Poke Me In The Eye

Technology is advancing rapidly. Cell phones are a relatively recent invention yet these days it’s hard to imagine life without them. And every year they get more complex with greater features. They can do half a billion things. But…what do you need that they don’t do, and what to they do that you don’t need?

The question for this week is: Describe your perfect personal portable electronic devices. There is some degree of “fantasy” leeway here but it can’t be a piece of paper that unfolds into a laptop PC. In other words the laws of physics still apply but there is no rule against predicting future technology. At the same time maybe it’s missing something simple and low-tech, like a bottle opener.

Remember, this is something you would be carrying in your pocket most of the time so weight and size is a consideration!

Crawford’s Answer

My dream portable device probably isn’t that far away. Well…the combination of bits and pieces might be but the core of the technology certainly can be imagined.

It would be a small device…hopefully not much larger than a deck of cards. Visually it would be simple as well. I’d prefer for it to be black with a small screen. It would have ports hidden behind a panel (USB in AND out, power, earphones and headset). It would open up with one side being a larger screen and the other a keypad (not qwerty keyboard!) with tiny joystick. When closed and the outside screen off I’d want it to be very unobtrusive, elegant, simple and most of all…clean.

The main functionality of the phone would be a connection device. Be it Bluetooth, Wi-fi or some other new and unknown connection method I’d want it to be able to connect to any network out there. If I’m in my car it should be able to play music through the car speakers (it has a large HD…maybe 30 gigs). If I have it at home it should be able to connect to my wireless internet and communicate with my computer(s). The USB in plug would allow me to hook up a keyboard for ease of typing. The USB out could connect me to a computer that isn’t on a wireless network.

Of course it would make phone calls…it is basically a phone after all. But it’s connection power would be the integral part. It could hold and transport files and allow me to view anything you put into it…be it a spreadsheet, word document, picture, video…anything.

No, it would not have a camera. I know that’s against the grain but I prefer a separate device for that. No it wouldn’t have a full keyboard…it’s huge level of connectivity to a variety of devices would negate the need for that. GPS…probably, but I’d want it to be fairly simple. But it would be able to connect to a full on GPS unit or provide GPS information to a computer/laptop/car.

But the one little thing I’d want the most…the one crucial bit of kit that would make it totally awesome for me would be…

A flashlight! A good, strong, LED, bright, powerful handy flashlight.

Moe’s Answer

Pretty much everything I’d want in a portable device already exists at some level, what I would want is to make it smaller, better, faster and have better battery life.

My device would be a phone, GPS, Pocket PC, camera, MP3 player and more.

I obviously wouldn’t want it to be large, my idea size would probably be something about the size of the current generation iPods or the size of my Treo, maybe a bit smaller. It would need to be decent size because I would want it to have a good sized screen for watching video, viewing images, doing any work that would need to be done on it. It would not have a full size keyboard on it, just your standard phone keypad. Instead of having a full QWERTY keyboard it would have one of the laser keyboards built into it so when you needed to sit down and enter some serious data, write an email, etc. you could do so comfortably. I would want the whole interface to be something revolutionary and awesome, like the new iPhone but even better.

It would have a camera, something decent, lets say at least 3 megapixels. I will always have a real camera but sometimes having a camera on your phone comes in really handy. Of course most cellphone cameras suck but with 3 megapixels onboard I’d be able to take pretty decent pics. As long as we are talking about recording things, I would also want it to be a halfway decent sound recorder. Nothing to fancy here but something halfway decent.

I have gotten into Geocaching so I would love to have a phone that is also a GPS. They are out there now but they are kinda crappy from what I have read. I would want to power of my Garmin GPS on my phone. I’d want the GPS to be able to navigate city streets, tell me what Chinese restaurant are in whatever area I am in, tell me where the nearest ATM or gas station is etc.

I’d want my device to also replace my ipod. So I would like at least a 60 gig hard drive on board, hell, since this is a fantasy device, lets make that 200 gigs. I have a ton of music so the more storage space the better. I would want the player quality to be at least equal to an iPod, better would be great.

I would want standard computer stuff to work on the device. I’d want to be able to check email, surf the web (at broadband speeds), manage my contacts, play some games, etc. Pretty much anything a Pocket PC or Palm Pilot can do, my device would do.

For battery power I would use something most people probably have never heard of. My phone would run on a tiny internal combustion engine that runs of butane. Yes, you read that right, check out this link for more details. Ever running low on power? Just squirt some butane in that puppy and you are good to go, no need to ever wait for your device to charge, no more having to deal with chargers, etc. It’s such a beautiful idea.

It would be able to play video and receive over the air television as well, which is why I would want a decent sized screen. Now I would never go home and watch video on it. But when I was commuting to the city everyday it would have been really nice to have been able to watch some TV show that I missed the night before, or to have been able to watch the news on my way home. It would also come in handy on planes. You get the idea.

Of course it would also be a phone. Not much to say here, it would have everything you’d expect in your phone as far as phone abilities go. Speaker phone, call waiting, caller ID, etc.

The phones primary connectivity would be Bluetooth but it would also have to have a USB port on it for those time when I am at computer that isn’t Bluetooth capable.

Pretty much, I would want my device to combine all those little devices that you can carry around in your pocket now into one mega device. The best part, my phone would only cost $99.99

I also agree with Crawford, a flashlight would be nice.

The scary thing is, I won’t be the least bit surprised if we have a device like this in five years. I will be downright shocked if we don’t have a device like this in ten years.