Following up on my version of the Best Gadgets of the Decade, I'm providing a list of five game-changing gadgets you should expect to see in the next decade, along with a description of the likely impacts.
- Apple Tablet / iSlate - I do believe this is arriving (or at least due to be announced) in January. The iSlate (I do believe it'll be called that) will be a hybrid between the a Macbook and an iPhone. It'll be capable of using iPhone apps as well as desktop apps, I believe the specs will be be something similar to what you see on the Macbook Air, but of course it won't have a cover over the screen. Over time, this product blows away the netbook, laptop and desktop markets, encouraging people to slip their "iSlate" into a monitor, or sitting on a conduction pad connected to a wall screen) instead of having a box sitting on their desk. This product just gets more powerful as the decade goes on, and people like the idea less and less of being tied to a desk, and chunky equipment. Techies of all stripes are struck by the similarities to the Star Trek like "Pad" and shun the traditional thinking of what a computer has to look like or be altogether. Dell has a heart attack wondering how they'll ever beat Apple without going thinner (attempts to find and purchase a company producing paper-computers and fails) and consequently loses enough stock value that Microsoft sees them as a worthy hardware partner for direct purchase.
- SixSense Tech Context Bar – On a parallel path, it's shaped like a candybar, and interfacing with or as your mobile device — it hangs around your neck. In it's most miniature versions sits in a pocket like a pocket protecter (we'll call it the Geekbar) in a shirt pocket, and for men or women, a necklace holding a few small boxes with pinhole cameras and a projector inside – this wearable device originally designed by Pranav Mistry at MIT will blow the doors off you can do with a computer. A wearable computer, interfacing constantly with the net and providing you with an information (and unfortunately advertisement) enhanced reality. This enhanced reality will come with a few different versions, one by Apple using a new version of OS X specifically for their "iBar" version (which replaces the outdated iPhone) using OS X 11ER2 (Enhanced Reality Version 2.0), a Linux and Android/Google OS versions delivered through Asus and other clone manufacturers, and another by Microsoft/Dell partership with a new OS by Microsoft called "Interpreter" (Which makes use of gesture control, or PUI — Perceptual User Interface). The SST C-Bar will be as Pranav has envisioned, something very cost effective (Under $300) and bridges the world between your online world and the real one. Complete, low-intensity gesture control is now standard. Instead of having to go find a surface to work on (a white wall or piece of paper) all work can be done in the air with small motions. Popular culture comically refers to people using earlier versions of the device as "Bats" due to the long nature of the original bar (4") shaped like a baseball bat and the other aspect of people seen waving their arms around vigorously trying to get the early devices to work properly. This product is so revolutionary that it encourages Apple to outfit their mobile devices with SST Context technology wherever possible.
- Untethered VR "Sunglasses" followed by Wearable VR Contact Lenses (closer to the end of 2019) - Complimenting the Context bar, you'll see Wearable VR tools that will help you see what you're working with, since complete gesture control is now standard. It's not necessary any longer to wear a glove or tape on your hands. The cameras, tools and processors now support this tech cheaply. VR "glasses" come in prescription form at $29 a pair, while the contact lenses are $599 on the clone market. Before the end of the decade, you no longer have to have an iSlate, computer or any other computer to initiate VR activity with, you can simply look at a target point on a wall and interface with the local systems to get VR access. Coffee shop customers, no longer content with WiFi, encourage shops to double in size to support the "Batty" activities and arm-waving accompanying the new devices and needs of VR users.
- Full-Body Med Scanning Platforms - Rounding out the end of the decade, and fueled by a push to keep the insurance industry in check is a government program to offer complete medical scanning of individuals, with the promise that you can't be disqualified for insurance or denied low cost insurance for any condition) that will tell you everything about a body's current status. The scanning also stops sort of full DNA testing, but provides after a quick scan an understanding of all the systems currently underperforming on a patient and aids the doctor with potential support for treatment. Actionable doctor visits are now much more rare, as trips to a Platform is as simple as going to a mall or a nearby facility and tests can be "run" by a registered nurse and monitored by a doctor on staff. The design of the product may possibly come from Switzerland where the Biomedical Scanning Center has been researched for some time. Scans are uploaded to your doctor's office. The platform is comfortable and easy to use. The patient can be standing, sitting or laying down when the scan is administered, but this gadget revolutionizes disease control as well as providing a clear, up to date status on the overall health of the population. This is a moneymaker for everyone, including the insurance industry, who after having to conform to a partial socialization, have now shifted gears to the much more profitable methods of holistic medicine. Gone are the days of people getting sick all the time and complaints of alien probing are way down.
- Greenshoes – Popularized by the green energy conservation movement and the fashion industry, many shoes, tight-fitting undershirts and a resurgence of long underpants called "Huggers" all come with micro-gyro-magnet-charging technology, allowing energy to be captured, stored and transferred to mobile devices, iSlates and other gadgetry as you move throughout the day. Stored energy is delivered to syphon pads that sit unobtrusively under a table, chair or desk. This product begins sealing the formerly broken "circle of conservation" which attempts to re-capture "lost" energy through the use of wind farms, lightning recovery systems, wave-action power plants, gratuitous use of solar panels and now magnets and cantilevers.
I hope you've enjoyed our little visit to the future and remember to consider those gadgets carefully when you see them. Version 1.0 is always a little "batty"… er… I mean buggy.
