Acts7 - 04 April 2009 03:29 AM

Coolness factor: 7


Im not anti-technology - as a matter of fact I just recently stepped into the world of bluetooth - not that is a useful invention -

I think you meant “now” that is a useful invention?

Agree with you totally - it’s not the initial cost of the gadgets
they get you on - it’s the connection charges. And the charges for
the minutes you don’t even use. And the usage fees...and…

Now that I think about it, it’s pretty much a racket “they”
have going on.

And that is different (so I understand) for users in the US than in other countries. I pay to make a call. I don’t pay to receive one (at least not in the UK) My tariff includes ample ‘free calls’ (Essentially calls I have pre-paid for plus free calls to other phone users on the same network) so, Acts, your calculation would not quite hold over here, though I get your basic point, though there are some very useful free apps for the i-phone too :)

But back to the original concept - I kind of thought it fairly clunky and strange to use, so give it a generation or two (projector luminosity would be an issue - at moment standard hi lumen bulbs generate way too much heat and use way too much power - no doubt some application of LED technology will come to the rescue - give it time) so that it can mature into a product we would all like to have - I think it more likely that we will find our communication devices embedded into glasses and worn on the face, or possibly as contact lenses (Both ideas explored in the writings of Larry Niven in the dream Park series) Hi lumen projectors could perhaps be connected to in offices over a hi bandwidth bluetooth device.
Anyways, my thought on this changed recently - my son and daughter were debating (ok, arguing) over a piece of music which had come up on the telly. We rewound the item (using our Sky+ box which allows you to rewind and pause live TV - cool) to where the music started, I then opened a free app on my i-phone called Shazam. I held it up to the TV speaker so it could ‘hear’ the music and it checked it and told me what the song was and had i wanted to I could’ve then gone to the I-tunes store and downloaded the song. I thought it wouldn’t work - but it did and settled the argument to boot! So the next question is ‘how’ does it work - I have no idea. But it now gets my vote as a very cool app to have.

So - this technology may be odd in its current ‘emanation’ built as it has been from off the shelf parts, but who would have predicted the now ubiquitous summer melange of Apple and Blackberry!!

Cheers