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 March 15, 2006 Electronic Swiss Army Knife Several decades ago, in a popular science magazine, I came across a description of the next big thing in communications: the cellular telephone. It sounded so improbable that I didn’t believe it would ever be successfully developed. But the cell phone did become a reality, and when the first commercial models were released, a colleague lent me his. While it worked (sometimes), I thought it was about as convenient to use as Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone, and I doubted many people would want to lug one around. But while cell phones grew smaller and smaller and cheaper and cheaper, and became the fashion accessory, they were still just . . . telephones. Then came the camera phone. And the Blackberry. And, over on that other shelf, the iPod, which could store TV shows as well as music. Then came cell phones that could display video. There’s only one place it can all end: the all-in-one device that’ll do e-mail and movies and music and telephone calls and pictures and laptop Internet access and a host of other things no one’s thought of yet. I give it about a year. ...Ian G. Masters
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