Iphone vs Communicator
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Mp3 players will be combined to cell phones, computers will be crammed into phones, and everything else crammed into phones until all you have is your phone, with 10,000 applications.
I'm going with the William Gibson/Ghost in the Shell world of cybernetic implants. Your brain with a TCP/IP connection.
Thats what I figured... though I saw it as a bluetooth modem type thing that you could use to interface with other devices.
I disagree; I have a feeling that trend will eventually fade. But then, I might be a bit traditionalist in that sense.Mp3 players will be combined to cell phones, computers will be crammed into phones, and everything else crammed into phones until all you have is your phone, with 10,000 applications.
Why? Any combined product will, by definition, never be as good as the real thing. You have to cram it all together in one single package, so any additional abilities will be fun for a while, yes. But actually useful? Not really... For example, a phone with a camera makes lousy photos, since a real lens doesn't fit (or the phone gets too bulky and people don't want it any longer) and a phone with a music player has lousy options (eq / playlist / file management & such), since dedicated sound hardware takes more space (again, bulkier). And most phones (except blackberry's) have an agenda that can't actually do very much; people hardly make use of it, after all, so why put the money into it?
Now phones that can do a lot of other stuff are fun, yes. But hardly sufficient for more then shallow tasks. If you want good photos, you take a photo camera. If you have an ear for music, you use a portable music player (with good earplugs). If you want an agenda, you use a PDA. If you want to call a person, now that's the ideal reason to actually use a phone.
Of course, there are phones that are, in a basic sense, actually some other device with the ability to call people, as opposed to the other way around. But then you've got the same problems; either those phones are bulky (cameraphones with a compactcamera lens), corners have been shaved on some other functionality or they aren't in the same price class as other phones; there's always a trade off to be had.
Just imagine a DSLR camera (quite hefty, those things, especially with a good lens and a good flasher) with a phone added to it; can you imagine putting that to your ear?
You can't make them smaller because of the lens; as such, I doubt we'd be seeing a good camera in a phone anytime soon.There will always be people who like to do a little bit of everything. But there will always be people who like to do everything well, also. Give me a separate camera, music player, pda, gps and phone over a combined one any day.
So if you guess me, the communicator will do what it's good at: communicating; not much else.
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Which leads to the question why the com badges did not provide streaming video coverage of all away team activities? Perhaps privacy in the Federation trumps the advantage of data gathering and analysis that would have provided.
I will disagree about the dedcaded camera, music player, etc. Technology is just moving to fast. In my lifetime we have gone from a pocket AM radio to MP3 players with video better then early TV in micro units. The lens problem will be overcome just as the need for drives and moving parts in walkmen and early portable CD players were overcome.
Which leads to the question why the com badges did not provide streaming video coverage of all away team activities? Perhaps privacy in the Federation trumps the advantage of data gathering and analysis that would have provided.
I will disagree about the dedcaded camera, music player, etc. Technology is just moving to fast. In my lifetime we have gone from a pocket AM radio to MP3 players with video better then early TV in micro units. The lens problem will be overcome just as the need for drives and moving parts in walkmen and early portable CD players were overcome.
Um, that's not really the point of this thread. The OP is asking how real-world technology will look like in the Trek time frame of the 23rd/24th centuries.
Maybe by then the handheld device won't be reliant on a massive copper, fiber and microwave infrastructure in order to make a call to another handheld, fixed station, or maybe just maybe an orbiting spacecraft.
Just 'cuz the part in your hand can do amazing things, the back end of the system isn't nearly as advanced as you'd want to think.
Nothing to do with phones, per se, but I think the touch screens that prevail on starship controls will not be one size fits all. Just was different users can now create different desktops and programs for a computer (and even save those settings to a stick drive to take with you to other systems), people of the future will be able to reconfigure their work stations in a manner which is more familiar and works well for them. Tactical officer Worf may like the photon guidance systems at the top of his display while Ensign Whatshisname like it in a secondary window.
Individuality will reign supreme.
Hopefully, wireless technology will continue to improve so one PADD will do the work of 50,000 PADDs.
Individuality will reign supreme.
Hopefully, wireless technology will continue to improve so one PADD will do the work of 50,000 PADDs.
My satellite phone can.
Perhaps not, battle conditions justify uniformity. Should Worf be disabled the time needed to reconfigure may be the difference between life and death. Besides training becomes more complicated with every officer having a different set-up. Besides making allowances for species without fingers why would you put in a reconfigure pause.
What pause? As soon as I put my key in the lock of my truck, the computer is busy moving the seat and pedals to suit my established parameters. It does the same for my wife and her key. It works also if we use our programmable key fobs. If Worf gets knocked out and I have to step up to the console, a simple word or touch would be more than enough for the console to instantly reconfigure to my settings.
It is now that I've brought it up, so HA!
From underground? In bad weather?
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