Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"All too often, the hottest devices and coolest gadgets of the moment are dusty in the marketplace before the ink is dry on the receipt. And the pace of replacement is getting faster every year. Indeed, there are so many game-changers in the world of technology that the death knell is sounding on many a device that we use every day."

There are some obvious ones on this list - like the fax machine, though that's been "dying" for many years now - but some of them are real head-scratchers. Take gaming consoles for instance; this article says that ten years from now we'll have Internet-connected TVs and, apparently, all our gaming will be done online. Really? Maybe for a quick game of SuDoKu with a friend, but I can't see TVs having the same level of hardware, software, performance, and polish that a gaming console has. I firmly believe in products that are really good at their primary task, not products that are sort of good at a lot of things. And gaming is also about platforms; who really believes that the TV industry will be able to get together and cooperate on creating a unified hardware specification for game developers to target? Not going to happen.

Oh, and point and shoot digital cameras are also on list this of dying technologies - that one's a bit easier to swallow, because cameras on smartphones are getting better, but I think it's going to take quite a few years and advances in folded optics, image sensor quality, performance, and battery life before people won't prefer a dedicated digital camera.

What's your take on the items on this list?

"USB 3.0 might be one of the big stories here at IDF, but Intel just showed off a glimpse of the future: Light Peak, an optical interconnect for mobile devices that can run as fast as 10Gbps. That's fast enough to do everything from storage to displays to networking, and it can maintain those speeds over 100-meter runs, which is pretty astounding. Intel says the idea is to drastically reduce the number of connectors on mobile devices, which should allow them to get even smaller -- but the demo was on a huge Frankenrig, so don't expect to see Light Peak devices shipping any time soon."

What I don't like about stories like this is that this technology isn't here now. Wouldn't it be cool to run at 10Gbps? I'd love it. Super fast internet and internet gaming right on your mobile device. Not to mention ultra clear video conferencing. For those of you who think that technology is changing to rapidly, I'm not one of those. I want the future and I want it now. After seeing the Microsoft Courier Tablet demo, hearing that MS has a slew of new devices coming soon, and now super fast Light Peak transfer rates, How about you? Are you ready for this stuff now or do you think it's evolving to rapidly?

"When Microsoft decides to imagine the future, it never fails to impress. Not only do you have some of the smartest people envisioning what's possible, but they also invest so much into communicating these ideas through sights and sounds which the production value can be compared to most blockbuster sci-fi films. Today at the Wharton Business Technology Conference, Microsoft's Business Division president Stephen Elop unveiled the latest production from Microsoft Office Labs called "2019″, starring stock photo men, women and children playing with the next-generation of communication, collaboration and production technologies."

Link over to istartedsomething.com and check out the video of what the future may be like. It's actually a Microsoft video of what they hope the future of technology brings. Sort of reminds me of the computer system Tony Stark from Ironman uses. If MS could actually pull this off, they'll be back on my "wow!" list. What do you all think? Could this really be in our future, or will it be nothing like this?