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Are iPhones Practical?

December 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

If you have ever seen an iPhone, you probably either want one or love the one you now have. As one of the most sought after and beloved devices that has only PG rated applications, the iPhone is as inseparable from its owners as their own limbs. And in some cases, they might be more inclined to give up a limb than their precious little doodad- it really is a toss-up, in some cases. But at any rate, every individual has to make more than one decision when they decide to buy or not buy an iPhone. Among these decisions is, “what am I ever going to use this thing for?” Considering that there are millions of apps in the App Store, that could be a tough decision to make.

But on the other hand, sometimes too many apps could be a bad thing. Imagine for a moment that you want to get some work done, but that your iPhone just keeps coming up with all kinds of neat little distractions for you to get involved with. There are so many free games on there that you can choose from, that to not sit there and play for hours on end would almost seem to be wasting a precious gift that you have been given. Maybe the iPhone is little more than just a slick little toy.

It is a toy that also allows people to put some organization into the other chaotic worlds in which they personally live. If you have a lot of trouble keeping things straight (by which we are only talking about events, dates and times, and not ironing), you might benefit from what some people have called their “connection to the world.” The iPhone might be just a doodad, but it is certainly the kind of doodad that helps people to keep life together. While there are a lot of distractions, there is also a practical element to these devices.

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Are Sonic Tooth Brushes Really That Great?

December 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

If you have ever used a sonic tooth brush, you have no doubt noticed that it has some truly neat traits about it. For one thing, you do not have to do much of anything on the movement front. Instead of going around in gentle but quick circles, you can almost just let the tooth brush vibrate the plaque off of your teeth, with barely any effort at all. If you like being especially lazy, you might just push the brush around in your mouth for a little while, and hope that your entire mouth shakes enough to get rid of the plaque. That doesn’t actually work, just in case some fool out there was going to try it.

Sonic tooth brushes are good devices, of course. They help you to cleanse your teeth with large, gentle motions. The brush itself is what does all of the proverbial heavy lifting, after all. All you do is glide it around over your teeth, and let its motions give you a nice little gum massage. You are supposed to do that, if you read some of the dental literature you find in the waiting room. Nobody does, but you are supposed to. And after your first few brushings with your sonic tooth brush, your mouth will feel cleaner than it has ever felt before.

Unfortunately, the sensation is short lived. Just like anything else in this life, you will quickly grow accustomed to what the sonic tooth brush does for you. And in time, using anything “less” will feel as if you were just rubbing a dirty stick across your teeth, in a deranged mental patient inspired effort to get them clean. It will most likely result in a perception of failure, followed by providing the tooth brush company with profits by buying another one of their heads. Those heads are where the companies make their real money, much like when companies sell those short-lived razor blades.

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Projecting Keyboards Anywhere

December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The technology to project a keyboard onto any flat surface has come around the bend, and will soon be finding its way to all the nerdy (read: technologically obsessed) people you know who can afford to buy completely silly things. Using a series of lasers, the keyboard can be projected onto literally anything that is flat (which could theoretically include water). And using a set of integrated infrared sensors, the “keys” you press register with the computer the device is attached to, and are counted as having been pressed. Yes, you can finally live out the childhood dream of typing up your P and L statement while wading in a lake. Tom Sawyer’s dreams of a world without being bound to a desk have finally been realized.

However, there are some problems behind all of the hype that this technology is receiving of late. One of those problems is, how reliable is this technology, anyway? Just like anything new, there are bound to be a few bugs that the overly excited engineers who originally worked on this development simply did not catch during the beta stages of testing. With that being the case, is it possible to repair a piece of technology such as this one? And if it isn’t, how many of any given store’s sales will end in returns, as people’s virtual keys become virtually jammed down?

Another thing that we are going to need to contend with is the ultimate functionality of this device. While current models may be jammed into a pocket (or will fit handsomely into a large coat pocket), what about the devices we are going to use them with? The concept of an immensely portable keyboard is not a new one in the least. It has simply never caught on beyond its initial novelty. Where do people actually plan to type out entire reports on their iPhones, anyway? It’s hard to imagine an appropriate situation for this device.

Filed Under: Advancements, Hardware, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

We do Need Portability

December 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

We have arrived, friends and countrymen! Now is the time when the world is as much within our grasp as it has ever been before. We have the world in our hot little hands, every time we pick up our little smart phones, tablets, Kindles and iPads, and only a fool would put them down, considering all that they can do for us. Or perhaps one could say, all that they allow us to actually do. You might not remember how the world used to be, before everything went so portable. Let it be heard from a solemn voice of the ages- there was suffering, friends. And it was a dire, helpless sort of suffering, borne from a belief that the world was flying out of our collective hands.

Then one day, a man named Prometheus (or perhaps his name was Jobs) came about, claiming that he had ascended Mount Olympus and plucked from the hands of the very gods themselves a new form of productivity devices. No longer would we be tethered to the walls, as if we were glued to urinals in the pursuit of our necessary functions. Now we could be as free as the critters who do what they much wherever they may- freedom has become the new paradigm for us all. And that day was truly good.

Unfortunately, these days the novelty has worn off, and we are all just that much more ADHD because anything we may want or need has been unbelievably accessible to us all, right now. There will undoubtedly come a time when teenagers interrupt making out, just to check their Facebook (and update their status on the latest moment of lip-locked bliss), and where meetings no longer involve going anywhere. Perhaps the ultimate irony of a truly portable world is that it will allow everyone who lives in it to avoid having to go anywhere at all. That would be truly weird, thinking about it.

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Making Technology Work With Time

December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Have you ever heard the old sales pitch that they used to employ, back before everyone was so obsessed with having the latest and greatest technologies, right at their finger tips, at all times? The ad makers of olden times used to posit that with new technologies come the unlocking of new free time. Now, it can be granted that the dish washer has saved plenty of people from the horrors of dish pan hands, and potentially saved hours of meticulous scrubbing and drying operations. But let’s face facts- once we stopped concerning ourselves with developing technologies dedicated to food and cleanliness, we stepped away from saving ourselves from anything except the potential to use our most basic resources creatively.

After all, how much of the average person’s computer time is actually spent working on something important, as opposed to working on playing the perfect game of Minesweeper? With more of our time allowed to be spent goofing off, since we are a very playful and easily bored species, we will inevitably goof off to the best of our abilities. Indeed, time spent at play is generally the best spent time, if you can think of nothing more constructive to do. For many people, the main reason to have technology does not even have anything to do with working.

How many people younger than college graduates consider potential business uses as a high ranking parameter for the technology they are considering buying? Not many, if anecdotal evidence mixes well with common sense- it’s a harsh little brew, but it does clear out the old sinuses. If our time is spent goofing off, when it might have been spent in some past paradigm working on something more constructive (perhaps churning butter), how much have we really progressed? One might say that we have the freedom to do less constructive tasks, or one might simply say that we are wasting the potential we now have for greatness.

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