Apple Newton MP120.
And I started to do mobile device software development, and to participate in discussions/forums with other developers. Other developers including Steve Mann. Go look him up, right now. Go ahead, I'll wait.
So yeah, after about that time period, a future world with ubiquitous wearable computing devices seemed inevitable. Still does. But it's not going to be some instantaneous revolution where everything changes. It's going to be (and in fact already is) gradual. It's going to involve a variety of small gadgets that can interact with other small gadgets, sometimes just in your own "personal area network" (eg. your wristwatch showing the caller ID for the phone that's ringing in your pocket), sometimes over face-to-face distances (vCard exchange during a sales meeting), and sometimes globally (posting Bejeweled scores to a global leaderboard). All of those are happening right now, and more will come.
To some people this was obvious decades ago. To me it was obvious 16 years ago. To an awful lot of people it was obvious three years ago. I guess it's just becoming obvious to ASUS right now?
Until I can have Cortana on my wrist, I don't see how something that small will be able to interface with a person well. Maybe some super-interface is on the horizon, but at this point it would need to almost have some type of AI to interface with that could do the typing/processing/etc that I'd need.
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
The last thing I wore around my wrist was (surprise) a clock some 20 years ago. I started having clocks all around me on computer screens at that time so I discovered I had no reason to wear one myself. Then came mobile phones. After all that time I can't stand having something around my wrist anymore. I have a clock for when I go hiking on the mountains but I strap it on the backpack. It's much more comfortable that way. Thinking about this Asus product, it may even sell well but I'd always go for something that can fit in my pocket and that's my mobile phone. I could call it a camera that makes calls and runs programs, or a computer with a phone and a camera but there is a limit to the number of devices we can carry around and recharge at home. No need for another one and no need to wear it.
I miss the days when I eagerly awaited the latest Asus motherboard offerings. Sounds like they've lost the will to lead.
As I've made perfectly clear in this her sketch 'o mine from 2008: http://fieldii.com/vgcomputing.png :)
How about dictation...
Dear Mr. Barnsmithers, ...
Thank you for inquiring about our project. That's product you stupid fucking piece of shit. Jesus Christ almighty, don't you understand anything?
My other car is a 1984 Nark Avenger.
One thing I've noticed over the many years I've been following the computer industry is that despite what hype marketing departments, CEOs and industry analysts spin, often times new devices don't replace the older devices so much as just augment the array of where you use a computer. So time has shown that you generally don't have to worry about a mass switch to newer technologies. These dates aren't exact, but its generally when they started showing up in the public eye.
*Mainframe/Server (1940s-infinity): Untouchable by user, but keeps track of info the user can't, makes sharing easier, etc. This will probably never go away as long as there is a need for reliability and massive storage.
*Workstation/Terminal (1950s-1990s): Let's you do stuff in relation to server/mainframe, but only at work.
*Desktop personal computer(1977-20??): Let's you try to do stuff at home. Can usually keep up with or exceed most innovations in technology. We will probably always have some sort of stationary access point for computing.
*Standardized Gaming Consoles (1977-infinity):Makes easier for most people to play games, but have never been realistic for computer-type work. Often goes back and forth between whether computers have better games. And no, this isn't the first time people have said "The end of PC/computer gaming". I think gaming consoles come and go with the cycles of the economy.
*Laptop (1980s-2020): Allows you do stuff in previous, but some people still prefer a desktop for power, customization, easy of repair
*PDA/iPhone/Droid (1993-24th century): More convenient than a laptop, but generally only used for organization type stuff, still need laptop or desktop for most things. Actually, if you look at Star Trek, you'll notice that they don't really have a one-device-does-it-all thing either.
*Tablet PC(1995-death of HP): More convenient than a laptop, but probably not as rugged. Only useful in some situations. Annoying when the touch display stops working. Will probably never catch on.
*Notebook computer (2007-?): Can put it in your purse and hold it like the bible, but good luck reading a document, doing anything useful. My wife uses hers to play Netflix movies while she uses her fullsize laptop.
*Wristwatch computer: Makes it a little easier to have fast access all the time to stuff a PDA would do for you. But you still need laptop or desktop.
So here we are in 2010, and all of these computing access paradigms still exist. None of them have replaced the previous paradigm even close to as much as they claimed they would. The only think I could think might replace the desktop/laptop paradigm is if headset computing comes along and allows you to see a virtual large display and you can think what you want to do and it will happen reliably. But we still have a ways and people will need to get used to that. Some people won't want to mess up their hair and what about when you need to drive, etc.
The desktop computer is on its way out for everyone but typists and coders.
And guess what anyone is who writes e-mail, blog posts, or forum posts: a typist.
There's no need for a general purpose applications device on one's wrist, except for very specialized applications: phone, text messaging, compass, navigation, perhaps. Maybe calculator. The same sort of "apps" we had on relatively small screened cell phones of a few years ago, like my Moto E815 (damn that thing had a great radio).
The trouble with this is that it's extremely battery limited. Still, if you want uberportable basics that run for one day, it's O.K.
A step up is the modern IPhone or Android-powered phone. Belt clip size, with decent battery life (because it can hold a bigger battery). Now, combining the two allows for interesting possibilities: the wristputer now becomes an auxilliary display device: glance at your wrist to see your appointments, or incoming calls, etc. Just swap the SIM card from the wristputer to the cell phone to use the latter's mobile data connection.
One step up is the single screen ebook. I see this as a handheld, which can function as a phone, or use the bluetooth or wifi connection to the belt-clipped phone, for dialing and call management (in parallel with the cell phone and wrist computer: if I'm reading a book and a call comes in, or I want to make a call, I'd like to do that from the UI on the book I'm reading instread of having to reach for another device (earbud, wristputer, or belt-clipped phone). Of course, it too can take a SIM card, if that's all you want to carry.
Finally, for more serious reading, in the format of a traditional book, at the expense of size, is the dual-screen ebook, that folds. This one has color screens (instead of just, perhaps, e-ink). It has all the capabilities of the single-screen e-book.
Each device is optimized for a particular purpose, but can be pressed into service for alternate uses: which devices a user caries depends on their physical activity and the types of computing they expect to be doing. I can very much see the single-screen e-book as a universal remote control, for example.
In Liberty, Rene
...because they can't make any money on them, that they'd actually bring up the wearable computer thing again. Well, it kinda makes sense. You can charge a whole lot more margin for a wearable computer than you can for a low end, tiny laptop. But I thought we've been over this before. Wearable computers are only for dorks.
A problem with wristwatch and cellphone computers are their relatively tiny screens. A projector could be as small as sugar cube, ring, or pen, yet illuminate a couple square feet of a wall or table top. Some cell phones are already coming out with projectors.
I saw some neat demos at SIGGRAPH of self-registering projectors. You only have to get them approximately head-on. Tehn they detect the descrepency and warp the projection into the perfect desired rectangle.
As others have pointed out, i think it'll move to the optical. Glasses you wear that have a screen in them... and given where e-ink is going that may not be too far away. Thats not to say the wrist wouldnt be in use, after all if you no longer need a display, a mobile phone could take on a much different (wrist-wrapping) form factor.
But i also believe one area that mostly goes untouched is proximity type computing. I.e. I sit down at the "computer" at work and im in close enough proximity that the glasses display something related to that. Theres a whole range of things that could be done in the proximity range... for example removing those clumsy lcd/led displays on appliances at home and have a proximity thing in your mobile phone (hey, you carry it with you everywhere anyways). Similar to bluetooth but without all the authentication (though based more on mutual induction then actual radio waves as such), who cares if someone can walk up to your microwave and use it with their own mobile phone. Thats not to say auth wouldnt be required (a-lah work computer would require it), but pairing things is a pain when its just something simple.
It'd be nice to abstract information from everything into a format that suited myself, rather then the other way around... What I mean is that your microwave could send your phone the parameters it needs to operate it and your phone could display it for you in a way you like. From an informational perspective it would uniquely useful, i.e. stand at a bus stop and get an up-to-date timetable "bus 483 is running 10 minutes behind schedule".. Add a few standards to it all and it would really shape our lives in many ways.
I do agree with him when he talks about the "dull pc roadmap" (4 to 8 to 16 cores, etc), and i think ARM (heh, theres a pun there somewhere - get an arm on your wrist or something) may in the future have a fair bit to say about it.
But then again, im longing for the Peter F Hamilton experience... I want my affinity gene (and all this wonderful other ideas in the commonwealth/confederation books)!
Title: eee...
FTFY.
I'm waiting to hear that computers are dead. Just a long-running fad.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
I wonder what percentage of slashdot readers *actually* didn't know about wearable computers. Probably less than 20%. The means of taking a gumstix, attaching a bluetooth twiddler, and a kopin eyepiece and looking like one of the Borg is pretty widespread knowledge. Or just mounting a smartphone on your waist and using it with a bluetooth keyboard and an audial interface.
Grizzly, the Only street fighter game for iphone: http://appsto.re/grizzly
Wristwatch computers... Geeze... Unless they've developed the telepathic interface, I don't see this going any further than the last hundred or so times someone's tried it. Even at high resolution, the screen on a wristwatch is too small for much more than alerts and headlines.
This illustrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the netbook niche. It's not the computing power. You can build more resources into a phone if you want to pay enough. It's having a large enough screen to get work done in a small enough package to always have with you, with cellphone-grade battery life. It's the ability to research the net without having to squint at a 3" diagonal cell phone screen. It is *not* the ability to play Halo 3 at high res for a half hour until the battery is exhausted. There are other platforms for that. It is *not* having the smallest computer on the block. Smart phones already have that niche. And first and foremost, netbooks are not a high end device.
Making the netbook larger defeats the portability requirement. Making it more powerful usually defeats the battery life requirement. Making it smaller defeats the readability requirement. But there's no margin in small cheap computers, so the vendors are always looking for some new way to print money. They don't get it, on a fundamental level. Netbooks are a commodity item, and because of the requirements, the niche can not be taken over by a high margin item.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Wearable computers are only for dorks.
You insensitive clod!
I had the predecessor to this watch back in the late 80's when I was in school. I remember being able to change the channel in class of whatever we were watching and no one knew what was going on: http://www.amazon.com/Casio-Remote-Control-Calculator-SI1781/dp/B002VSO95G/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1264097807&sr=8-4
Asus Says Stuff You Already Bought Is Dead, Hello Stuff We Want You To Buy Soon.
Well, one does want a hint of color...
Those are still a pretty neat idea.
Matthew @ Bytemark Hosting
I'm sorry, but until I can look at a minimum of 1600x1200 resolution display, and give input by hand gestures (data gloves), (and maybe voice), it isn't wearable computing.
I want to be sitting absolutely anywhere and wiggling my fingers in the data gloves and making gestures, looking at >=1600x1200, with reasonable speed & memory capacity. Or hell, even walking around so I don't get so damn fat.
--PM
Perhaps... but now without VRD!
Imagine a notebook, and throw away the display.
Now strap it in your winter jacket and put a VRD (Virtual Retinal Display) on.
Now you have a netbook with a 50x50inch display that can interact with the outside world...
Ex: Help you repair your car
A GPS system that show helpful informations directly in your fov
Help you play virtual battlefield with wooden guns at your favorite parc lol
etc...etc...etc...
BUT it won't happen with a wrist display...
I can't call that English
The future of portable computing is basically already here.
Smartphones.
My iPhone is the first device I'm willing to call a portable computer. It's fast, fairly capable, and can do a ton of things rather well. Phone, GPS, pretty decent email even without a keyboard, games, entertainment, ebooks etc.
It's already replaced my N810 for ebook reading, my calculator, my existing phone, could, with a little more investment, replace my GPS, and even has a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time.
That's where the future is, a highly portable, highly capable puck that goes in your pocket. It won't replace portable computers with qwerty keyboards, at least not for a while yet, but it sure as shit isn't wearable crap. The future is a smooth brick, not a smooth wristband that you're going to smash into doorknobs and shatter.
One of the most powerful reasons for this is people don't like carrying around a lot of crap, but want a lot out of what they do carry, the more one can do, the more other things it will replace, but everybody wants at least a phone, so the future is smartphones. We've already got the Droid, iPhone, and the Nexus One.
tl;dr: The future is powerful, versatile, myriad function, smartphone pucks, not wearable devices. The cool thing is, it's mostly already here.
Now if only my iPhone could also unlock my car, house doors, and interface with credit card readers on demand, and be an acceptable form of government issued ID I wouldn't have to carry anything else in my pockets, but that's perhaps going a bit too far.
Question everything
... with the companying wearable 3D glasses.
But then again... why have a watch at all? Or would the weight of the glasses be prohibitive?
A dupe from Dick Tracy, that is.
This "wearable computer" crap comes along every 5 years. It's still the epitome of lame, even by slashdot standards.
I think that depends on how you define its purpose:
SMS Your ECG To ER: Portable Heart Monitor Sends Emergency Alerts And ECG As Text Message
It isn't difficult to imagine remote medical monitoring and assitive tech becoming the norm for the patient at risk, the chronically ill and elderly.
There is something to be said for the gadget that doesn't need a pocket or purse, that fades into invisibility.
In response to a similar story, a poster remarked that a wrist watch is one of the few pieces of jewelry a man can wear without embarrassment.
Do you: -want to design anything on anything but a desktop?
Stylus-based PDAs are decent for sketching things while away from your expensive graphics tablet. In fact, some people have even pressed Nintendo DS systems into use as a makeshift Cintiq clone.
-want to use mathematica on a phone?
Texas Instruments used to a computer algebra system called Derive. It forms the basis of the CAS in TI-89 and TI-nspire calculators. So yes, a lot of people do use a system that could be compared to a scaled-down Mathematica on a handheld device.
Because having a large square shaped bulge in your pocket isn't dorky looking... Besides how many times have you or someone you know dropped that device into the toilet, onto concrete, etc. or accidentally left it somewhere? A wristband makes a lot of sense for a communication device. For instances where you need to have larger display real estate it is entirely conceivable that it could have a built in projector. They're already getting small enough. The over sized, entire front is a display, pocket bricks didn't solve the real-estate problem.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
It was a wearable computer. Had an address book, calculator, alarms, timers, and whatever else I'm forgetting.
It was cool as shit for a kid, but it was a rather big pain in the ass to use, and all in all not real useful since the screen was the size of a postage stamp.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Until it can project the screen onto my eye, and I can interface with it virtually, the smallest a computer can be and still be useful is a good sized screen 10" ? - and a keyboard with reasonably sized keys.
Just tailor a nice leather bracelet and put your mobile phone there. Problem solved.
Head-mounted - yes, that's essential.
There is definitely no need for 1600x1200, netbook's 1024x600 x 2 eyes would be quite sufficient. This is not to replace desktop and home cinema, just to supplement it.
As for input, fuck voice. Attach two small cameras on the sides, with most image captured in front for augmented reality feature, but add two tiny mirrors to sacrifice a small slice of the CCD for eyeball tracking. Fingers only for "clicking". Voice could be used instead of keyboard but it isn't nearly as essential - I think input interfaces like Dasher in connection with eyeball tracking could be faster and easier to use than voice.
Oh, and screw heavy helmets. Keep the glasses light and give them a wireless connection to a small brick you can carry in your pocket on on your belt, with decent CPU and battery. And possibly glasses compartment.
One more viable option in the age of fast wireless: give the glasses a thin client capacity over GSM to your home server. This way you carry only the I/O devices and a really simple (and power-efficient) CPU device.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Bill Gates has been modelling this feature for years.
Cheap netbooks are too limited and no-one will want them any more, say vendors who wish they still made a profit at the mere 103% increase in netbook sales in 2009 over 2008.
The small, portable computers sold in stupendous numbers in 2009, but industry watchers have been convinced by Microsoft and Intel to say that their popularity is waning. "No-one is buying a 10-inch netbook that costs £500 and runs Windows 7," said Stuart Miles of Pocket Unit. "So everyone will go back to expensive iPhones and full-sized laptops, any day now. This 'internet' thing is just a fad too."
What people are looking for now, he believes, is a machine that can keep up with the demands of contemporary web users. A small netbook running Windows 7 Dumbass Edition(tm), which runs up to three applications at a time and holds your data hostage until you cough up eighty quid to run a fourth, is "thoroughly inadequate" to the task. "Linux, of course, doesn't exist, wasn't the impetus for cheap netbooks and didn't cripple Microsoft's bottom line for the last three years by providing actual competition for the first time in decades. So it's not like it can do twice as much in half the space."
Ian Drew, spokesman for chip designer ARM Holdings, also believes netbooks are in for a shake-up. "Apparently, netbooks that weigh nothing, run twice as fast and have an all-day battery but don't run Windows are a problem for ARM, not for Microsoft," he said, lighting a cigar off a fifty-pound note.
Mr Miles believes tablets will take up the mantle from the netbook. "If we carefully define tablets as 'not netbooks,' even though they're made by the same companies with the same technology running the same software, we can claim the netbook is dead even though people are suddenly realising how stupidly huge, unwieldy and heavy even a fourteen-inch laptop is. It's all about picking your terms rather than, e.g., selling what people actually want instead of what you'd like them to want. Also, if you whack in a 3G modem it's suddenly a phone instead, and never mind the Mini 9."
"Clap your hands if you don't believe in netbooks," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "Marketers! Marketers! Marketers! Marketers!"
Illustration: The 1982 netbook. Go anywhere! Do anything!
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Local computing power is wearable already in the form of phones. (Which keep getting more powerful.)
Eventually there'll be convenient video through glasses. You won't need an additional device like a phone.
Maybe you'll have something like a Bluetooth earbud, or maybe audio will come through glasses arms (transduction or buds).
Maybe an input device for a while. Or maybe straight to gestures in air or on handy surfaces.
Ultimately, just glasses. And that vision, if you will, is not far. I give it 10 years.
Eventually, contact lenses, maybe another 15 years after the above scenario.
Note that it's all a trend towards being borg.
All hail the prophet Steve Mann!
No, I don't think so. Better ask for the latest display models.
hello implantable computer.
THAT would be a great computer form-factor! And make the screen a touchscreen, and include adjustable padding between the shell and the wearer's forearm so that the computer would fit snugly on most people. Just don't add in the portable nuke. :)
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1998-09-12/
I hate wearing things on my wrist, which is why I used to have a pocket watch before I got a cell phone. I might wear Dilbert's invention though.
Actually, I like that, because for things where I need to type fast or a big screen, I use a notebook or desktop. As a programmer and computers fanatic, I like the idea of having one computer always available everywhere, better yet if it does not need a pocket (like my iPhone, for instance). It needs to keep me informed of new emails, allow me to read some news, do some searching, locate me, play mp3, show a small video, etc. No need for fast typing on this type of device. So I am all for it, and will buy one for sure when it becomes available -- well, if it has enough power, of course. =)
he is the one who apologized for showing an ARM Linux based device at a big computer show last year and he did so with some likely help and probably poking from Microsoft:
http://blogs.computerworld.com/microsoft_strikes_back_at_linux_netbook_push
And what is with that $399 price the article talks about regarding the original netbooks? The price was $249 and it is Microsoft who has been pushing for higher prices and requiring it because of the excess hardware required just to run Windows.
In other words, it is just a PR pitch from another puppet of Microsoft's. And they pretty much want the netbook dead or declared dead because ARM based devices are about to eat their lunch. Microsoft still has nothing to combat Linux on ARM and Intel is hoping they can hold off the market til they start making x86 based CPUs on single digit processes so the power usage competes with last years ARM chips.
A whole bunch of big players want netbooks dead and declaring it is helps them because the uninformed will believe it. IMO.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Wristwatches have huge potential.
just need AR to take off first.
hell there wouldn't even need to be a wire, you could just use Bluetooth or whatever future short distance wireless transmitting tech there is.
Watch serving as your computer.
AR headset over one eye or both.
voice recognition instead of a keyboard.
Glove / pen like device for mouse movements / pointing etc.
The only thing holding anything back right now is the time to integrate all these current and developing technologies into one device (and shrink the size).
Not to be a MS fanboy, but project Natal is one of many, many steps in the right direction.
Sci fi has been toying with the idea of "wrist pads" and other wearable sophisticated electronics for decades now. However a fundamental problem remains: the power source. Although some effort is being made in that area too. I just don't want to think about where they're planning on storing the batteries...
That's why it'll be a Bluetooth watch. The computer is a PDA or smartphone in your pocket; the terminal is on your wrist and needs far less power.
Perhaps they shouldn't be shoving bloated OSes, like Windows onto their netbooks and trying to turn netbooks into laptops. Replacing SSDs and Linux with HDs and Windows was just dumb.
Hopefully Google won't cock up their Chrome OS and we'll see some decent netbooks back on the market.
Anybody tried Asus Customer Support lately? Anybody able to FIND Asus Customer Support? Seems 'YOYO' to me. (You're On Your Own)
Wearable computers will initially need you to also wear extra batteries. Clothing will change to support the batteries.
The visual interface will be a HUD like display via glasses that overlay the real world in front of you. Initially, there will be text input based on your finger movement. Subtle body movements like gestures will provide other inputs. There will also be voice recognition commands whose interpretation will occur in the cloud rather than locally in your phone due to power limitations. In fact, many requests will occur in the cloud with the results presented in the HUD or on the screen. When you go from place to place you'll be able to plug your phone into a standard interface to use other peripherals and transfer data.
Companies providing the technology will get their revenue from ads and charging you for long range wireless access, but WiFi will also be work.
There will laws against driving while wearing your computer.
The tech for all this exists right now at about the level of the Apple Newton is compared to the iPhone of today. It's all there. It just needs to be combined, standardized, refined (a lot) and productized. It's coming. The only question is when it will arrive in a viable form.
The operating system platform is likely to be open source. Android is a likely grandfather of this kind of operating platform.
Eventually, after better batteries and more efficient processors and memory this may all become a wrist computer with wireless interfaces to HUD and data input devices. But that will take longer.
Facebook is billions of individual "Skinner Boxes." And if you use it you are the pigeon!
Although we are still somewhat following Moores law, out computers have not become that much faster over the last years.
They have, however, become smaller and cheaper. So if you extrapolate from that, he is spot on.
And all we need for really small computers to become really usable is wearable screens. Perhaps even 3D screens.
The television crowd is currently working on that. When there is enough tv shows on big 3D screens, small 3D eyeglasses will become normal too.
I mean we will need glasses to watch 3D on 50" screens, so why not skip the 50" screen and just use the glasses only?
And what would you rather want right now? A faster computer notebook or a wearable one with 3D glasses?
Max M - IT's Mad Science
What about what Leela is wearing?
It is becoming very hard to buy a true netbook. And that means an SSD because the last thing you want is a SLOW vulnerable HD with tons of space you are never going to use. Come on, my Acer ZG5 has 16GB SSD plus 2x 16GB SD. That is MORE then enough for several days worth of music and some entertainment. And I can always swap more and I don't have to be afraid to drop it while it is running and hear the HD rattle.
The netbook is NOT a cheap laptop.
I can however see a future for the wrist watch computer, if I would ever dare actually wear it. Imagine it being able to be straightened, then, if it is comfortable to wear, you suddenly got a space for a wide screen tablet device, that might even have a fold out flexibele keypad.
The idea is nice, but I don't think it will work because it will look fucking hideous on anything but a cute girl and also be FAR to vulnerable.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
What if I don't wear a watch?
If I did though, can I get a Power Rangers one?
The wii have all kind of "joysticks", some generic, other that fits better in one or another kind of games, but the computer is still a box hidden somewhere. Wearable computing should go after that idea. The main box in your backpack/pocket/necklace/whatever, and wireless (bluetooth or other tech) "pluggable" IO devices, that can show information and/oir receive input. So you can have a wristwatch touchscreen, display glasses, smart clothes. "Sixth Sense" wearable devices or even plain keyboard/monitors if you want.
Anyway, for that will take more than 5 years to get to an usable and widely available implementation.
My barely used ASUS 901 is dead. It's not netbooks, its ASUS that's the dead one.
Eyeglass semitransparent displays are already available and attach the env3 cellphone on your wrist with velcro problem solved