Got A Rocket In My Pocket

The Consumer Electronics Show came and went this year and the big news was that there really was no big news. The TV's are getting bigger, the music players are getting smaller, the computers are getting faster, everything's becoming connected, and yet the fact remains that the world needs a new technology. I never thought I'd say this but tech is starting to get boring.

I think part of the problem can be illustrated with this new PDA I have sitting here in front of me. It's a Dell Axim X30 that I picked up for around $300.00 last Christmas. If you're not familiar with PDA's those are those little Palm Pilot devices that used to be popular about 5 years ago which some people still use for calendaring and contact management. Nice little devices that I've owned in one form or another since I bought my original Palm III back in the late 90's, I guess.

Well, needless to say things have changed over the past decade and my new PDA is nothing like that old Palm III. In fact I've bought PC's that didn't have the hardware specs that my new PDA has - 624MHz processor, 64 MB Ram, 64MB Rom, built-in wireless networking with Bluetooth, etc... Man, we're way beyond calendaring and contact management now.

And that's the big tech problem.

Just think about it. I now carry around in my pocket a slender, lightweight device which can not only keep track of my information but can also play music, play videos, store and display ebooks, store and display audio books, fetch email, surf the web (sort of), download news and rss feeds, store and play radio shows, and, well, just about anything else you could ever imagine or want a computer to do. And that's just the basics. If I wanted to spend a few extra bucks it could also be my gps device, my home theater remote, my digital camera, or any of a dozen or more other uses which have been developed for it. What's even more impressive is that this isn't even a top of the line PDA. In fact, if you've got the cash there are some PDA's and Smartphones for sale that'll blow the lid off of this one.

So what's my point. My point is that I don't need any more technology than this. Other than cleaning the gutters and taking out the garbage, this little device does just about everything I need a device to do. That's why I think the Tech world has hit this little rut it's in - there simply isn't a big enough need out there to lead tech to the next big step. I've already got a desktop PC that's got more power than I can use. I've got a 2 year old laptop that still has plenty of juice to do the things I need a laptop to do (which is less and less since I got the new PDA), and, like I said, I've got this new Dell Axim which is probably the last PDA I'll be buying for quite a while.

Face it all you techies out there, we need a new frontier. HDTV's? Nah, not right now. I can wait a few years for the prices to come down. New music players? I still haven't used up the 60 gigs I've got already. Satellite Radio? Nah, no thanks. I'm lucky to have a great over the air radio station where I live, and even if I didn't I'd rather listen to my own playlist than somebody else's. Mac Mini? Pleeeeeze, I've got more computers and more computing power than I know what to do with.

No, if there's going to be a next step then it's going to be in the direction of better utilizing the technology we already have. That means the future, at least in the short term, is going to belong to the content people like Itunes or Audible.com, or the Podcasters, or maybe even a Movielink or Cinemanow.com. Whoever it is, it won't belong to the Intels or Sony's or other big names we've gotten so used to in the past.

At least that's what my crystal ball is telling me, and, as I've said before, my crystal ball has always been wrong.

PS. Almost forgot, there's is one thing my Axim won't do. One of the first applications I tried was a trial version of 'DVD to Pocket PC' which promised it could rip any DVD and reformat it to play on my PDA. Just to test it out I ripped a DVD of Madama Butterfly (which I happen to own, Mr. MPAA), copied it onto the the storage card, and played it using Windows Media Player for Pocket PC. The results were unbelievable. The video was rock solid, the picture was so clear I could even read the subtitles, and the digital stereo coming through the headphones was sweet and pure and totally in sync with the video. No stutter, no stammer, no nothing, but there was one little problem - no Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Come on Dell. Are you telling me that with everything else you packed into that device you c0uldn't fit 5 speakers and subwoofer in there too? Geez, what a rip-off.