Results of the contest of enthusiasts №40. About new technologies

Hello dear readers! It's time to take stock of our past enthusiast competition. There were few comments this time, but they were all pretty interesting.

Results of the contest of enthusiasts №40.  About new technologies

Before announcing the winner, let me quote a few of the contest comments. For example, a reader with Nikomretrograd7 wants very little:

In my opinion, smartphone stagnation is surprisingly artificial. I will gladly shell out a thousand dollars for an android smartphone with a matte screen with any matrix that has no problems with viewing angles (IPS, PVA / MVA, IGZO, AMOLED …) and a diagonal of about 4 inches, 5-row hardware qwerty keyboard and hardware buttons for the camera and brightness control (or at least a combination of other hardware buttons that bypasses the operating system, as they do on laptops). I also dream of a hardware touchscreen lock button and a built-in trackball (hardware – as on HTC artemis was), working as a mouse, even pretending to be an external device connected via USB. Yes, and a Wacom electronic pen (which is actually the S-pen) does not hurt either. It's good that you can do without a stylus now, but why kill it completely? fingers just can't match.

I also had the hope that the other side from jolla would be what I describe below, and not a highly publicized back cover. To do this, all it was necessary was to make the battery (and without that probably not suitable for any other device in the world) part of this back cover, i.e. so that the smartphone can be divided into two halves: a battery with a rear camera (cameras with a thickness of 5 mm are already there) and everything else. And optionally sell modules that are 'inserted' between these two halves: vertical and horizontal slide mechanisms with qwerty keyboards, 'books' with keyboards and internal screens in the style of Nokia E90, second batteries (with their own microUSB connector – so that a separate 'proprietary' You didn't need a charger, but you could also use a full-size USB, so that you could use it as a backup battery for any device), sets of slots for memory cards and additional SIM cards or even external USB-devices …

It's high time to make a hardware qwerty keyboard, in which each button instead of a signature has a low-resolution e-ink screen. Then localization for it can be done programmatically. With a fourfold margin typical of flagships, this is more than justified economically.

All this became technically possible and cost-effective many years ago, only mass purchases of Nokia E90 after the news that the next Nokia Communicator would not be, no one was convinced of the demand for hardware keyboards, especially 5-row – and this was just at that time when devices with them finally became thinner than 15 mm! and HTC TYTN was in demand even with a thickness of 25 mm – purely because of the hardware qwerty. The TYTN 2 was bought even more willingly for the 5-row qwerty.

Finally, for many years now I have been dreaming about a phone running on Windows XP – with an arbitrarily weak processor! But they won't, because marketers don't believe in selling desktop windows software even after multi-million dollar kickstarters.
A docking station in the form of a laptop with its own processor and video card would ideally fit on such a phone, when connected, it works instead of a telephone one. And a 'slot' for a smartphone, located in the place of a laptop touchpad, so that the phone's touchscreen can be used as a touchpad. And in the role of Wacom's 'tablet for an electronic pen', if it is in the phone. Only then can you build your own nest with a stylus into the laptop dock – you can forget to get the phone jack before inserting the phone into the place of the touchpad.

I wouldn't mind paying even $ 5 thousand for such a thing … Unlike the latest mac book pro retina or some kind of 'gaming' laptop with two video cards.

The Assael reader lacks the smallest thing – the collection of all existing technologies in one device:

All I miss is the perfect device. Almost all devices are a compromise: either a large barteck, a long operating time and a large, joyful case, uncomfortable in the hands and in a pocket, or compact but living for only half a day, or with a large screen or a small one, but you can stuff it into any pocket. The problem is clear – there are not enough compact high-capacity batteries, but this is already a revolution, not an evolution. You can wait a very long time. But you can make use more convenient even today. For example: a 7-8-inch tablet with a long operating time, support for fast internet and calls, large memory, etc., etc., but as a kind of hub – it lies in its bag, does not interfere, it works for a long time. You need to watch something on the Internet, watch a movie, play with toys – they got it out, did what they needed, and back into the bag. Call – a wireless headset, for example, in the form of a push-button telephone. SMS and messenger – there too. Perhaps also a smart watch for more convenient control (switch music, pick up a call). What does this whole zoo have to do with wireless charging: I came home, lived my bag on a special shelf and everything is charged at once, simple and convenient. Another bag with a battery that would recharge all this on the road – and in general there would be no price.
As a result, all technologies already exist, you need to collect everything in one heap, and not wait for a revolution in the field of batteries.

I really liked the comment of our reader Igor, I quote him below:

Holograms. I've been waiting for a long time when they will find application in this area. You wear a small bracelet on your wrist, a small earpiece-headset in your ear, no 'shovel' in your pocket. Instead of a phone screen, everything is displayed on a hologram above the surface of the bracelet, vertically to you, regardless of the position of the hand, although this can be done with a switch-off. The size of the image is stretched to fit any comfortable one, switching 2D and 3D displays (for the same films), turning on the image display mode only in the frontal plane (the user cannot see anything in the face, from the side or from behind) or for everyone around them, and without inversion (i.e. That is, the person on the contrary sees everything not mirrored, but just like you), coasters, there, on the tables, so as not to hold your hand in front of you when watching a movie, or surf / play with both hands. Well, that's how it all seems to me.

Commentator Andrei plunged into the topic as deeply as possible:

I believe that we will acquire several directions of development. What is holding us back, what is isolating? The phone has become a set of computing power. What is the threshold? The threshold is the blurring of the distinction between virtual reality and the perception of the world as it is. The peak of development of the mobile industry will be the integration of solutions directly through neural connections with the human brain, but for now, the next step is the function of the phone as a source of access to the SUPER SERVER, where applications will be installed and available (like a TV in the hands, but with feedback). Why put applications on your phone, store them there and waste the power of a power source on it? The phone will become only an intermediary between services, software and HUMAN (consumer). There will be several types of interaction: good old DISPLAY; what we are accustomed to: the quality of information transmission will increase to the degree of resolution of the human eye (YES, AND WILL PREVENT IT, FOR THE SAKE OF MARKETING !!!). The possibilities of projecting a picture onto a special surface (in static conditions) and into space (with the worst quality) – into an air gap will be widely spread, but the latter will be abandoned 5 years after the evolution of integration. The solution in terms of power sources is a special clothing based on the EMF principle and a new project 'energy in motion'. Energy in motion is a whole network of conductors and circuits for storing and distributing energy between 'intermediaries'. Energy will be accumulated by your clothes, insoles, shoes when walking. If neutral particles are introduced into the blood, and the skin is genetically modified or covered with a special layer of a substance or a FABRIC with this substance, then it is possible, again, to generate energy: the blood RUNS !!! A lot of sensors in the phone (device): a mood sensor (this was in my phone of the future, when we were given the task at the department to draw and describe the functions of the phone of the future – I drew exactly WHAT IS NOW ON THE MARKET – this is a huge 6 ″ display, a nuclear source power supply – it is not yet available, touchscreen display, contour lighting around the display to display a person's mood through its light – LIKE in C6 edge, only for a call). GLASSES will be supplied for wearing. You will walk around the city and there will be no advertising banners, there will be pop-up 'tips' around the building and departments within buildings – applicable to sales or logistics, transport and warehouse. The coolest thing that will kill selfie sticks is the FLYING DRONES SHOOTING. HD cameras will be EVERYWHERE. You get together with friends, think or say a phrase, make a gesture and a DRON or camera from a certain point take a PHOTO. The time for SERVICES will come! TV set at home – for throw away – computer – for throw away. The main danger and threat in this whole world will become – HACKERS, VIRUSES. After some time, Tesla's technologies will be opened to us and there will be no more problems with energy: you will carry a box the size of a matchbox and will not know the problems: the earth is a capacitor. And now closer to reality: PHONES will begin to be made on flexible materials, spraying all the filling onto the surface. There will be an option for a separately wearable filling (this will give an impetus to a SUPER SERVER). In all this, it is very important to develop an accessible and free Internet, charging a fee only FOR SERVICES. It is necessary, of course, to reduce the volume of the battery by increasing the capacity; processors to make even more advanced technology, reducing power consumption. I love SONY phones! But in terms of cameras, I would recommend switching to bioengineering and starting to make CAMERAS FROM biological materials – it will be SOMETHING !!! Like a 'living organism'. Only the technology of close integration with the human brain and body, a solution to the problem of energy consumption, will give a radical breakthrough. Let's solve these two problems, SOMEONE will become the ruler of the world !!! We will be selling HAPPINESS, emotions !!! Interpersonal contacts will come down to a complete minimum, which will lead to a decline in the birth rate and the quality of human genetics, if it is not properly managed, taking this process under its control, selecting and mixing races based on the collected data, again, thanks to close integration with the body and brain man!

And the winner is Taras Mukin, who transferred the discussion to the VR plane:

A very difficult question, in fact. The point is this – will there be any significant changes at all in smartphones, as we know them, before they evolve into something completely new? I think not.

We can start (albeit from afar) with the fact that, one way or another, everything that we have received over the past years was expected. Smartphones, tablets, fitness trackers, smartwatches, super-compact laptops – if you think about it, it was all on the surface or is an evolution. And again thanks to Jobs (and not only, of course) – he showed that the ideas of the futurists are not far off, they can be made and sold to ordinary people, just do them well. What's next on the list of 'futuristic personal electronics'? Virtual reality, of course. And I expect the concept of 'smartphone' to dissolve into VR (more precisely AR).

Now we need to understand – what task should 'Smartphone 2.0 “perform? Smartphones and tablets appeared to solve one problem – convenient access to information on the Internet. They brought the Internet to every second of life, this is their main merit. What has Google been doing for the past couple of years? All kinds of search improvements to get information even faster. 'Google Page 2' became a meme, so much they wanted it – and this is just a fraction. Voice search, Google Now – all of these developments serve the same purpose, and Google has talked about this many times. The next step, which Google has already tried to overcome, is to put information right in front of your eyes. You didn't even have to go into your pocket. There are actually two ways: intermediate, but more realistic Android Wear and ideologically close to the ideal, but, alas, not yet technically Google Glass.

Actually, I'm waiting for something at the junction of Google Glass 1 and Hololens. Something like a hanging display always in front of the eyes, on which the necessary information is displayed. The problem is with the word 'needed'. Google Now is an attempt at guessing what the user wants, and it doesn't work very well yet. Entering search queries by voice is also bad – I do not want to mumble something to glasses in transport. Again, one idea on the surface is eye tracking. Honestly – I would be terribly happy if Glass 2 showed just an android smartphone that you can control with your eyes. A couple of features to improve usability and that's it, here's Smartphone 2.0.alpha for you. Even just displaying the notification curtain + widgets from a smartphone would be awfully cool. And it is so obvious that we will see it soon. The watch has already tried and also stumbled upon the operating time (the screen is not turned on all the time), but this is some purely technical problem, just wait.

And (returning to the beginning) – will a smartphone be needed then in today's understanding? I probably don't. Or as some kind of additional, more advanced device (like now a computer for a smartphone). That's what I expect from smartphones – when they are no longer needed.

I sincerely congratulate Taras, and I ask the other commentators not to get upset, because the next competition will be soon!

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