Off-topic Rant

Many things go flying through my news feeds everyday, and I try to read as much conservation material as I can, but this has been the week of CES [Consumer Electronics Show], so I've been looking at a lot of tech stuff. I could not possibly care less about the new tvs, which were probably the most hyped devices. I can't afford a really good SLR camera, nor any real camera for that matter, so I tend to not get overly excited about new toys in that department. What I'm most interested in is the category of sub-notebook computers, commonly called netbooks.

The category has only really been around for a little over a year, at least as a commercial product with any buzz, but the idea has been around for a long time. Going back to the days of programmable calculators, people have wanted to carry their computational devices with them. The 80s and 90s saw a host of tiny computers with limited functionality, and even some ultra-portable laptops, which were underpowered and over-priced. The netbook's defining characteristics are 1)enough power to allow the user to get online and perform daily computer tasks with minimal wait-time and 2) cheap enough that most people can afford one. $200 is the optimal price point for an entry level machine, in my and many other's opinion, and they haven't quite gotten there yet, but they will.

The first real player in the game, ASUS, released the Eee PC over a year ago and has continued to release new versions pretty much continuously since.

Okay, enough with the freshman paper. Down to why I'm so excited. These things can get a person online and engaged in the technological now and future for A FEW HUNDRED DOLLARS! Think about what that means. These could become as ubiquitous as cellphones. You could be making Skye calls, sending an email and working on whatever it is you do wherever you happen to be without dragging along a laptop. They slip into a decent sized purse or small bag (for the guys), thus alleviating the need to carry your heavy laptop bag everywhere you go. My mother could check the status of the system at work, send me an email, comment on my blog and drink her coffee at the bakery for 3-8+ hours (depending on the model) without plugging the machine in. And that's really the test for whether something is useful. If your mother could use one, it's a good product.

I've heard that smartphones are going to dominate the cellphone market in the next few years, but I say, let your phone be a phone and use a machine with a real keyboard to send email. That said, I'm pretty upset at my phone today. If I use it to get online, like I am now through the USB port, or even surf using its own browser, or stream audio from MPR so I can get good public radio, all functions I pay a monthly fee to do, the phone doesn't put my calls through. Let me repeat that: "My smartphone doesn't act like a phone if I'm using it!" That's not all that "smart." Now, in its defense, it is running windows mobile, so that's probably the majority of the problem, but still, It's a PHONE! [I have used the word "it" and it's various versions too many times in this paragraph].

So, my prediction: Smartphones will be big for the next 3-5 years, then we'll see a drop off of features as netbooks pick up the slack in the non-phone communication department. Suddenly, everyone will have a small computer with a real keyboard and messages won't be so terse anymore as people stop getting cramped thumbs while communicating, and phones will be for phone calls once again.

Maybe not so much a prediction as a wish, but if you try to call me and I don't call you back for 6 hours and it was an emergency, you now know why.

Night all.