Looking Ahead - Technology in 2008

SMARTER mobile phones, smaller memory sticks, flashing T-shirts and barcodes on every corner: a look into the world of technology in 2008.

Leaner chips for smaller PCs, smarter phones

When Apple released the iPhone, they proved you can develop a mobile phone with an easy to use interface in a sleek, sexy package.

But one of the most exciting features of the iPhone is that it functions like a computer - a true smartphone.

This has been made possible by the development of smarter, smaller, less power hungry computer chips, and the field is set for even better models.

Intel's Silverthorne 45nm processor, scheduled for release in the first half of 2008, delivers computer performance comparable to a desktop or laptop computer, on a 74mm x 143mm sized motherboard.
The Silverthorne processor uses 10 times less power than today's low power processors and can work alongside WiFi, 3G and WiMAX.

Expect many more smart phones, including the Australian version of the iPhone, and an avalanche of paperback-sized laptops to hit the market in 2008.

More bytes for your data

As computer processors get smaller, so does the physical size of computer memory, but there is a limit.

As the components become more cramped, they create more heat and cause weird quantum effects to occur.

Fortunately researchers at the Centre for Applied Nanoionics have made a breakthrough.

By using trace amounts of copper, mixed with Msilicon, they believe they can develop flash memory sticks that will hold terabytes, or thousands of gigabytes.

While it may be sometime later this decade before we see terabyte-sized memory in the stores, an alternative that is sure to appear in 2008 is remote storage.

Remote data storage frees up space on a hard drive and acts as a back-up in case the computer is stolen or destroyed.

Several companies such as Apple's .Mac and Symantec's Norton 360 already offer remote data storage, but with Google looking at offering a similar product, expect to see this area grow rapidly.

The end of the plain old telephone

For the past few years Voice over IP (VoIP) has been little more than a cheap way to make phone calls. However, the introduction of Naked DSL (broadband with a conventional phone service) to Australia, and the rapid growth of wireless internet, will see many VoIP providers offer these services as more people migrate across from the traditional plain old telephone service (POTS).

Services that should appear in the near future include voicemail delivered to your email inbox, fax converted and emailed as pdf documents, and the ability to direct multiple phone numbers to the one handset.

Radio goes digital

Expect to hear a bit about digital radio ahead of its official start date of January 1, 2009.

Digital radio will allow radio stations to broadcast multiple channels, along with images and data, such as radar images during the weather, or pictures of artists during a song.

Despite it being available in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, Australian broadcasters have elected to wait until the release of DAB+ (digital audio broadcast), which provides better audio quality.

A number of manufacturers have indicated they will have DAB+ products ready for sale during 2008, including a plug-in which would allow listeners to tune into digital radio through an iPod.

The book is dead...

Reading text on a screen always seems harder than reading it on paper, which probably explains why electronic books haven't taken off.

But this hasn't stopped online book store Amazon having a go with its electronic book named Kindle.

The Kindle uses a unique electronic ink technology to produce a screen display that mimics the appearance of print on paper.

The screen is not backlit, to extend battery life, and the text can be easily read under most lighting conditions, indoors and out.

Users can download books through Amazon's WhisperNet, which operates via a mobile phone network, which are charged to an Amazon account.

Kindle can be configured to automatically download newspapers and magazine, and can play MP3 files and Audible spoken word books.

At this stage there is no word on when it will be released in Australia.

...Long live the book

But don't bemoan the death of the paperback just yet.

The Espresso Book Machine can produce a made-to-order book in minutes.

Also known as the "ATM book machine", it uses a black and white printer to produce the pages of a book from a PDF file, while a colour copier prints the cover on heavier stock.

Once the pages are printed, an electronically controlled clamp pulls the pages together, glues, trims and delivers the finished product out of a slot at the bottom.

The machine has been developed specifically to produce out-of-print books, and is being showcased around North America. If the concept takes off, you may end up seeing them in most libraries and bookstores around the world.

Devices talk wirelessly, faster

Universal Serial Bus (USB) has cemented itself as the standard for transferring files from one device to another, but in 2008 you can expect to see some new features.

Wireless USB uses ultra-wideband radio to deliver transfer rates of 480Mbps at a distance of three metres; comparable to wired USB 2.0, and several hundred times faster than Bluetooth.

It will soon be available in North America, Japan, Europe and Korea, but is yet to get the final tick in Australia.

Also in the pipeline is USB 3.0, which will use a combination of copper wire and fibre optic to provide transfer rates of 4.8 gigabits a second, 10 times faster than the current USB 2.0 standard.

A high definition movie, which is about 27GB, would take just 70 seconds to transfer using USB 3.0, compared to 14 minutes using USB 2.0.

The USB 3.0 specification is due in the first half of 2008, and it is expected to become available for use in 2009.

Watching you everywhere you go

Despite the Global Positioning System (GPS) network existing for more than a decade, its use in everyday applications is only just coming to the fore.

From mobile phones, to cars and aircraft, GPS devices help us determine where we are, much quicker and more accurately than using a paper map. But GPS is also being used to help others find our location.

MySpot, recently launched in Australia, gives users the ability to send an alert message from their mobile phone when they press a "panic button", or if they fail to respond to a set alarm.

The phone sends an SMS, or text-to-voice message, with the its GPS position that can then be used to locate the user. The service is being targeted at parents, hikers and security firms.

In the United States, Verizon Wireless' Chaperone Child Locator allows parents to track where their children are via their mobile phone.

Parents can locate where their child is, or when they arrive or leave a particular destination, such as school, sporting practice or a friend's house.

Barcoded information

Telstra is currently trialling a new barcode system called Mobicode, which is already in use in Japan.

Squares made up of black and white boxes contain encoded text and numbers, similar to barcodes on consumer packaging.

Users activate the mobicode reader on their phone and point the camera at the code. The application captures an image, decodes the mobicode and acts accordingly.

Mobicodes could be used to offer discounts on products and services, linked to mobile websites, or upload contact details stored on the back of a business card.

In one example, a mobicode offers a 25 per cent discount at a fast food chain, and then displays the nearest locations on map on the user's mobile phone.

Dating singles could wear a Mobicode on their clothing with their contact details encoded, or a link their RSVP online dating page, which they allow prospective dates to photograph.

If the trial is successful, Telstra hopes to roll it out across the country in 2008.

Wearable electronics

Clothes aren't always just going to be about looking good, or even just feeling comfortable.

Nanotechnology is allowing researchers to develop electronic fibres that can be woven into fabrics, with some interesting applications.

Researchers from ETH Zurich have developed stretchable, threadlike sensors that can be woven into shirts to alert the wearers when they're slouching at a desk.

Australia's CSIRO have also incorporated sensors in a knee sleeve, which alert football players before they overstretch, and into a shirt known as the wearable air guitar.

Graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab have developed black plastic badges worn around the neck that could be used to detect mental depression, based on how a person interacts during a conversation.

Dutch electronics company Philips have recently commercialised a fabric called Lumalive, which contains special light emitting diodes (LED) integrated into fabric. The Lumalive fabric turns clothes and furniture into a live display or billboard on which any text, animation or moving images can be displayed.

Other devices nearing commercial release include fabric with built-in sensors and heaters to reduce the threat of hypothermia, and boots with heels that can generate small amounts of electricity with each step, which can be used to charge your MP3 player - a technology already being tested by the military.