In Part 1, we looked at a concept video for a future phone, packed with amazing technology, and we considered the possibility of virtual “projection” keyboards. In Part 2, we’ll look at the other two features: the thin design, and the holographic display. Continue reading
Author Archives: Scott
iPhone 5: Hologram or Hoax?
Have you seen the video below? Purporting to be a concept demo of the next iPhone, it’s recently gone viral on the web. Go on and hit play, it’s only a minute – we’ll still be here. What did you think? My first reaction was “wow, that would be awesome!” Comments on YouTube, meanwhile, seem … Continue reading
Living Pictures
This topic isn’t strictly future-related. In fact, it made its rounds on the web 6 months ago, which on the internet might as well be last century. But it’s so awesome I had to make sure you didn’t miss it. Behold the cinemagraph (click through for the hi-res original): This novel effect is the offspring … Continue reading
Are Electronic Eyes Watching You?
In an earlier post, I observed that the current explosion of cheap data storage would allow people to record photos and videos without limit. Anyone with a camera will soon be able to archive every moment of their lives. What would such continuous recording mean for those of us caught in the footage, willingly or … Continue reading
Talk to Your Car
If you’ve got the latest iPhone (or if you’ve seen an ad for it), you know what Siri is. To whit: it’s a speech recognition interface that lets you control your phone by talking to it. You can tell it to set reminders, find songs, or look up nearby pizza places; it listens to, and … Continue reading
A Future Battery for Your Future Phone
So you’ve got the latest, greatest smartphone on the market. It downloads movies faster than you can watch them; takes photos at a higher resolution than the human eye can apprehend; connects to every bluetooth, wi-fi device and washing machine within seven miles; and does it all as smoothly as a stick of butter being … Continue reading
Welcome to the Urban Planet
In the last couple of years, our planet’s human inhabitants have crossed two major thresholds, one of which indicates major problems ahead, and the other of which offers a glimmer of hope. We’ll get back to the hopeful bit in a minute, but let’s begin with the problem, which you’ve probably seen in the news … Continue reading
Solar Power, meet Microfinance
Since my day job is at a non-profit with tight budgets, it’s not often it introduces me to new technology. But thanks to a mid-October workshop hosted by our international department, I had the chance to get hands-on experience with a remarkable innovation: it’s a deceptively simple device, yet it has the potential to lift … Continue reading
Robot, You’re Fired
If you’re a robot working as a cashier, the trend detailed in this Forbes article must be discouraging: According to a recent Food Marketing Institute study, fewer people are using self-checkouts at the grocery store. They accounted for 22% of all supermarket transactions in 2007, but have since declined to 16% of transactions in 2010. … Continue reading
Death of the Megabyte, part 2
We’re discussing the world-changing potential of effectively infinite data storage. If you’re just joining us, start with Part 1 to see how we got here. Here’s the question: Supposing we have a hard drive with enough capacity for anything we can imagine – what should we plug it into? There are many incredible possibilities; here … Continue reading
Cosmic Revolutions 