How To Fix Broken Letters On Keyboard

10 broken technology ideas -- and how to gear up them

Hither are ten loftier-tech ideas that sound skilful but don't piece of work out then well in do

John Brandon By

Computerworld |

Sometimes a technology idea is as well good to exist true. A flexible keyboard, Internet voting and watching feature films on your smart phone are examples. Today, these concepts are nonetheless evolving, only they're broken correct now. I'll tell you why and what could be washed to gear up them once and for all.

one. Ultracompact PCs

Call them whatever you desire: ultramobile PCs (UMPC), mobile information devices (MID) or subnotebooks. I call them small PCs, and they are almost indistinguishable from a skilful smart phone.

For case, the BlackBerry 8820, with its built-in GPS capability and excellent eastward-postal service customer, is a better device than the Samsung Q1 Ultra, described by the visitor as an "ultramobile personal computer." The but real divergence is that you squint less with the Q1. But most people don't employ a Q1 for gaming or writing long business organization documents.

Equally Jon Stewart pointed out at the Oscars, small-screen video is non fun on a device such every bit the iPhone.

The Apple iPhone is a smarter, sexier, more than useable estimator than simply most any MID, such as the new Toshiba prototype. Meanwhile, there's more power in the OQO, than a regular UMPC, but the screen is merely as tiny.

I figure that in less than three years, Apple will release a successor to the iPhone that works more like a Mac and volition become the first company to make a true pocket computer -- ane that runs any Mac Bone X application natively, with a mini-DVI port.

2. Satellite Cyberspace

My primary trouble with satellite Internet providers is their off-white use policies, which penalize users who download besides much by throttling their speed back to most nothing, and then slowly adding more speed over a 24 hour period. Both WildBlue and HughesNet do this, and they claim it helps all users.

However, the Internet is not just for email and uncomplicated browsing anymore, it's a pipeline for television, network back-ups, remote access and a myriad of other activities -- not to mention Web apps and streaming media.

Other ISPs -- such as Lease Communications and Qwest-- don't throttle your speed at all. Others, such equally Comcast, may utilise "network management" techniques such as throttling BitTorrent traffic, but they aren't as aggressive every bit the satellite providers.

Some other issue is that the stationary modem that you need for satellite Cyberspace is a bulky device and uses coaxial cablevision that most people need a technician to install. Too, the required antenna is bigger than a wheel rim, but there'south no reason it couldn't exist reduced to a size that works with your laptop.

Yet I like the satellite concept because it could make the Internet much more ubiquitous across large swathes of the U.S. Satellite Internet has slowly increased in speed, starting out at only 512Kbit/sec. and currently at about one.5Mbit/sec. If the technology and speed better, it could be a solid option.

3. Contact managers

I'd like to call up the lost hours spent building upward a contacts database. Not long ago, I stopped meticulously entering names, addresses, phone numbers and east-mails and now rely on other methods.

For example, I search Gmail.com for names and addresses. When I want to transport a new e-mail, I only type a portion of a name to get the full address, blazon the message, and send.

For names not in my Gmail annal, I utilize an online address book such equally YellowPages.com or LinkedIn.com.

Yet, a adept contact manager could work like the iPhone: It would see phone number in an e-mail and allow me to right-click and add the name and phone number to a database automatically inside Gmail. The database would be smart enough to know if a telephone number already matches an existing name, and it would weed out duplicates automatically. I'd never have to type in contacts, because this "auto-database" would piece of work as hands equally a mobile phone, support any eastward-postal service client and work in the background. Some contact managers come shut -- such as Now Up-to-Date & Contact -- but information technology nevertheless involves a manual process.

4. Digital streaming adapters

They accept names like Apple TV, Netgear Digital Entertainer and Sonos, just they all do the same affair: move music, video and photos from your PC in the part to the HDTV in your family room.

They are supposed to solve a persistent dilemma: a PC just doesn't work with a idiot box. A keyboard and mouse are meant for a desk, not a sofa. These adapters add some other apparatus to an overcrowded entertainment heart bulging with DVRs and game consoles.

Putting the digital media adapter in the TV, like this MediaSmart TV, makes sense -- less ataxia in your entertainment room.

The fix? Put them right into the television itself. Hewlett-Packard Co. started this with the MediaSmart TV, but I'd like to see information technology equally a standard characteristic that is more open -- non just based on Windows Media Extender, only supporting any media format over Wi-Fi.

5. Video on a telephone

A phone screen is likewise small for video, and even the iPod Touch can cause eye strain when you watch a two-hour feature motion-picture show. I'm convinced that anything you just practise in one case or twice in dealing with new technology and detect it hard to do -- similar load a smart phone with video clips or swap contacts with your laptop over Bluetooth -- is simply a novelty and often non worth the effort. I will probable never do information technology once more; it'southward not worth the time.