My first GPS cost well over $400 and it was clunky and slow. I didn’t mind because they’re amazing. They’re the culmination of every single scientific discovery ever made, and they can tell you where to drive your car. Four years later and they’re smaller, faster and nearly cheap enough to be sold in blister packs at gas stations. And after you buy the unit the service is free. Truly incredible stuff. By the time kids born this year are old enough to drive there will hardly be a car on the road without one, and could well assist in driving the car itself.
I feel silly now. I always thought that GPSs were installed in the car and got their information (moving or still, speed, and direction) from it :smack:.
Such is the life of an early adopter. Six more months and I can get a better phone than the iPhone I’m typing this on now.
Inbuilt (factory-installed) GPS units sometimes do incorporate data from the onboard computer. It’s a redundant function, though; just keeps things vaguely accurate in the event of signal loss.
Smartphone GPS applications do the same thing using an accelerometer and compass.
I’m trying to avoid making a joke about the black kids being the ones that figured out how to “scratch” the record…
OK, I typed something earlier that isn’t showing up. I hope that the hamsters just ate it instead of the alternative that I posted it in another thread. :o
ETA: Looking around, I didn’t see it in other posts, so I guess the hamsters did eat it. No biggie, it was kind of a hijack anyway. Kind of like this post. 
You have a point, I guess. Although I see a smart phone as more of a necessity than a luxury these days.
I can listen to Music and take a call at the same time my GPS is running on my Droid X. I also have a dashboard mount for it, so I’m not holding the phone whether playing music, taking a call, or responding to the vocalized GPS navigation instructions.
One thing I do find strange is if I’m listening to music and a call comes in, my Droid X automatically pauses the music, and resumes when I end the call, which is great. However, if I’m on a call, and the GPS in my phone comes to a location where a change in direction is required, it will vocalize the instruction (e.g., “turn left in 100 yards onto Main Street…now turn left”) as I’m speaking on the phone, which can be a little disconcerting. Yes, yes, I know I shouldn’t be on the phone while driving.
Google Navigation does this on my Droid X with something called Layers. It will show me restaurants, gas stations, ATMs/banks, and parking lots along my route if I choose to display them. It will even give me current traffic conditions, and suggest alternate routes, something a paper map cannot do.
Buried somewhere deep in the system settings (at least in v1.6) is a toggle that allows you to shut off all other speaker functions during a call.
Ha! You’re funny.
I laughed. 
I’m a fogey but, believe me, I am absolutely hooked. I do everything but have sex with my Droid X. My wife is just as enamored with her Incredible.
I predict these will make a comeback in like 20 years, people will get bored of perfect 3d and the analog warmth of hand drawn animation will be a welcomed retro trend for a while.
According to the Droid forums, this is a known issue with the Droid X for which there is currently no resolution or, if there is one, no one seems to know it.
Unrelated: I just noticed a setting in my phone that will cause it to auto answer when a call comes in. I love this! I will never have to touch my phone when I’m in the car again.
Clearly, you don’t have a mother in law.
Kids born today might never know this level of optimism and cheery attitude.
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I do, but it’s a challenge for her to point out my apparently endless list of faults from the grave.
I really can’t see books going completely.
Your kid is learning to read, which do you give them- an 8-page waterproof and chewable book you bought for a few bucks, or a kindle?
I don’t have kids, but I don’t know any I’d trust under at least the age of 10 or so with something that valuable and potentially breakable.
Plus, I just like books, they feel nice, they’re fun to browse, you can pass them on to other people, and second hand they’re certainly cheap enough!
We’re still going to get out of touch with some people- not everyone will join social networks, and they’ll delete accounts- some of my friends have done so after nasty break-ups or just out of irritatation or to avoid people. We’re not going to change everyone’s personality in one generation.
Hey, I’m sure everyone my age was supposed to have a TV in their room as a kid- but we didn’t have one in the house. Still don’t, and neither do my parents…
Must agree with my compatriot KarlGrenze that there is a presumption there that all those “2011 babies” are upper-middle-class industrial-world types.
Advantage #1 of paper-based books, news/magazines, maps… heck, of wind-up watches: no battery, no problem.
Really? So soon that by the time someone born in 2011 reaches adulthood they’ll be as exotic to him/her as, say, rickets are to a 21 year-old American today? These sound more like things that Cohort 2011 may see fall off and go away in their lifetimes, that things “they will never know”, barring some major epochal development while they are still children.
Obesity may be controlled and reduced by the time they grow up but they will know obese people growing up.
There will still be conditions a generation from now for which you’ll have to go deep into a body and cut or zap or pinch or replace or repair something. Now, these may be less-invasive methods so they don’t have to “cut you open” like a hog, so yes, most current methods will likely be obsolete, but it’s still invading your insides.
Most of these kids may have good enough oral health to not get dentures or be familiar with their everyday use, but, some sort of full-dentition prosthetic appliance will always have to be available, not everyone will be able to have implants. This may be IMO the one that would most likely elicit a “wait, they actually DO that?” response from the '11 generation of first-worlders.
As for eyeglasses, my life expectancy barring catastrophic events goes at least to the late 2030s/early 2040s, so these babies born today will make it to 30 seeing the spectacles on my face and I’m only one of millions – many of the 2011 kids will themselves be wearing glasses before 2021. Again, not everyone is a suitable candidate for refractocorrective surgery or contacts.
How about gasoline engines for automobiles? They’ll know them as children, but for how long?