This year’s CES lacked huge new product announcements, yet there were still several technologies demonstrated that look set to change the mobile landscape over the next few years.

Intel’s Smartphone Reference Design

Intel has been attempting to find a place in smartphones, tablets and other small devices for years. The original Atom was in fact aimed at what the company called MIDS – mobile Internet devices. But it turned out that the original Atom drew more power than other solutions, so it ended up in netbooks. Since then, Intel has struggled in this space, but this CES they introduced something new that could change their fortunes. It’s a reference phone design based off an Intel Atom processor that is fully functional and runs Android x86.

This may not seem like an important event, but it is. Previously, Intel was placing the burden of product design largely on its partners. By developing a reference design, Intel is showing hardware manufacturers how to use its latest Atom processors to develop a competitive phone that can run today’s most popular smartphone OS.

And if that wasn’t enough to prove that Intel is finally able to be serious about entering the smartphone market, the company announced two important long-term partnerships. One is with Lenovo, which has already developed an x86 smartphone and is looking to launch it in China this February. The other is with Motorola, which should be launching x86 phones in the fall of 2012.

If Intel and its partners hit their targets we’ll be seeing ARM and x86 designs side-by-side during CES 2013.

Windows 8

This CES there were no major announcements surrounding Windows 8, but there were a number of important steps made towards launch. Intel showed ultrabooks with Windows 8, Nvidia showed a development platform with Tegra 3 running Windows 8, and Microsoft showed numerous demos of Windows 8 features in action.

It’s clear that the hardware manufacturers are excited about Windows 8. And why shouldn’t they be? The new operating system will begin an inevitable integration between mobile devices and more traditional PCs. Apple has already started down this road, but if Windows 8 is released when expected, Microsoft will easily take the lead.

Intel has already hinted at the innovation that Windows 8 could allow. Their ultrabook press conference included a number of convertible tablet designs. The best, in my opinion, is a laptop with a sliding display hinge that can easily be converted between a normal laptop and a tablet PC. We’ve seen such devices before, but they’ve never had the OS to go with the hardware. That will change by the end of 2012.

Qi Wireless Power

Wireless communications revolutionized technology. Yet when it comes time to power our devices, we have to turn back to old-fashioned cords.

The Wireless Power Consortium is trying to banish the cord forever by putting forward a wireless power standard called Qi Wireless Power. With Qi, it’s possible to charge a phone simply by placing it on a Qi compatible charging station. Such a station could be placed in your car, your nightstand, your desk – or all of the above.

That’s just the start. Currently the standard only calls for charging within an extremely short distance (5mm) but the hope is for that to be expanded. We’ll still probably see distances measure in millimeters, but it could at least be enough to charge a phone by throwing it in a cupholder or dash slot.

Obviously, wireless charging is convenient, but it’s equally important because of what it means for smartphone design. If smartphones didn’t need to have a port for charging, they could do away with ports entirely, relying on Bluetooth and WiFi entirely. This would allow for more design versatility. And if you can easily charge your phone without a cord, the battery won’t need to be as large. This also would increase design versatility.

Qi Wireless is still far from mainstream, but it’s an important step forward. Just like wireless communications, wireless power can’t become common without standards that everyone can agree on. I’m convinced that this technology – be it this standard, or another like it – will become an important part of mobile devices over the next few years.

Conclusion

CES 2012 didn’t include many finished products based off new hardware, but we did see a lot of new platforms that are starting to translate into products and will continue to advance over the coming year. I think CES 2013 will more than make up for any feelings of disappointment surrounding this year’s convention.

Image Credit: PC Perspective

You can also use these future emails to create tiny time capsules. For e.g. if you have losing weight as a goal, you can post a photo of your current girth and then open it as a future date to see whether you shed the weight or the goal. Of course, there’s no guarantee that the service will stick around in a year’s time, but suddenly being reminded of your goals sometimes helps to jolt that laziness off your bones.

Lettermelater

Lettermelater is a rich tool that allows you to create HTML emails, add attachments (photos), and even send it from within your default email account. The service allows you to set a future date, down to the last minute, when the letter will get delivered. You can also specify CC and BCC recipients; helpful if you are part of a group that’s mentoring each other towards a goal. But the feature I like is Lettermelater gives you the option to set up multiple recurring emails by selecting a range and interval, or selecting the dates individually.

FutureMe

With FutureMe, you don’t have to log-in before sending out an email into the future. You can choose to go anonymous and put your emails into public view. The collection of public FutureMe emails is an interesting read. The mail interface lacks a rich text editor, but you can include pictures (webcam snaps or from the desktop) with your emails. Maybe, you can just ask yourself if you are still alive after December 2012. Keeping yourself alive inspite of the foreboding predictions of the Mayans could be a nice New Year resolution.

Eternity Message

The About Me page says something about the original intention of the site – We had originally written the application to capture our thoughts, experiences, and life lessons so those could be shared with our children.

The service uses a secure protocol and the servers store the future messages – they are not sent out as emails. Recipients receive a notification to view the future message on the site itself. An early warning notification is also sent to the sender 3 days prior to the actual delivery. Eternity Message comes in two versions – a paid one which allows you to send messages 60 years into the future and a free Lite version that allows you to send the email up to 1 year in the future and to a single person. The message has to stay within 1000 characters – that should be enough for a New Year resolution.

Email Future

Schedule a goals-to-achieve email in the future with this text only service and pat yourself in one year’s time when you can tick off a few from your 2012 New Year resolution’s list. You can also send it to four other addresses if you want to gloat about your achievements one year down the line. Of course, there’s a high chance that you could also have four eggs on your face. Email Future allows you to set a private or public (anonymous) permission.

Mail Freezr

Put your future emails in ice-cold storage and bring them back to live on January 1^st, next year. You can freely freeze your emails for any period between 1 – 100 years, so you are probably safe if you put down your resolutions for the year and check them out next year.

2012 will be soon over. The future will come soon enough. List out your goals using these services and when you get the mail from the past in your inbox, you can either gloat or regret that you let another year pass by without ticking off a few from your goals list. Are you using a geeky way to set your New Year resolutions? Or are they already lying in the waste basket?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

What about if you could jump ten years forward from today’s date? What do you think you’d see? Predicting the technology in future mobile phones is a difficult business – but it’s also fun.

Super-Duper-High Resolution Displays

Now that the touchscreen has become the interface of choice for new phones, advances in display technology will become a priority for all manufacturers.

We already have the “qHD” display, a new term for a resolution of 960×540. Ten years from now however, we’ll probably be looking at mobile phones that offer resolutions well beyond that.

720p? Why not? You may need to stick your nose to your phone to see the difference in quality, but I’m sure the marketing department of every mobile phone manufacture wants to slap “720p display” on their device. After that, 1080p will become the goal. And after that? Who knows – but it will most likely be whatever the TV industry decides on as a successor to 1080p.

Wireless Charging

Charging is a pain in the butt, and one of the least futuristic activities we perform with our current phones. We can transfer files wirelessly, browse the web, and play games online – but when it comes to charging, well, it’s time to get out the power cord.

Eventually, with future mobile phones this will stop being true. There are already wireless phone chargers available in the form of mats that can charge phones placed on them, but they usually require bulky adapters that have to be placed on the phones, which somewhat defeats the point. The new Qi standard provides some hope, but it is still just a year and a half old.

The possibility doesn’t end with charging via a pad, however. Some versions of inductive charging can work over ranges measured in inches or feet, as is evident by new inductive charging solutions purposed for electric cars.

If there’s any obstacle to this technology, it’s safety. Some have raised concerns about the impact this could have on people with pacemakers, for example. On the other hand, similar doubts have been raised about many wireless standards, but progress in wireless has still been swift.

Say Goodbye To Ports

If power goes wireless, then we’ll achieve a goal that would make Steve Jobs proud – the phone with no ports.

When it comes to phones, ports really are a flaw, not a feature. The fact that I have to hook my phone up to my computer via USB to transfer some files is an issue. Apple has been making headway in this area, as have Android app developers. Plus there are cloud services like Dropbox that offer apps.

Some geeks may be wondering – what about HDMI? Nvidia has certainly been making a big deal about it whenever possible. Yet there is no reason why HD video can’t also be streamed wireless (given the capabilities of future hardware), and HDMI on phones is actually a pain in the butt, not an advantage. Why would you want your phone tied down to your TV when watching video? What if your mom calls? Now you have to pick your butt up off the couch.

Newer technologies like near field communications (NFC) will only hasten the death of ports. I hope they’ll perish sooner rather than later, as their demise will allow for smoother, thinner, more attractive phones and will encourage better solutions for syncing files between phones and PCs.

Operating System Integration

Currently, the smartphone market is dominated by two monsters, iOS and Android. Both of these operating systems were originally developed for mobile devices only, which was necessary then and is still necessary today. Smartphones are very different from traditional computers, and have hardware that remains far less powerful than your typical PC.

Yet both of the world’s major commercial operating system developers, Apple and Microsoft, have started to make it clear that they wish to bridge the gap between phones and computers. The latest version of OS X includes many concepts from iOS, like the App Store and the new Launchpad Interface. Microsoft is taking an even more extreme approach with Windows 8, an operating system that will run on both ARM and x86 processors and include an interface specifically tailored for input via touchscreen.

We’re still at least several years away from either company offering a single OS that can run on everything from a mid-range smartphone to a high-end desktop (Windows 8’s Metro UI is targeted at tablets, remember), but the direction is clear. These behemoths want you to be able to use their OS on all your devices. And I think consumers will like it, because it will make wireless home networking between mobile devices and computers much easier.

Conclusion

So, what will a cutting edge future mobile phone look like in 2020?

It will have a large display. Taking away buttons and ports may have allowed for a completely edge-to-edge display design, placing a 720p display in a 4.5” format. Thickness will probably not be much different from today’s Droid X, minus the funny bulge, but there will be nothing to blemish the design. With your phone you’ll receive a small “charging station” that will automatically charge your phone whenever you place it within a few feet of your phone. And you phone will run Android, iOS or Windows – just like your tablet and computer.

Or maybe that’s not right. What do you think? Will phones instead embrace 3D technology? Will they go all-out with built-in cameras? Will they cram in as much power as a modern day Intel Core i7-3960X? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

In layman’s terms, artificial intelligence is about creating intelligent machines through the use of intelligent computer programs. Most, if not all of artificial intelligence (AI) tries to mimic human behavior.

The scale of ambition is different, but artificial intelligence programming is a full-fledged field in the cutting edge of science today. If you have some interest in the world of tomorrow, check out these websites to grasp what artificial intelligence is all about.

AiGameDev

The blog and forum is devoted to artificial intelligence and game development. The premium section is for paid members only and imparts training and consultancy services to its members. Topics include game design, to character animation including programming tutorials. Free users may be left wanting for more, but the articles and open tutorials offer enough news and updates on how AI is influencing the development of games.

Kurzweil

The theme of this site is how science is impacting our lives and accelerating change. It showcases key breakthroughs in science and technology – both biological and machine based. The site covers biotechnology, nanotechnology & materials science, molecular electronics, computation, artificial intelligence, robotics, neuroscience, physics, Internet, energy, electronics, pattern recognition, virtual reality, human brain reverse engineering, and brain and body augmentation. The multimedia section is well worth a visit.

TED Talks

You have to browse around or do a search to catch videos talks on the topic of artificial intelligence programming, but it could be worth it as the insights given here are fresh from the who’s who of the scientific world.

CSAIL

The acronym isn’t that familiar, but expand it to MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and recognition dawns. The site is all about – unlocking the secrets of human intelligence, extending the functional capabilities of machines, and exploring human/machine interactions. CSAIL is the largest inter-departmental lab at MIT working on developing AI systems. The research page is the place to explore as it lists the various groups and the specialty research they conduct in advancing artificial intelligence and technology. Also check out their YouTube channel.

New Scientist

New Scientist is one of the leading science websites and it’s a given thing that you will find the latest updates on artificial intelligence here. AI has advanced to a level today that makes it difficult to distinguish from the tech in our daily lives, so you will be hard put to sift through all the topics. Follow the topic guides for in-depth coverage on AI across the scientific fields.

Singularity Hub

Singularity Hub is a blog and news science news showcasing the latest in robots, genetics, longevity, artificial intelligence, aging, stem cells, and more. There’s a dedicated section on AI, though the other categories too touch upon artificial intelligence concepts. Worthy mentions also for the Debate Central and Video Central sections on the site.

The Singularity Institute Blog

You might have to do some amount of reading here as the blog is text heavy and very scientific in its presentation. But if you are interested in AI, then this blog belong to The Singularity Institute is worth a read. As the site says with its mission statement – In the coming decades, humanity will likely create a powerful AI. SIAI exists to confront this urgent challenge, both the opportunity and the risk. SIAI is fostering research, education, and outreach to increase the likelihood that the promise of AI is realized for the benefit of everyone.

There are a lot of inventions we owe to sci-fi. From satellites to the iPad, the list is ever growing. AI was also a figment of imagination once upon a time. Today, it’s a reality. From robotics to predicting the behavior of stock markets, AI will soon touch our lives in ways we cannot fathom yet. What’s your take on artificial intelligence programming? Are you an interested observer of this genre of science?

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Video game consoles have reached a point where the changes between systems can only do so much, at least in terms of hardware. Most of the big changes can come on the software side. Obviously, there are improvements that can be made to the hardware, but the graphics have reached a point where any change is going to be incremental, and less ground breaking. Still, there is plenty to improve, and that is exactly what I am looking at today.

All Games Can Be Purchased Digitally

Before you shoot me for this comment, I do not mean no discs; I just mean I would like to have the option to buy every video game digitally from the day it launches. I still expect them to have discs; I just want the option to buy a game without ever leaving the comfort of my home.

Realistically, they have to keep discs around for the sake of retailers. It will be hard to convince a place like GameStop to carry and promote a console when they cannot have a continued revenue stream from software. For spur of the moment purchases, it would be great to just click a couple of buttons and have my new game.

Improved Graphics & Framerate

With current generation hardware, it is very hard for developers to make a top end graphical game that can still run at 60 frames per second. It is not impossible, but it certainly is taxing on the hardware, and requires a huge team to optimize the game to run in such a way. The teams behind Call of Duty have consistently put out games at 60 fps that still look beautiful, but they are not nearly as visually attractive as a game like Battlefield 3. However, because BF3 looks so good, and has destructible environments, they have to run at 30 fps. I would like the see this rectified with new hardware.

I really don’t care if a game looks lifelike, after all, it is a game. If I want to see the real world then I will go outside. I just do not want developers to feel like they have to choose between a silky smooth framerate and beautiful graphics. The hardware for this exists, because PC games like Crysis 2 have no problem pushing 60 frames, while having the smoothest textures, and best looking graphics of any game on the market.

No Motion Controls

This is just dreaming on my part, but in all honestly I hate motion controls. I had a Wii, and I hated it. I have played Kinect at E3 and it seems like a gimmick, and the PS3 Move, realistically, that’s just a better version of the Wii. I’m hoping it is a fad that dies by the end of this generation and, like the Virtual Boy, is never heard from again.

Sadly, I do not think this is going to happen. I think there will be motion controls in both major consoles, and if this is the case, I just hope they are well implemented and they are optional in major games. If they want to stick them in there for people to play EA Sports Active and UFC Trainer, then fine, but please do not shove them down my throat when I am playing Call of Duty and Deus Ex.

Cross Platform Play

Here I go dreaming again, but I would love to be able to play a multiplayer game with people regardless of the platform. Shadowrun made it happen with Xbox to PC, and while that game was trash, it still let gave me a glimmer of hope.

I would prefer to see it from Xbox to PlayStation though. The mouse and keyboard advantage compared to controller in a shooter is large, but there is no advantage between a PlayStation controller and an Xbox controller, so it would be fair.  It is technically possible; it is just a matter of making it happen.

Better Build Quality

For this console generation Microsoft faced an absolute PR nightmare due to the dreaded red ring of death. Consoles were breaking at an alarming rate, and they have since rectified the situation, for the most part. I am hoping that the next generation of consoles is built with some quality and attention to detail that will prevent this catastrophe from happening again.

I am about to go buy my third Xbox 360 in the next week or so, and I can safely assume that not many of you out there are still on your first Xbox. It’s a little ridiculous, and it is something that needs to be addressed for the next run of video game consoles.

Conclusion

As I said before, there is only so much that can change in terms of hardware. However, there is so much more that can be improved besides prettier graphics. These changes I mentioned could make for an overall better gaming experience for all of us.

What do you want from the next generation consoles? Let us know in the comments!

With any luck, it’ll be one or more of these four incredible technologies that will very likely change the world.

Autonomous Cars

Equipped with an array of radar, laser and optical scanners, autonomous – or self-driven – cars are already at an advanced stage of research where they are fully functional. Trials so far have been incredibly successful – on real, busy roads with other motorists.

Surely, computer controlled cars are accident prone? Not at all it would seem. Google’s efforts at a self-driving car, which having racked up hundreds of thousands of miles on Californian roads, has caused only one accident to date. The accident occurred while being driven manually by a human!

Why is safer? With all those sensors, the computer is able to see everything simultaneously and assess far more information than the typical human can. It makes decisions faster than a human, doesn’t check it’s mobile phone, and doesn’t bring emotions to the table. It turns out autonomous cars are far more considerate drivers than humans.

Benefits to Humanity:

Given that human error and lapses of concentration are the main causes of traffic accidents, the benefits of autonomous vehicles absolutely cannot be underestimated. Not only will they save thousands of lives, but the time spent driving can be regained to pursue more fulfilling goals. That hour long drive every day to work just turned into 300 hours a year you could be learning a foreign language (Chinese, I suggest, given the way the world is going…) Check out the TED video to learn more:

The Mind Reader

This popped up in my Google+ stream a few weeks back, and as someone who used to keep a meticulous dream diary of 4 or more dreams a night for a few years running, I find it to be simply unbelievable.

Here it is. Researchers from Gallant Lab placed someone in a MRI machine for a few hours, and played back a video sequence which you can see on the left. They recorded the brain activity, and then reconstructed what the user was seeing (on the right) using only the brain scans, without reference to the original video. They literally read the persons mind.

How does it work? The images on the reconstructed scene are computationally merged using thousands of hours of YouTube footage. First, you show a small sample sequence to the subject, and record the brain activity. Once you’ve done that for thousands of clips, you have a library of visual responses. Compare the recorded activity with the library, chose a few closely matching clips and merge them, and this is what you get. The interesting thing is that the visual responses are the same for everyone, so as the vast library of samples increases, the accuracy of playback also increases. Presumably, the researchers will have to watch a few thousand hours of pornography at some point if they want a truly complete library that can show most people’s every waking thought!

Benefit to Humanity:

Tricky. Do we really want to go there? Personally, I’d love to be able to record my own dreams, but I doubt I’d want those getting into the wrong hands. The very real concept of government agencies reading your thoughts is quite, quite terrifying.

Robotic Learning Babies

Couldn’t do this article without mentioning a robot, could I? iCub is the latest poster child of the robot world, and represents a new generation of combined Artifical Intelligence robotics that are able to learn from their surroundings. It’s teetering on the edge of uncanny valley with it’s child size appearance, and it learns just as a small child might – repeating facial gestures, remembering objects, and now even crawling and shooting a bow. What?! Did I just say it’s shoots a bow and arrow? Indeed – surely it’s only a matter of time before the robot revolution becomes painfully realistic.

Benefits to Humanity:

Better childcare classes for potential young couples perhaps? Doubtful. I suspect this is more a demonstration of learning algorithms than an attempt to actually create a usable (is that the right word?) robot child, but scale this up to adult size and suddenly you have a generic robot able to learn any task a human can do, rather than previous generation robots that were built for a specific task… then, we can start worrying about the eventual replacement of millions of human workers. Let’s not think about what happens when the firmware update introduces the radical iConsciousness.

Augmented Limbs

Imagine strapping on a robotic exoskeleton and suddenly gaining super strength! Already done. Seriously, while these might not have filtered down to consumer level yet, strap-on exoskeletons are already in wide scale use in the military, so this isn’t so much of a future technology as right here, right now. Take a look:

While that’s only a tethered prototype, these HULC machines are in use today:

Benefit to Humanity:

On a military level, one human able to do the job of two or more soldiers is pretty incredible. For consumers, I could eventually see these as just another power tool to keep in the garage, but in the more immediate future they’ll have a significant impact on those with a disability of the legs or arms. How long will it be before these things get even bigger though?

I must admit, I’m a technology freak. Nothing excites me more than the future and all the exciting new technologies it holds for us. But I think it’s also important to look at all this with a bit of perspective and ask ourselves this critical question – can we play Quake on it?

What exciting new technologies (real ones, not “I wish we had these”) are you waiting for? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: ShutterStock 1

I’d like to think that after being immersed daily in the technology industry for years now, I can tell when a trend has begun and generally how things are likely to pan out – so these are my personal predictions for Windows, tablets PCs, mobiles, gaming – over the course of the next few years.

I’m not a psychic though, so know that these predictions are entirely my own opinion based upon my observations.

Windows 8 Tablets and the Metro UI Will Flop

After a burst of initial interest from early-adopter consumers and a plethora of windows 8 based tablets, the Metro interface will be forgotten and Windows 8 tablets will be a flop.

Consumers will be far more interested in iPads and the Kindle Fire. Without consumer confidence, the developers just won’t make the apps and the entire Metro UI will fizzle out.

As desktop OS, the upgrade to Windows 8 will be inevitable – but for the speed increases rather than specifically for the Metro interface. Just as OSX’s frontrow was eventually abandoned, and the original Vista desktop widgets are all but forgotten, so will be the way of the Metro interface. Without a solid user base on the tablet side to familiarize users, they won’t even consider it for the desktop.

Android Tablets Market Share falls further, but Amazon Kindle Fire thrives

I already wrote last week about why the iPad continues to dominate the tablet market, and at some point the majority of Android tablet manufacturers will just get out of the game altogether, leaving a few key players and a dedicated user base.

iOS5 with it’s free rich-media messaging (iMessage app) is going to be a big factor here – it may not be particularly unique and it certainly isn’t innovative (Blackberry has had free private messaging for ages) – but it does tie together the phone and tablet and integrates it into core functionality.

Amongst all this, the Kindle Fire will thrive, with the Android app store and Amazon’s media offerings backing it up. With custom branding though, it does nothing to aid the Android ecosystem as a whole – most users won’t even know it’s actually running Android. This steals a large portion of the market as a whole away from ‘officially’ branded Android tablets.

Long term equal share for iOS and Android in smartphones

In the short-term, I believe the release of the iPhone 4S and subsequent price drops of the 3GS and iPhone 4 will give Apple a significant boost of the overall phone market – especially with some providers offering a free 3GS to new contracts; but in the longer term Android handsets will regain their momentum, leaving a overall equal share for both iOS and Android in the smart phone market as a whole.

What about Siri? I’m in two minds about that, and until I’ve had a chance to play with it myself I think I’ll reserve judgement. Android already has a native speech input SDK and voice search, but it remains to be seen if this whole voice control thing is simply a fad, or truly the next revolution in mobile technology.

The losers? Blackberry, of course; and Windows-based handsets will continue to be the butt of tech jokes. The share of non-smartphones will continue to decrease – but that’s not so much an opinionated prediction as just a natural progression of technology. To be specific – I may finally see my dad with an iPhone instead of an old Nokia brick (if only because I’ll break it on purpose).

Nintendo Announces Disappointing Wii U Sales, Followed By A Move To Software Only

A while back I took a pretty critical view of the Wii U, and I stand by it. Hardcore Wii gamers will upgrade for the HD graphics but be relatively nonplussed by the controller, while home users will have trouble justifying the new screen-on-a-controller feature and couldn’t care less about HD graphics. The Wii sold because it was incredibly innovative at the time, and opened casual console gaming to whole family. I simply don’t think HD graphics or a tacky new controller is going to do it for the current user base though, especially not if Microsoft can continue to pull 5-star family games out of it’s magical Kinect hat.

The next dashboard update for Xbox360 is going to make it an even more compelling home-entertainment system with services from various online streaming services and live TV (even in the UK with LoveFilm and the BBC), so I firmly believe that with further price cuts the Xbox becomes a far more attractive choice for families looking to replace their current generation Wii. As soon as the Wii U is released, Microsoft will attempt to drown the excitement by announcing the Xbox720.

Where is Sony in all this? Who knows! The PlayStation 3 still has a long life ahead of it yet, so I doubt they’ll be any new announcement or innovations from them. Business as usual – assuming their customers haven’t left in disgust from having their personal details leaked on numerous occasions.

Dedicated portable console gaming hardware will disappear. After failing to excite the world with gimmicky 3D on the DS, it’s clear that consumers would much rather play affordable games on their mobile phones and tablets; the idea of purchasing a $50 cartridge game just doesn’t work anymore.

So after an initial excitement for the Wii U, I predict the sales simply won’t be there, and by late 2013 – Nintendo will capitulate to the whim of its shareholders by committing to produce only software.

Thanks for reading this far. You’re absolutely welcome to disagree, so I’d encourage you to post your own counter-predictions in the comments, along with why you think that way. Let’s leave the name calling and insults out of the comments though, at least until next year when I’ll be happy to write a follow-up so we can all look back and laugh at my madness!

Image Credit: ShutterStock

Is 3d Printing Real?

Admittedly, the nano-tech based Replicator from Star Trek, able to create literally anything – is a long way off and remains firmly in fiction. However, 3D printing of objects is in fact already here, and has been for many years now.

History

Traditional manufacturing processes have revolved around either injection moulding or destructive techniques. ‘Destructive’ means you start with a large block and gradually carve away pieces of it – the aluminium Macbook shell being perhaps the most famous of recent times, but the concept was used with wood since the dawn of man.

Injection moulding is generally the preferred method for plastics though – once a perfect mould of the final object has been made, some molten plastic in injected into it and eventually forms solid. The process has the high initial cost of making a mould and specialised equipment that makes it highly suitable to mass-manufacturing and very unsuitable for home use.

A 3D printer on the other hand could mean that the same complicated objects could be made relatively easily and cheaply, perfect for at home or one-off prototyping.

Seriously, A 3D Printer?!

The idea is that as an alternative to costly mass-manufacturing processes, one-off models of a final product could simply be “printed”. A 3D printer works much the same as a regular printer, but instead of squirting out ink onto a page, it would squirt out a layer of material, then another layer, then another – until a complete 3D model had been produced. The theory is sound, but how about the reality?

In fact, 3D printers have been around for some time now, but still somewhat costly. Around $40,000 will net you a full colour commercial 3D printer from Z-Corporation, which uses coloured starch powders. Obviously, this is still somewhat out of reach to regular home users – but the principle is proven – 3D printing is indeed a reality.

Social Implications

You could write a book on the social implications of 3D printing (Cory Doctorow’s Makers novel is one suggestion I’m in the process of reading – and you can download it for free!), but I’ll try and summarise it in a few paragraphs.

Assuming it is possible to bring the costs of 3D printing down, it could have a profound impact on many aspects of society. Some have described it as having your “own little Chinese factory in your home“. If you needed a little plastic widget, you wouldn’t have to go out and buy one – you could just print one.

There’s also massive environmental advantages to not having to transport truckloads of silly plastic widgets around the globe, so the overall environmental overhead of manufacturing could be decreased as production is localised to the community. If the plastic used can also be made recyclable, then truly we would have a revolution.

Although it would undoubtedly mean a loss of manufacturing jobs, I can also envision new businesses being formed that sell the “plans” to make an object, rather than selling the object themselves. These would be digital downloads, and presumably some bright-spark would invent a kind of DRM, in which the objects could only be “printed” once or 5 times. Then of course, we would have a whole new section to torrent sites as well – pirate object models to download!

How about rapid distribution of the latest object? Instead of waiting months to have something designed and mass-produced, then marketed and shipped to the world, product designers might just release their plans into the wild, and within minutes they could be produced the world over.

Self-Replication

One final point to leave you thinking is that the very nature of a 3D printer means that it should in theory be able to self-replicate the majority of its own parts – so if it can print plastic objects, then any plastic objects used in its construction should be producible using itself. Frankly, it’s mind blowing, and once the initial seed machines are made, the growth rate would increase exponentially, and prices plummet even further.

That’s it for now, but next time I’ll be taking a closer look at both the RepRap and MakerBot projects, both of which are sub-$1000 3D-printer projects that you can build yourself. Yes, I’ve been speaking in very theoretical terms in this article today, but the fact is that these projects are already out there, and thousands of active members around the globe are contributing to their development as you read this.

I’ll also be taking a look at a community driven website that is making open-sourced 3D models available to download and print on your own 3D printer! Stay tuned. In the meantime, feel free to post in the comments about profound changes you think this could have on societies – or do you think 3D printing is a fad, destined for the same landfill as 3D TVs?

Enter Taweet.  Learn how to schedule future tweets!

There are a few tools I’ve come across that allow you to schedule posts for the future. Taweet is here to hopefully change the way we think about Twitter and tweeting from “thinking about the past” to “what’s going on in the future.” Twitter asks “What are you doing?” Taweet asks “What are you doing IN THE FUTURE?”

Taweet, as you can probably tell, majors on the art of the future tweet.  It allows for, amongst other things, talking about what’s going to happen, such as events or plans.

Taweet actually offers several perks that can enhance your Twittering: tweet scheduling, threaded discussions, AND multiple account management. Let’s see what these are all about!

Taweet provides you with a way how to schedule tweets for the future. There are several reasons someone would want to do this. If you want to create a buzz or get the word out about something in the future, a properly timed tweet could play a decent role. Also you can use Taweet as a kind of social calendar, letting your followers know what you’ve got going on.

Taweet has an interesting way of posting future tweets. The user interface makes it quite simple to choose the date and time.

When the tweet is posted,it gives the time and a link to the post on Taweet.com, allowing the viewer to comment.

This is where threaded comments come in. I for one like the idea of having the comments threaded directly beneath my tweet so I can get a handle on the conversation. Taweet does this for you and the result is something similar to what Facebook does with its updates and comments.

Taweet also gives you the option to add multiple Twitter accounts. This makes it easier to switch between them. Hey, if you like tweeting in the future with one account, why not all of them?

Signing up is really easy.  If you’re on the front page, you’ll notice the “Sign in with Twitter” button. Hit it.

Next you’ll have to be willing to allow Taweet to connect to your Twitter account.  If you want to use Taweet, you’ve got to hit “allow.”

You’re then asked the question, “Would you like to link this account with one previously used on Taweet?“  If you’re new to Taweet, the obvious answer is “I’m new to Taweet.”

After you enter your email address, a confirmation email is sent to you.  Before progressing any further, you have to check your email and click on the confirmation link.

Finally you’re given the controls!

So there you have it; yet another Twitter tool emerges filling yet another void!  There is obviously more to Taweet, such as searching other users’ future posts to find out what’s going on in the future.  To me, this tool seems simple enough to use but it also has the possibility to change the way we think about and use Twitter.

Now you too can learn to tweet for the future!

What prevents these technologies from being the here and now? Most of it comes down to money. Money to market the product, money for proper consumer safety testing, money for the mass production. Sure, there are other factors as well. In some cases, the inventor just isn’t sure if the world is ready for it. Take, for example, the microwave oven.

The microwave oven was released as a commercial product in 1954. The convenience of nuking your food could be yours for somewhere between $2000 and $3000 dollars. Obviously, the public wasn’t ready to pay that much fast food in the home. The technology was shelved for awhile longer.

Let’s move on and take a look at some of the best sites to see future predictions about the world.

5. The Hedonistic Imperative

Don’t let the title put you off. I’m not exactly Puritanical, however, my own beliefs don’t mesh with what most people would consider hedonism. Fortunately, The Hedonistic Imperative is taking the name literally. They are looking to create a life of pleasure through the absence of pain.

More philosophical in nature, THI still presents strong pharmaceutical evidence that life where varying states of bliss are what motivates a human, rather than avoiding varying levels of pain, is possible! At first glance that sounds like a pipe dream, however, as you delve further into the HedWeb, as they call it, the layperson can begin to see that it could be a reality. Honestly, I don’t think I can do the site justice in a few words. I don’t support everything they say, however, it is worth reading.

4. World Future Society

As the name would suggest, the World Future Society (WFS) is a sort of professional and amateur futurist organization. Many of the world’s leading futurists submit articles and share their future predictions about the world, or even how they think it should be.

Here you’ll find articles on future forecasts for everything from nanotechnology to the H1N1 virus. These are not merely the meanderings of of people with too much time on their hands. Some of their contributors are recognized leaders in their fields such as Wall Street Journal columnist Alexandra Levit, Dr. Karl Albrecht (not the German billionaire) and Tsvi Bisk.

3. ZiiTrend

Possibly the most innovative of the futurist sites, ZiiTrend combines the forward -looking principles of futurism with the power of social networking and trending.

Questions about the future are posed by users in a myriad of different categories ranging from technology to stocks to sports events. Then, the community replies to the question with their thoughts and research and vote as to how likely an event is to happen. An overall prediction is applied, something like Most Likely or Unlikely and then shows the percentage of votes for the likelihood of the outcome. I like this site so much, I’m probably going to join.

2. The Club of Rome

This is a group I’d actually heard of before researching the article. In tin-hatter circles, The Club of Rome is considered to be the think tank behind what technology the New World Order or Illuminati is going to use to take over the world. Of course, I don’t believe that stuff. I just find it entertaining.

What The Club of Rome really is, is a think-tank of ridiculously intelligent people. They try to come up with ways to make the world a better place through their Systems Integration Programmes. These fields are broken into the areas of Social Transformation, Peace and Security, Environment and Resources, Globalisation and International Development. The Club does definitely have political sway! Your group would too if it had the brainwaves of some of the most intelligent people in the world. A fair number of their policies are adapted by governments and organizations around the world.

1. Long Bets

This is the site that makes futurists, forecasters and predicters put their money where their mouth is. Real people make future predictions about the world on the site and offer up a real cash bet that it will either come true or not, in a specific time frame. The money from the bet goes to a charity of the bettors choosing, thus making it more of a fun, altruistic game.

This isn’t any back-parlor betting though, folks. Luminaries such as Warren Buffett and Ray Kurzweil are throwing down some serious greenbacks here! Here’s a good example: “By 2029 no computer – or “machine intelligence” – will have passed the Turing Test.” The bettors are Ray Kurzweil (against) and Mitchell Kapor (for). The stakes? $20,000.

Not rich enough for you? Try out this bet: “Over a ten-year period commencing on January 1, 2008, and ending on December 31, 2017, the S & P 500 will outperform a portfolio of funds of hedge funds, when performance is measured on a basis net of fees, costs and expenses.” Warren Buffet (for) and Protege Partners, Jeffrey Tarrant and Scott Bessent (against) are throwing down One Million Dollars!

You can go and read why each person thinks they are making the right bet and join in on the discussion about it. Since these are real players you should also gain some great insight into what might happen in the future. Making the future IS their business.

Make the future now. Tell us what you think tomorrow holds. Let us know where you turn to get a glimpse of tomorrow, in the comments below.