Linda's Line - May '08

Living The Life Of George & Jane Jetson

Last year I told you about the new Microsoft Surface table top computer. AT&T is now the first company to have surface computers in select stores. Go into the AT&T wireless store on Madison Ave. in New York City and you will find the Surface table computer there. Place any of the cell phones on the table surface and it will download and display all the information on that phone. Place another phone on the table top and you will see info on both and a comparison chart. You can also see a map and get directions as well as do all of your ordering of a new phone from the surface pc. Microsoft believes that within 5-8 years, these surface computers will be in our homes and in the general business market within 2-3 years. I can see REALTORS® showing property "virtually" from a surface pc in the office. We will pick out our new homes before we even leave the office to go look at them. Rot Ro Rorge! We'll be living the Jetson's life soon!

NVidia, the company most widely known for its killer graphics cards has come out with a new mobile chip. It is the APX 2500 mobile processor and they claim it is the smallest optimized computer on a chip. The proto-type device for using this chip is about the size of an iPhone only slightly thicker. NVidia claims that the production devices will actually be much thinner. This device plays movies, surfs the internet, can be connected to a keyboard, TV screen or just operated by touch.

The appearance of these 2 devices along with other trends in the market place (MS Home Server, iPhone & iPod to name a few) leads me to predict that in the next 5-10 years, we will see a convergence of all of these devices into one portable communications device that keeps us connected to home & business 24-7. We'll have "wrist-watch" input devices and glasses or sunglasses with "heads-up displays" and when we walk into our office, we will place our personal communicator on the surface and download the work we did last night along with the notes from an evening meeting with a customer. When we get home at night, we place our device on the kitchen counter top and download the day's mail into the device or just read our to-do list brought home from work. On the ride home, we can give instructions for our kitchen devices to start cooking the evening meal before we even walk in the door. TV or music will play on integrated devices on the walls and surfaces throughout the house. You know, we just might surpass what George and Jane had.