Back in the early 90’s right after I graduated from college, didn’t have a computer, a cell phone, a DVD player, an I-Pod, or a GPS. Now, I own all of the above and use them all, every day. Except for the GPS and DVD player, I couldn’t get through the day without most of that stuff.
So, what’s next? What will be the next thing science, technology and commerce will invent that I will just need to own?
Do you wear contact lenses?
A new face. Cosmetic surgery is becoming de rigueur.
My most recent acquisition in this area has been a PDA cell phone though they aren’t new by any stretch of the imagination. I scoffed at them before but now that I have one, it’s the bee’s knees.
I use it to set reminders for myself. It interfaces with the exchange server at work. Google is always close by. I can email pictures when I’m on vacation or check the Dope when I’m stuck in a waiting room.
Best of all, I can remote into my home PC with it and access all my files there. One night we had some very bad weather come through and I was over an hour away from home. I logged in and shut my home computer down using my cell phone.
Darned Blu-ray DVD player and a new set of DVDs.
A TiVo or a clone.
A high-def TV.
But the GPS will fall out of your life as everything else (including bagels) will have a GPS in them already.
An Amazon Kindle-like electronic book. Very addictive.
Missing words supplied.
Got a computer and a DVD player, but happy to have none of the others you list. Yeah, not only does everyone need continuous access to a telephone, but they need to take PICTURES with it too! :rolleyes:
A cell phone the size of Miracle Ear?
I could imagine something like that ad they showed a while back, where the guy is sitting in a square trading stocks with a hands-free phone, voice recognition software, and a small screen attached to his glasses. Sorta like the eyeglass-attachment rearview mirrors cyclists use.
Along the lines of this. Anyone ever try/see anyone using these?
Very cool! I could see something like that, bridging the gap between humans and technology in a way where technology becomes smaller and is incorporated in daily activities in a more cloak and dagger kind of way.
I’m with you. Well, I actually do have a cell phone. It’s my wife’s old one that she decided (insisted) I should keep. It’s pink. I don’t use it very often.
The Digital Diaper, which I predict will be a huge commercial success based on a surprising application of IBM’s quantum teleportation technology. Why subject yourself to filthy, disease-prone public restrooms, or miss that important scene in the movie when you can just relieve yourself on the spot, with all waste matter being immediately disintegrated and transmitted via wifi to the local wastewater treatment plant for reassembly and processing? Sure, the early models will have a few bugs, resulting in a few embarassing incidents where a spotty internet connection results in equally spotty pants, and a few early adopters will probably suffer from accidental penis disintigration, but once all the bugs get worked out, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without one!
My addictions to these things tend to vary in degree of addiction. The iPod is all pleasure, I’m sure I could live without it. I use it mostly for podcasts. I finally get to catch most episodes of This American Life. That alone has made it worth owning.
The cell phone? Well, I drive an hour each way to work every day. The cell phone is a comfort, if I ever break down. Another irreplaceable use is calling if I’m running late. During one winter storm it took me 6 hours to get to work. I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have a way to call work and let them know what was up.
I’ve thought about getting rid of it from time to time, but it’s value as a safety device has made it irreplaceable.
The GPS? I spend a lot of day driving to very obscure addresses that I’ve never been to before. It the one piece of technology that’s lived up to it’s promise.
But to the topic at hand. Everyone has offered variations on things that already exist. I wondering what’s coming that’s really new.
Maybe Apple TV will qualify. Once it’s libary really expands and you can watch anything you want, whenever you want without leaving your home.
The latest Thing I Can’t Live Without is a DVR. I always thought "OK, so you can ‘pause live TV’. Big whoop. Until we finally got one. And you know what? You can pause live TV! It is absolutely brilliant!!! I can’t imagine going back to ‘regular TV’ anymore…
I think the “next thing” will be when they finally get the cellphone/music player/internet appliance/media player/gps/etc/etc/etc device perfected. From what I’ve seen, the iPhone comes pretty close, but I just cannot own an “i”-anything, so I’m holding out for the 4G devices…