Combined devices. It’s already happening.

Your phone is also a digital camera.

A mobile phone with GPS and a good map app should be quite useful out there…add on all kinds of cool stuff to the phone later on (e-mail, contacts and wireless keyboards now, the more advancaed stuff mentioned here in the future).

Where we should be going is getting everyone a server in their home that stores all their documents, databases (ie: Quicken, email, address book) and video and music files. Probably with satelite/cable receiver boxes plugged directly into it. All this stuff is accessed by either thin clients (MPEG playback box on TV/stereo, tablet on your fridge), semi-skimmed clients (ie: your workstation phone) or full fat PCs that just use the server for storage and are excelent for tasks like content creation.

Unfortunately things don’t seem to be moving that way too quick. Microsoft still wants you to put a full PC next to your PC and Apple isn’t doing much better; yes you can share iTunes and play it though AirTunes (and hopefully soon “AirMovies”) but that’s a far cry from having a single, central, always-on store and not having to actualy go to a fat PC to start playback.

And of course all this should be dummy-proof, something that shouldn’t be too hard to do as it doesn’t need to be a general purpose box and the OS should be completely hidden from the users.

Mobile phones and social interaction.

Ironically perhaps totally irrelevant to rugged Alaskans.

Your phone will let you know when you are in the physical vicinity of people who interest you for some reason, and not just socially.

Technology changes the world when it enabled more intelligent connections between people.

I am betting on either a cell phone or an iPod. In a couple years these will be so powerful they will be able to drive displays wirelessly.

You check your email and surf the web for news from home with your morning coffee, then drop the iPod in your pocket and off to work. At work your iPod will automagically recognize a workstation (nothing more than a screen, keyboard and pointing device) and the office LAN. You can easily switch offices and business travel will be less of a hassle.

How’s about being put out of a job?

http://www.marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm

My money’s on stuff like Downloadable music, but also streaming video. I was (and am) able to watch any of the Live8 performancs in reasonably high-quality streaming video for free. As things improve and more content is available, I might be willing to spend $2.99 to watch a streaming movie; people in Alaska who have access to less in terms of video stores and movie theaters and where mailing anything to the Lower 48 takes forever could benefit a great deal from this.