The Next BIG thing?

[Nick F]

Okay so I was wondering what you lot think the next big this is going to be in terms of technology to hit us. I think the smartphone market has taken off quite well now and can clearly see all-in-one devices starting to hit the market soon.

Is the future HDTV?

[Kezzer]

There's lots of new technology coming out. The one i'm most looking forward to is new hard drive technology as the technology has been going slow ever since the current generation of hard drive technology was invented. It seems to have stayed the same just improved. HDTV is going to be an excellent development but there are lots of other things for the future. Wireless broadband That's a good 8 years away though i think.

Nano-technology got patented to about 150 companies last year so we should see some improvements in technology due to that, i think TFT tech is changing in a few years as well

[silent ben]

Nanotechnology is going to be huge. The potential is incredible. Tiny robots could diagnose, treat and even reverse the effects of all illnesses. Materials could be created atom by atom creating very strange properties, imagine a material that was a super-insulator up to 37c and a super-conductor of heat below that, meaning that you would never overheat in the night if you used it as a bed cover

Guess what course i'm doing at uni

[Tarffie]

Some sort of art course?

[Lee H]

Guess what course i'm doing at uni

Midwifery ?
Gynaecologist ?

[silent ben]

Midwifery ?

How did you guess

[Allen]

I wonder how long it will be before we get games that look so real you can't tell the difference. Can't be long now...

I also wonder how much further after that it can go? Once they can make graphics cards that can display games that look as good as real life, how can you then improve them? Eye implants to see another dimension? How long will it be till we get computer implants to advance ourselves? They can already make artificial limbs we can control with our minds, and some university in the USA made a chip that can be implanted into the brain and used to control things like your TV... god knows how though!

The future's bright, the future's scary!

[Stoo]

Nanotechnology is going to be huge.

Quote of the year

Edit: in fact, it's my new sig

[Aaron]

The Future.

4GB HD, 802.11b/g WiFi, 2 megapixel camera, bluetooth headset support, plays MP3/WMV/AAC/OGG, etc. Did I mention that it's a 3G smartphone too?

Convergence is coming.

[silent ben]

Ah, someone spotted the joke

[MasterFlash]

The Future.
4GB HD, 802.11b/g WiFi, 2 megapixel camera, bluetooth headset support, plays MP3/WMV/AAC/OGG, etc. Did I mention that it's a 3G smartphone too?
Convergence is coming.

All I can say is wow!!!

[BEANFro Elite]

Its very difficult to say what is gonna be the next big thing, HDTV, Blu-ray, DVD-Hi (I think) are all likely to fail because these in many cases will all require new and presumably expensive equipment and its also way too soon for a major leap forwards in such technologies.

The original DVD was only successful because it had been about 21 years since VHS cassettes came out and was exquisitely well marketed, so people were more likely to invest in the DVD phenomena and the paraphanlia attatched to it, like widescreen tv sets.

The keyword here is "INVEST".

However, I've been looking at how many people have been getting Media Center PCs and as soon as all the major case and cooling solution companies pull their fingers out it is likely that people will be having many household appliances and indeed their home itself hooked to their wireless network and presumably the net.

This might seem silly, but Bill Gates <SHUDDERS> has been barking on about how Media Center PCs will soon become the norm in everyones homes and the fully networked house etc. for many years now.

You could say that the whole Media Center PC idea is either just Microsoft's way of probing the consumers to see how well a "combined unit" will sell or how much it is liked or it could be that Microsoft and it's partners are trying to get us decensortised to the idea of have evrything intergrated, networked and combined, as I've mentioned before, Bill Gates has had this idea for many years now, and he has also mentioned that this was his vision of the future.

But if the proper approach is taken i.e. secure wireless networking by default, firewalls as standard etc. And a "Jigsaw" style option where you don't need to have all the advertised appliances that the manufacturers want you to have in order to network everything together effectively.

This is to say, if you only want to network your DVD Recorder set-top box so you can play and record televsion programmes anywhere in the house then you don't need to purchase the washing machine, TV, oven and microwave etc.

If they take an approach similar to the above, then this can be the new big thing...

...As Aaron said. "Convergence is coming."

[Nick F]

I think HDTV will be massive tbh. The market is there for sure and will be a link link for the up-coming range of media pc's (xbox 360).