Future technology
Is Windows 7 the last major release?
Windows 7 is currently the focus of attention and will likely dominate the PC for a few years. But what about the future? At PCMag, technology industry analyst Tim Bajarin speculates about what comes after Windows 7:
So, Windows 7 does, in fact, matter. But for how long? At the moment, we live in a client/server [...]
Eric Schmidt predicts the future
Leading figures in technology have a certain credibility when predicting the future development of the industry. However, technology has a habit of surprising everyone and even Bill Gates has trouble. (He said spam would be gone by 2006.) So we listen when Google CEO Eric Schmidt makes predictions but we don’t bet the farm on [...]
A new kind of memory
A type of computer technology called phase-change memory has been known about for some time but had not advanced to a possible practical state until recently. Intel has been involved with developing the technology. An advantage of phase-change memory is that it can be miniaturized to smaller dimensions than current flash memory. CNET reports on [...]
Intel slows up USB 3.0
USB 3.0 was looking like it would soon appear but now Intel has put the kibosh on any early expectations. Daily Tech reports:
Those looking forward to the wide rollout of USB 3.0 will be saddened to hear that the specification has been dealt a setback. This summer, expectations were that USB 3.0 devices and computers [...]
The effect of netbooks and the cloud on computing
In his column at PCMag, industry analyst Tim Bajarin writes that netbooks and the cloud are impacting computing in a serious way:
The lower cost and increased performance in these smaller notebooks, or netbooks, could eventually drive growth in the PC industry and if tied to the cloud- and Web-based apps, they, potentially, deliver a computing [...]
Breakthrough technologies?
Here’s another stab by somebody at being a tech Nostradamus. At PC World , Glenn Fleishman describes what he says are “5 New Technologies That Will Change Everything”:
3D TV, HTML5, video over Wi-Fi, superfast USB, and mobile “augmented reality” will emerge as breakthrough technologies in the next few years. Here’s a preview of what they [...]
Your 10 minutes are up, another dollar please
That may be the type of message you’ll be seeing as you use software in the future. Microsoft has applied for a patent on timed software. InternetNews reports:
Microsoft has applied for a patent on a software licensing technology that could be used to bill users for the time they spend computing, just as if they [...]
Future mice
Microsoft is a big seller of computer mice and recently the company previewed some new concepts for the mouse interface. Gizmodo shows some of the ideas. You can see a video there along with some pictures of futuristic mice. The main technology theme seems to be using touch and gesture instead of clicks:
The name of [...]
Possible new security defense
I have no idea how well this might work out in practice but here’s a new security approach reported at ScienceDaily:
In the never-ending battle to protect computer networks from intruders, security experts are deploying a new defense modeled after one of nature’s hardiest creatures — the ant.
Unlike traditional security devices, which are static, these “digital [...]
Will touch be the new PC Interface?
Using touch to interface with a computer is an old idea but has not been seen much in standard desktop PCs. Specialized systems in businesses and devices like the iPod use touch but it’s keyboard and mouse for most home PCs. However, Windows 7 is coming with enhanced touch features and some are saying that [...]
Is the Internet broken?
That’s the question asked by Douglas McIntyre over at the site 24/7 Wall Street. While I don’t think the Internet is broken, it is certainly suffering from some outdated infrastructure and ways of doing things. After all, we are still using approaches developed 20 or even 40 years ago. It amazes me how well those [...]