What I Want From the Future

08Dec2005 [wishlist]

This started life inside my head as a gadget wishlist, but it relates to a few other things. Anyway, for starters, I want a 'chatter' device, a Perplex City 'key'... I want a phone-slash-PDA-slash-media-player, with always-on net connectivity. In short, I want one device that does:

• Phone: I don't actually use a mobile a lot, certainly not for making long phone calls, but I want to be able to receive calls and to SMS, and I don't want to have to carry a separate and rarely used device just to do so
• PDA: I need more than your basic phone functions, but not a lot more: a calendar, task-list, contacts database and notes/memos; I don't need to work on Office documents (don't use Office anyway!)
• Media Player: audio is most-important, I still don't see an attraction in portable video; more importantly, I have to be able to play audio for long durations without draining the battery unnecessarily (eg, by not turning the screen off when it's not in use)
• Web Browser and Feed Reader: I want a separate feed reader so I can keep updated whilst offline, and a web browser so I can check emails, do blog posts, etc, wherever I am
• WiFi: to facilitate the above
• External media: eg, an SD card slot so I can move things around, store music and images, etc
• Bluetooth and basic peripheral support: want to be able to type on a larger-sized keyboard and talk on a portable headset
• Battery: I want to be able to do all the above for a few hours every day and only have to charge overnight, and if I'm going out overnight I should still be able to use basic phone/pda/music functions (I'm willing to compromise on WiFi and Bluetooth as they're obvious battery drains)
• Oh and a Camera: I used to think it was ridiculous, but now that phones are coming with 2MP cameras I'm thinking it'll work - if I want a decent image I'll take a beefy camera out, but there are plenty of times I just want a snap, even just to capture some info or an interesting film idea

But... There's something wrong with the market: we have the technology to make such a device, but there's a bizarre idea that business people want phone and email, or that home users want phone and (needlessly glitzy) multimedia, but barely anyone links all the things together. I don't want either... Oh and worse, because 'home users' want those annoying flashy-but-useless phones, the alternatives are marked way up just because they're for 'business'. Bah

And finally, thinking bout this one got me thinking about some of the other things I want... And top of that list: I want to be able to sit down and read a newspaper. I read plenty of news and blog feeds, and I can handle the _occasional_ podcast (though normally not a fan as I can't skim over them anywhere near as easily as text). But for reading _local_ news, have to go with something on paper... Same goes for the TV news for that matter. I've spent the year away from Australia, and it's really hard to keep up with the news there: reading the news online is just like any other news source anywhere else in the world, meaning that I'm not able to focus on the 'local'. But if I get a paper in front of me it's much easier to skim headlines and get an idea of what's going on in that part of the world...

Sometimes all this technology just doesn't give me what I want.