The Future of Cell Phones

In response to the comments on my previous post, I am going to be posting three posts: one on cell phones, one on computers, and one about the internet. They will all feature what is predicted to change with these every day innovations and how they will improve over time. I hope they provide some insight as well as provoke thoughts. Most of all, I hope you enjoy!


Our cell phones can already do amazing things, including calling almost anyone on the planet from almost any location, sending emails, web surfing, sending pictures/videos/recordings, and much more. I think it's quite safe to say that we all enjoy these every day pocket miracles very much, in which we have many technological developers to silently give our thanks to, and would find ourselves quite lost without them. Despite how amazing they already are, they will only be getting better in the near future. Examples are handheld game consoles, portable televisions, and even credit cards! Others are more advanced designs as to increase battery life as well as quicker internet connectivity via Wi-Fi internet. Also, cell phones will be replacing cameras for their cameras will be equal to or better at 8 megapixels and beyond. Now, this won't be in some great new age many years to come where hovercrafts fill the sky and we have established interstellar colonies. No, this will be in the next few years. So, you can expect many great new things regarding cell phones, things that will blow you away more than the iPhone 4. And we all know how beautiful that gadget is!
Read on at http://www.pcworld.com/article/126854/the_future_of_cell_phones.html

Something New

Today, I got an idea. Instead of just posting new technology every day, every Monday I am going to do a post similar to this one. What technological innovations are most important to you in life? What can't you go without? Ponder this question, and respond to it. I will try to theme some of the future posts of the week around the majority chosen most important technology.

A New Material Only a Single Atom Thick

After my uncle told me about this, my initial reaction was to make a post about it. So, I shall. 
The image above is a super magnified image of graphite molecules on a graphene sheet only a 
single atom thick. Yes, only one atom. The thinness is beyond our comprehension; in fact, the sheet is so thin that it is completely transparent. Yet, it is 100 times stronger than steel. Developed by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester, England, scientists contend that we cannot yet begin to imagine all of the possible 
applications of the graphene sheet. It could replace plastics, create a new form of touch screen, build lighter planes, and so on. Also, because of the conductive properties of graphite, this sheet can be used to create more advanced computers, perhaps even the ones mentioned in my original post. No matter what the applications, this will certainly affect your life in the future. And then you can say you heard about it first on The Magic of Today's Technology! If you haven't been already, you'll be shocked to know just how these great minds discovered how to create the sheet. All they did was acquire some graphite, the substance of every pencil lead, and some scotch tape. Then, they used the scotch tape to pull off layer after layer of graphite until, eventually, it was only a single atom thick. It's almost unbelievable how something so simple could produce something so extraordinary. It's kind of like the simple method used to improve bifocals in one of my previous posts, except on a much higher level level. Bravo Geim and Konstantin, you two certainly deserved the Nobel prize you were awarded for your tremendous discovery! Read more at http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20101006/news/101009776

Supercomputer Chips

Yes, you read the headline correctly: an entire supercomputer in a single chip. To give you an idea of how powerful this supercomputer is, the system runs more than 100 billion operations per second. Yeah, wild stuff. One would imagine this would require lots of energy, but it really only takes a few watts, less than the amount of power a cell phone runs on. Created by electrical engineer associate professor Eugenio Culurciello, as well as other researches at Yale University, this supercomputer chip's potential applications include using it to create cars which drive themselves. Also, it could be used for just about anything else you can think of that involves motion sensing, as well as much, much more. Many of us are now fantasizing about how amazing it would be to just sit down in the car and not do anything as it drives itself to wherever you need to go. A wonderful future, indeed! Read more at the source http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/tech-talk-podcast-a-computer-that-could-drive-a-car/?ref=technology.

Glasses That Provide for Both Farsightedness and Nearsightedness!

This is the second time I've come across an article talking about these very glasses, and I felt it necessary to talk about it! Zeev Zalevsky at Bar-llan University in Ramat Gan, Israel has developed bifocal glasses that make it so one can see clearly whether they are looking at something far away or close to them. Zalevsky did this by, basically, scratching the surface of an ordinary lens with "a grid of 25 near-circular structures each 2 millimetres across and containing two concentric rings" (http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827806.000-scratched-glasses-give-perfect-vision-for-any-eyesight.html). These scratches are just a few hundred micrometers wide and only one micrometer deep! The purpose of these scratches is to change the way light enters and passes through the lens, causing it to form a channel of light rather than a single spot of light. This is what allows the lens to work its magic. Despite this, there is apparently a decrease of contrast from the lens structure, but Zalevsky claim that the brain will adapt to this decrease in contrast by perceiving what it sees through the lens in the same way it would any regular lens. Some would say, "Don't re-invent the wheel!" but, in Zalevsky's case, a simple take on an old and long-accepted invention bore great results! Well done, good sir! The link in my post is to the better of the two articles I read, and I encourage anyone who found this interesting to read on there!

Spray-On Clothing

Today, while looking for some awesome gadget to share, I stumbled across spray-on clothing. The name itself evokes wonder and awe, for it is a concept that is seemingly impossible if it were not able to be witnessed or experienced. But, it is possible, and it broadens our glimpse into the wonderful future ahead! This technology, developed by Manel Torres along with scientists at Imperial College London, works in a way similar to silly string. Despite this, it truly consists of tiny fibers mixed with polymers that are dissolved into a solvent, allowing them to be prayed from an ordinary aerosol can! Once sprayed on, the clothing can be simply removed and thrown into the washing machine and dryer along with everything else. And if you don't like your creation, you can simply dissolve it back into the solvent and spray it again in a different manner. A minor con is that when initially sprayed on the clothing is cold but, since it dries on impact, warms up in little time. This amazing technology is being further developed into spray-on bandages used to dress injuries immediately. Read more at http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-09/sprayable-clothing, and enjoy the demonstrative video as well!

The Magic of Today's Technology

The purpose of this blog is to bring awareness to the news of the myriad of technological advancements occurring in our modern world. Every day improvements are made to even the most state-of-the-art contraptions, making them both obsolete and part of the past. It is hard to fathom the speed at which we are moving into a bright, wonderful, and perhaps even frightening future, and it is important to gain the wisdom as a species to put the technologies we develop to good use. But, even on the individual level, advancements in technology still hold much relevance, and this blog will present devices that pique our interest and curiosity, bolster our hope for the world of tomorrow, and make us wonder. To show you what I mean, consider the following facts in which I credit the YouTube video "Shift Happens" for providing:

There are over 2.7 billion Google searches performed each month.

The number of texts sent and received daily is greater than the population of the entire planet.

Third generation fiber optics pushes 10 trillion bits per second down one strand of fiber (1,900 CDs or 150 million phone calls every second). It’s currently tripling about every 6 months and is expected to do so for at least the next two decades. They’re just improving the switches on the ends, meaning the marginal cost of these improvements is $0.

Predictions are that by 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computation capability of the human brain itself.

By 2023, a $1,000 computer will exceed the computation capability of the human brain.

And by 2049 a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species as a whole.