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Author Topic: Your Smart Device Predictions?  (Read 5718 times)

Renegade

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Your Smart Device Predictions?
« on: November 18, 2012, 08:46 PM »
Looks like we've got a barrage of new smart devices coming our way, including TVs and cameras and cars.

Anyone have any ideas what they think will be coming out next? i.e. Devices with a more complex OS, and not just microcontrollers (MCUs).

I'm tending to think that the next generation of smart devices will shift from the personal device area to home appliances, e.g. washing machines, refrigerators, stoves/ovens, atmosphere control (air conditioners, central heating, etc.), etc.

I really have no 'evidence' for that, but just a gut feeling. I think it's still a few years away yet.

Thoughts?
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ewemoa

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Re: Your Smart Device Predictions?
« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2012, 09:26 PM »
It seems to me that voice recognition and text-to-speech may make available features within devices that many folks until now have not had enough incentive to learn and then make use of.

Tinman57

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Re: Your Smart Device Predictions?
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2012, 07:35 PM »
According to Headline News just last week, they're working on washers, dryers, and other appliances being internet ready.  In fact they stated that there's going to be a whole household that can be controlled over the internet.  Personally I don't care to have any appliances that can be controlled over the web.  Too many hackers out there that have nothing better to do than make your toaster go into overdrive and burn down the house.
  I think we're getting way too carried away with these so called "smart devices".  I don't think it's very "smart" to have them.   ;)

superboyac

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Re: Your Smart Device Predictions?
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2012, 08:12 PM »
Seems to me like the devices are going from more complex to more simple, with the cloud and the big boys taking care of most geek stuff behind the scenes.  That's certainly what's happened to the computer.  From what I can tell, the whole personal computer thing peaked somewhere during 1995-2005.  There was DOS, Windows, internet, lots of great software.

Now it feels like the innovations are largely minor, but super-hyped.  Feels like the big boys are trying to squeeze as much money out of the whole industry as possible while keeping the actual real productive innovations as minor as possible.  OO...bigger phone screens, whoop dee do.  A lot of tinker-friendly features have been removed and continue to be removed.  Curious people and ideamen are made more and more to feel like illegal hackers unless they are working for one of the big boys.

But really...I think I'm just growing up or something. ;D

Tinman57

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Re: Your Smart Device Predictions?
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2012, 08:25 PM »
Seems to me like the devices are going from more complex to more simple, with the cloud and the big boys taking care of most geek stuff behind the scenes.  That's certainly what's happened to the computer.  From what I can tell, the whole personal computer thing peaked somewhere during 1995-2005.  There was DOS, Windows, internet, lots of great software.

Now it feels like the innovations are largely minor, but super-hyped.  Feels like the big boys are trying to squeeze as much money out of the whole industry as possible while keeping the actual real productive innovations as minor as possible.  OO...bigger phone screens, whoop dee do.  A lot of tinker-friendly features have been removed and continue to be removed.  Curious people and ideamen are made more and more to feel like illegal hackers unless they are working for one of the big boys.

But really...I think I'm just growing up or something. ;D

  I read an article on the internet that pretty much said the same thing.  These companies are releasing technology a little at a time, only giving you the older technology.  Once they've made their money on that, they'll release the next big thing that's been sitting on the shelf for years....

Target

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Re: Your Smart Device Predictions?
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2012, 08:44 PM »
Seems to me like the devices are going from more complex to more simple, with the cloud and the big boys taking care of most geek stuff behind the scenes.  That's certainly what's happened to the computer.  From what I can tell, the whole personal computer thing peaked somewhere during 1995-2005.  There was DOS, Windows, internet, lots of great software.

Now it feels like the innovations are largely minor, but super-hyped.  Feels like the big boys are trying to squeeze as much money out of the whole industry as possible while keeping the actual real productive innovations as minor as possible.  OO...bigger phone screens, whoop dee do.  A lot of tinker-friendly features have been removed and continue to be removed.  Curious people and ideamen are made more and more to feel like illegal hackers unless they are working for one of the big boys.

But really...I think I'm just growing up or something. ;D

Seems (to me) that PC's are getting dumbed down - the hardware capabilities are still there, but the current money makers are devices like 'smart' phones, tablets, and game consoles (which collectively don't have anywhere near the same capability) so that's where the focus is, ie adding 'significant' features and functionality to devices in order to make them appear more useful/capable than they actually are, and at the same time limiting or neglecting similar advances in desktop applications (which already had all that and more...)

superboyac

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Re: Your Smart Device Predictions?
« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2012, 08:47 PM »
Seems to me like the devices are going from more complex to more simple, with the cloud and the big boys taking care of most geek stuff behind the scenes.  That's certainly what's happened to the computer.  From what I can tell, the whole personal computer thing peaked somewhere during 1995-2005.  There was DOS, Windows, internet, lots of great software.

Now it feels like the innovations are largely minor, but super-hyped.  Feels like the big boys are trying to squeeze as much money out of the whole industry as possible while keeping the actual real productive innovations as minor as possible.  OO...bigger phone screens, whoop dee do.  A lot of tinker-friendly features have been removed and continue to be removed.  Curious people and ideamen are made more and more to feel like illegal hackers unless they are working for one of the big boys.

But really...I think I'm just growing up or something. ;D

  I read an article on the internet that pretty much said the same thing.  These companies are releasing technology a little at a time, only giving you the older technology.  Once they've made their money on that, they'll release the next big thing that's been sitting on the shelf for years....
Can you find that article?  I'd be interested...
Yeah right?  It sure feels that way.  And 40hz mentioned how the european and asian countries had more advanced tech than we do long before we get it, which kind of shocked me.  To me, that confirms that we are becoming less and less intelligent as a nation because it means that a)we buy into hype and are unable to think for ourselves critically b)other countries are working harder than we are.

It's also hard for me to imagine the internet being rolled out without the military first using it for a decade or two, right?  Is it possible that the planners and authorities could have overlooked the power that the internet brought to the world?  Maybe, sure...I just doubt it a little.  I can't tell, I was a kid when it started, so to me it was just cool.  Now that I think about it, I can't help but see the meaning of economies, national borders, and wars drastically changing in our lifetime because of how easy and fast it is to get information.

superboyac

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Re: Your Smart Device Predictions?
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2012, 08:52 PM »
Seems (to me) that PC's are getting dumbed down - the hardware capabilities are still there, but the current money makers are devices like 'smart' phones, tablets, and game consoles (which collectively don't have anywhere near the same capability) so that's where the focus is, ie adding 'significant' features and functionality to devices in order to make them appear more useful/capable than they actually are, and at the same time limiting or neglecting similar advances in desktop applications (which already had all that and more...)
Totally.  What irks me is that most of that stuff was available on the regular pc as SOFTWARE!  All they've done is make each software into a piece of hardware.  The real innovation has been portability.  The software and the OSs are honestly a little lamer than they used to be.  But the portability is the big thing, and along with that, the connectivity (wifi, cellular) <--those are true advancements, no need for hype.

Paul Keith

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Re: Your Smart Device Predictions?
« Reply #8 on: November 19, 2012, 09:44 PM »
I think smart device are finally going to push the success rate of the Apocalypse  :P

It has all the signs of being the worst bubble in the entire history of humanity. It's the equivalent of the first successful car being a factory on wheels like a trailer the size of a mansion. Yes the cities could have even been more efficient but besides the environmental damage, humanity would be more accepting of harsher conditions and smokes billowing through their houses in order to make way for the juggernaut on wheels society that would take place. Where those houses would have ushered in squatters 2.0, these smart devices would usher in maintenance sweatshops 2.0.

It will destroy the cloud: Further segmenting the e-bay sellers/blind affiliates/mass marketing district of the web with that of the information highway but now at a mass social level. The greeting cards people who was able to reform the tradition of gift giving would be reforming our social lives to be more like this (minus the satire and over the top environmental head bashing):



With the cloud destroyed, the post-apocalyptic era of the internet will arise It won't be like a nuclear fallout or any bleak setting outside of our houses but the internet will have their own real cyberpunk, nuclear fallout, jungle low tech division. It would be like what the stereotype for 4chan is or the stereotype for Facebook and Facebook's fallout is but this time it's real. The glory days of a startup competitor replacing a previous service would all but disappear and be replaced with the post-smart device society of it's version. Much like television changed with the advertising in-between every show phenomenon, the internet would redefine the internet in a form of tradition. Not just with increased appearance of ads or with increased pop-ups and spam that used to plague the early days of the internet. This time the change would be internet exclusive (much as the ad model for TV where TV exclusive despite ads existing in radios).

For example the crap with the internet today in mass society is commonly found in TV shows. News reporters acting like they're twitter users. TV serials using the still stale Timmy Turner found his wished up toy from the internet but with more CSI, NCIS, Government Mindmaps and Text to Text cellphone tricks.

In the future, this would be the average (non-parody version) of our kid's cartoons and what TV will pick up, the internet will drop and it will be a future depleted of the special youtube of the week/month, twitter news of the week/month and be an entirely different sub-breed altogether.



If DRM was for videogames, Smart Device would be for web sites. Not even the draconian laws promoted right now to capture torrent users would hurt the internet as much as Smart Devices would if the laws were passed today.

Complex OS-wise, it will come but not in the geographic convenience that came with the appearance of the mass available TV set, mass available refrigerator, mass installed air conditioner

Life would become more like a labryinth, becoming closer to this (even the exaggerated parts)



It would be a weird transformation that no one would see coming. Households would become closer to dark internet cafes. The neon tech cities like Tokyo would become brighter airport style/expo event style hubs. The average street corruption would be turned into a stewardess themed haven rather than the ghetto style stereotype plaguing today. Dark would be the new safe haven. Bright and clean would be the new ghetto. Smart device usage would be like labryinth to shop navigation devices. The fancy parties would be more like Steve Jobs type tech presentations. The raves would be more like cyberpunk depictions of plugged-in/plugged-out movements minus any cyborg/android implants.

Finally the cherry on top of this Brave New World would be an inverse/reverse Cold War. A state where we all think the end of the world is no longer coming or have been staved off because tech redefined the problem. The first major solution, the first true experiential leap to believing that the 2000 rocket space age in fiction would be truly forthcoming but then the next unlikely to succeed World War. The Invisible World War would finally succeed. The signs will literally be there but we will wait on our doorsteps because it's not a plague, a typical doomsday scenario or even a major disaster. It would just fall apart. No sudden Rapture style bright light. No Great Depression surprise. We'd all just wake up and find out, life sucks. We're screwed. We've overlooked something about the war.

Target

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Re: Your Smart Device Predictions?
« Reply #9 on: November 19, 2012, 10:09 PM »
Totally.  What irks me is that most of that stuff was available on the regular pc as SOFTWARE!  All they've done is make each software into a piece of hardware.  The real innovation has been portability.  The software and the OSs are honestly a little lamer than they used to be.  But the portability is the big thing, and along with that, the connectivity (wifi, cellular) <--those are true advancements, no need for hype.

not trying to take anything away from the advancements per se.  It's about context, and portablility is only as good the available access levels (and net access has a l o n g way to go before it's anything like being ubiquitous)

Seems counter-intuitive to leave an entire market segment marking time while spinning 'lesser' devices as being capable/compulsory/indispensable.

I suppose it's all about what you can get away with...

Paul Keith

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Re: Your Smart Device Predictions?
« Reply #10 on: November 19, 2012, 10:55 PM »
Well that goes back to the very beginning of the PC story. The PC was always a lesser device and it always left behind a segment in favor of the "personal" (which is the version of portable back then) and then when it got the PC brand off, only then did it return to it's segment of cheaper utility for schools, powerful videogame console, new age typewriter.

Target

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Re: Your Smart Device Predictions?
« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2012, 12:45 AM »
at the risk of hijacking the thread (apologies up front :-[), and on a semi related theme, what constitutes 'good battery life' as far as 'smart' phones go these days

I'm considering an upgrade and any references I can find seem to indicate the damn things need to be charged daily (WTF? my existing phone lasts me weeks...)

and can anyone refer me to a site that does worthwhile/reliable reviews?  I've been poking around but most seem to be little better than regurgitations of the manufacturers blurb

Tinman57

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Re: Your Smart Device Predictions?
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2012, 06:52 PM »

Quote from Tinman57:  I read an article on the internet that pretty much said the same thing.  These companies are releasing technology a little at a time, only giving you the older technology.  Once they've made their money on that, they'll release the next big thing that's been sitting on the shelf for years....

Can you find that article?  I'd be interested...
Yeah right?  It sure feels that way.  And 40hz mentioned how the european and asian countries had more advanced tech than we do long before we get it, which kind of shocked me.  To me, that confirms that we are becoming less and less intelligent as a nation because it means that a)we buy into hype and are unable to think for ourselves critically b)other countries are working harder than we are.

  Gee, that was an article I read on either PCWorld or ZDNet more than 3 years back.  I don't even know if they archive their stuff for public access....

 They also said what you were thinking.  Europe is the testing ground for the newer technologies.  If they go well over there, then they start marketing it in the U.S.  All part of the same article.  lol
« Last Edit: November 20, 2012, 07:04 PM by Tinman57 »