Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Cloud computing taking the world by storm



Tired of paying thousands of dollars to use a piece of software like Photoshop? Don’t worry, because in the near future you will be able to use almost any piece of software for only a few cents. Welcome to the world of cloud computing.

Put simply, cloud computing involves using a web-based service to host all the programmes a user needs to complete a task. Remote machines that are owned by another company run everything from e-mail to complex supercomputing programmes. It is these computers, servers and data storage systems that create the ‘cloud’. All the user needs is an Internet connection and the ability to run the cloud computing system’s interface software, which is often as simple as a web browser.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Wireless energy - feel it, it is here!



It’s ironic that wireless gadgets don’t live up to their name. Even the best wireless gizmo will run out of juice and die without regular plugging in and charging up. Not anymore. Wireless electricity has arrived and you can now watch TV and recharge your camera and iPod without any cables at all. Tripping over a rat’s nest of wires behind your computer is a thing of the past.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Gaming in the cloud



Forget about the Xbox, Playstation and Wii. In the near future these silly gadgets will only be found in museums. No, gaming will not have died out - it will be healthier than ever - but the way games are played will have changed radically. Instead of buying (or pirating) a complete game and installing it on your computer, all you will need to do is connect to the Internet and play whatever game you like through ‘the cloud’. No more downloads, discs or patches.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The new meaning of mind control



In the 1982 movie Firefox, Clint Eastwood was able to control the weapons of his fighter jet by using thought alone. Sure, this was science fiction at its best but the amazing part is that the US military was providing research funding for this sort of thing ten years before. Today people are controlling everything from robots to computers using brainwaves.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Shout at your computer and it will listen



The days of the physical keyboard are numbered. This ancient device is being replaced by digital keyboards, rollup keyboards thin as a piece of paper and speech recognition technology. The future of typing is not better keyboards - it is no keyboards at all.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Hello surface computing, goodbye keyboards and monitors


Picture the cellphone of the future. It is merely the size of a coin and has no keyboard and no screen. But you won’t need a keyboard or screen because everything is projected onto the nearest surface (which could even be your hand). No more worrying about tiny screens or buttons you can only press with a pin.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Augmented reality – because the real world is average



Augmented reality is the hottest thing since sliced bread. (What came before sliced bread is anyone’s guess.) Simply put, augmented reality (AR) refers to software that superimposes computer-generated virtual imagery onto real-world images. Thus, reality is ‘augmented’ with digital information. You know the Head-Up Displays fighter pilots have? That’s augmented reality. Unfortunately we civilians have to make do with Apple iPhones, but that’s the next best thing.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Visual search: because text search is so nineties


Imagine you are walking down the street when you see a stunning red sportscar flash by. It’s a new model – you’ve never seen it before in your life and have no idea what brand it is. But it’s so drop-dead gorgeous you just have to find out what it is. So you whip out your mobile phone and take a picture. The picture gets sent to a search engine, which recognises the car and gives you pictures, videos and information on the latest model, including pricing and colour options. If you think this sounds like a far-fetched vision of the future then think again: this sort of technology is already here.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The Internet of Things


Last week I spoke about Web 3.0 and the future of the Internet. Taking a step back, this week I’ll be talking about how the Internet can be applied to everyday objects. It is already happening through what is known as the Web of Things.

The Internet of Things is a network of digitally connected objects that are able to communicate with one another and send information to web services that manage these objects. Imagine a world where billions of objects can report their locations, identities and histories over a wireless network. If all objects were equipped with tracking/identifying devices, we would never run out of stock or waste goods and we could monitor the consumption of everything from food to electricity and oxygen.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Web 3.0, the next generation Internet

Web 3.0 will succeed Web 2.0, or the social web. As things stand, the web is geared for social interaction and bringing people together - just think of the massive growth of social networking sites like Twitter and Mebo and consider that more people are getting their news from Facebook than Google. Web 1.0, on the other hand, was an information storage medium and nothing more.

Web 3.0 is known as the Semantic Web (semantics is the science of meaning and in relation to Web 3.0 refers to the way the Internet will understand the meaning of things we type into it). At the moment, when we perform a search we are basically typing in a word or phrase that appears somewhere on the Internet: we are searching based on expected results. For example, if we type in ‘tasty pizza recipes’ we are searching for a site that contains the term ‘tasty pizza recipes’. With the Semantic Web, we will type in ‘what are some tasty pizza recipes?’ Web 3.0 will respond by probably searching for pizza recipes, analysing the popularity of certain pizza recipes, analysing comments and social media links, inferring what ingredients make a tasty pizza and analysing your own searching trends to deliver you a customised result. In short, the semantic web will be able to understand the information on the Internet rather than just index it. The tedious process of finding, combining and organising information on the Internet will all be done by computers.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Print is where words go to die

Bang! Print media is dead, and digital media just killed it.

http://damnpeskyindiekid.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/print-media-tombstone-826.jpg

One of the biggest trends today is the slow death of print media. It survived the rough blows of radio and then television to have been knocked out cold by the mushrooming giant that is new media.

The facts say it all: in 1996 just 2% of people read news online for three or more days a week – twelve years later that figure was 37% and is still growing. Digital is taking over from analogue and new media (the Internet, cellphones, MP3 players, digital TV etc.) is gobbling up audiences. Most of this new audience is made up of young people who have grown up with computers, DVD players and cellphones. These ‘digital nomads’ in the 18-24 age set have adopted new media more readily than any other age group, which is hardly surprising when the average child in America grows up with an average of 15 new media devices around them (so say MediaWise).
People like new media because they can choose what they want, when, where and how they want it. It is cheap, easily available and instant, so the moment a big story breaks readers can stay on top of it, instead of having to wait a whole day for the newspapers. Advertisers like new media too, because advertising online is extremely cheap. Whereas a prime time advert on American television goes for $103 000, it cost just a few cents to display an advert online. Advertisers can also measure their success rates online, counting the number of people that see their ad or click through to their site.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

The Future is Now

The future begins now. And by studying the past we can make an informed guess about the future. Enter the science (or art?) of futurology – also known as future studies or foresight. Forecasting future developments by studying current trends is not a new field but only took off in the 1960s. In today’s world the future is more relevant than ever because of the huge changes the world is undergoing, especially regarding science and technology: everyone knows Moore’s famous law that states computer speed is doubled every eighteen months. Such advances affect every part of our lives, from work to leisure, communication, transport and so on. Nowhere is that more true than the digital realm, which is influencing every item in the world: think of RFID chipped items in shops, the electronic engine control units in cars, the growing power of cellphones, the phasing out of cheques and paper money and the use of fingers and eyes instead of keys. Think back 25 years and imagine if someone told you that very soon it would be possible to phone someone anywhere in the world without a fixed line; that digital letters could be sent across the world in a matter of seconds or that a whole library of books could be stored on a computer no bigger than a box of corn flakes. You would have laughed at them back then, but now such technology is blasé.
It can be quite disturbing to feel that technology is developing faster than we can manage it or find uses for it, or that the world is going faster than we are. Alvin Toffler called this ‘future shock’: the “dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future.” When things change so quickly, you can’t feel alienated from the present and out of touch with society. The Future Watch will help you avoid future shock by giving you the future now, so you are ready and prepared when it comes barrelling down at you.
With the help of this blog, you can stay ahead of future trends, especially those related to technology and social media. After all, a lot of the world’s technology is aimed at communication (just look at how you’re reading this). We live in an information society where information is one of the most important commodities – just think of the Internet, which is redefining the way people consume news and entertain themselves: news, music and television are all heading for the Internet. The big question today is not “is print dead”, but “what will be the dominant e-book reader? The Kindle, Nook, or iPad?” If you don’t know much about any of them, don’t worry. Just sit back for a rollercoaster ride that will take you to the future.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Coming soon to a small screen near you...

Watch this space because my blog posts will be coming from out of the future...