Way too smart phones

 

 

"My computer? Why it is right here in my shirt pocket..."

Earlier this month, my wife and I refreshed our smart phones. Were they broken? No. Were they lost or stolen? No. Did they still work? Yes. Then why in the world replace them? This is my confession - I wanted a technology upgrade. The new Sony Xperia phones are fabulous compared to the Samsung Galaxy II phones we traded in. If I were asked to write a compelling narrative on the logic of this acquisition, it would be a classic fail.
 
That being said, I don't think I am ready to get off this merry-go-round yet. As good as things are with today's phone, and they are excellent, the future holds even more promise. It really does not matter if you live on Apple Street or Droid Avenue, both technologies are improving by leaps and bounds. Better battery life, better camera, better storage, besides the better technology. The other day my wife and I were trying to find an address. She put the address in her phone (she could have used voice recognition also) and the phone went into automatic GPS direction finding. Just as accurate as the GPS in my truck. No muss, no fuss.

In five years (maybe less), the new smart phones will have new or enhanced features. One that exists today (in raw form) is Augmented Reality (AR). One of the features AR will allow you to point the camera in your phone to a geographical area, and then something amazing happens. The microprocessor in the phone will recognize where you are (using GPS) and then display enormous amounts of information concerning your location. Your phone is truly a computer in your shirt pocket.

Voice recognition will keep improving, which will allow more voice commands and less "fat finger" data entry. In addition, with the introduction of Apple's Retina Display, we have gone about as far as we can in screen resolution. Oh we could do more - but it would be meaningless as the human eye cannot discern anything better. So where do we go from here? 3D of course. Newer phones will have a 3D feature with a possible hologram feature coming right behind that. 

With the security and accessibility of cloud storage improving all the time, the amount of personal information available to you using your smart phone will be virtually limitless. There will be very little computing one can not do with your phone. With the advancements in internet TV, this little wonder in your pocket will do it all. Compute, entertain and inform. Once in a while, these smart phones can even be used to make a telephone call.