Gadgets

[andrewducker]

I was looking at this year's best gadgets lists (well, this one and this one)
and feeling bored to tears.

Which isn't to say there aren't all sorts of neat little things out there.
Lots of nice incremental changes as things move forwards. But nothing that
feels massively different to last year - the screens are a bit prettier,
the interfaces nicer, the processors a bit faster, but other than that
there's nothing there that couldn't have been in last year's lists.

Am I horribly jaded? Has this year been a bit rubbish for gadgets? And
does have anyone have any suggestions for what the next awesome thing that
will appear is?

Comments

[joexnz.livejournal.com]

I thought that was pretty much how it went, less apple released something new

I'm after a 7 inch tablet that's a bit more versatile than a kindle. Apparently the cheap ones are out nex quarter!
No Xmas for me!!!

[andrewducker]

It's not largely Apple that release things that impress me.

I don't really fancy a 7" tablet - I'd much rather have a 10" in, because I largely want it as a comic reader.

[joexnz.livejournal.com]

I want for PDF knitting patterns, so needs to be small enough for lap with a project already on it.

That and 10 inch takes up to much room in a hand bag

[calum]

I got a Nook Color in the US, stuck Cyanogen on it, and now its a great little 7" tablet. Its not QUITE big enough for A4 PDF books without zooming it, but its great as a media tablet for everything else.
No camera, no GPS, and its not high powered, but for reading, web surfing and email its ideal (and pretty decent for movies)

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Is 10" good enough for comics? I sometimes read comics on my 13" MBP and even fullscreen and one page at a time (and turning it on its side to read which is faffy), I find I get eyestrain reading the text.

[andrewducker]

Well, a slightly larger screen, the same size as a comic, would probably be best. But last time I mentioned wanting a larger tablet people got all uppity in the comments section about the sheer foolishness of my demands.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I suspect I may have similar foolish demands, as my main use case for a tablet is having it as a repository of sheet music I can prop up on the piano music stand.

[fearmeforiampink]

I find the term 'gadget' a bit of a weird one; when I hear it I think of stuff like this and this, not an iPad or a phone.

[andrewducker]

Those are also gadgets. If it has power running through it, then it's a gadget :->

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I think, to me, gadget has connotations of some ingeniousness in function, not just in design. So "a phone that can also send email and browse the web" feels to me like a gadget, but "a general purpose computer that you can carry in your pocket" feels like _not_ a gadget, although I agree it's very subjective.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

there's more to life than gadgets! (blackest heresy round here, I know... :-) )

[andrewducker]

Yes, but I _have_ the other things. I have friends, family, a girlfriend, a flat, a hobby or three. I want gadgets _as well_.

[red-phil.livejournal.com]

A Wi-fi enabled, 10Gb internet hub Tiara for Mr Ducker.

[andrewducker]

WANT!

[andrewducker]

Oooh, how are the controls?

[andrewducker]

Sounds impressive.

I'll look into it when I upgrade my phone!

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

Also available for Android!

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting on the Dick Tracy video chat wrist watch.

[andrewducker]

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobile-phones/lg-gd910-review-50000212/

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

yeah... still waiting.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

http://airswimmers.com/

Thus I refute thee.

-- Steve's trying to justify buying one for himself.

[andrewducker]

Oh My God. I want one to scare my nephew with!

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

slickdeals.net

and no I haven't been hacked :P

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

although, really, innovation-wise, 2011 is rather crappy and small... probably just new killer IPhone apps

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Nothing short of nanobots will impress me now. Ones that can repair teeth, ideally.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I demand teeth restoration!

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

time scale
A twelvemonth has gone by without any major disruption. I think it's a little scary that that counts as an especially quiet time.
One of my current benchmarks is the poor netbooks. They were supposed to eat out the bottom of the laptop market -- but the tablets came along so fast that they never completely took off.
And MySpace recently sold for 1/20 of its price six years ago.

Make a not to yourself to re-read this in twelve and in twenty-four months.

[andrewducker]

I expect disruption on a weekly basis! The Singularity is coming, and I want to be prepared for when my disruptions are disrupted!

[calum]

Next cool thing? Colour e-ink screens.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, the Mirasol stuff looks pretty awesome, although the trailer for the Kyobo kept panning away from the screen whenever there was more than a tiny amount of movement, making me worry that maybe it's clunkier than I'd like. Definitely the future though.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

The Great Stagnation.

[andrewducker]

I find it remarkably unlikely that we've hit a technological plateau. There's still lots of awesome science and other research going on. Just no disruptive gadgets this year.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

We may have hit a plateau of ideas for making good use of new science.

[andrewducker]

Gesture-based phones, flexible phones, and colour e-ink are all on their way. Any of those would count as pretty awesome and different in my book.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

All of them are cool, but not in the same world-changing class as cars, air-conditioning, or the internet.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how often it's reasonable to expect something really big to come along.

[andrewducker]

Aaah, on that level we haven't had much of that since 1970. Recent stuff on a smaller level includes massively cheaper space-flight, huge advances in antivirals, genetic mapping hitting the level where everyone can use it, and according to something I just read 3D printing is now a billion dollar industry. Which has the potential to do for physical objects what the internet did for music and video.