What’s coming — and what does it take to be ready for the future?
Well, here it is. A year in which we can expect sweeping change, according to a panoply of prophets and experts. . . . (read more)
It is getting harder and harder to tell models and avatars apart. . . . (read more)
It costs less than ever to own a piano. . . . (read more)
HTML 5 might be two years away from official approval, but it is already simplifying Internet video. . . . (read more)
The trend toward minimalism in paper documents has now reached business cards. . . . (read more)
I am old enough to remember when cardboard was the core of almost all shoes. . . . (read more)
Two vignettes from my work this month point to a current trend in product design: designers and engineers are looking hard for ways to reduce the weight of the products they design. . . . (read more)
Lately, I have been watching hours of weather videos, with the recent floods, tornados, and volcanic eruptions. The videos come from every kind of camera. There are broadcast news cameras, security cameras, and webcams. Most of the videos, though, come from cell phones. . . . (read more)
As I write this, people are talking about a prediction of the end of the world . . . (read more)
I wrote a month ago about web sites that have been streamlined after developers gained insight into simpler design approaches while working on mobile versions of the sites. I hadn’t imagined the same process would also happen with a web browser, but that is exactly what has happened with Firefox 4 . . . (read more)
Designers are learning from the challenge of rebuilding web sites to work on mobile devices. The redesigned sites are, quite simply, faster and better . . . (read more)
Inkjet printers aren’t so important, now that you can buy a laser printer for about the same price. . . . (read more)
I’ve written about the distressing effects that the decline in content is having on the newspaper and magazine industries. With fewer writers, poorly paid and often virtually untrained, there is less to be learned from reading the newspaper, or even the glossy monthly, and readership is falling off accordingly. I am sorry to say that I am now seeing the same trend in books. . . . (read more)
The decline in Internet e-mail has become an undeniable trend, as measures show a steady decline over an extended period of time. And now, e-mail messages are getting shorter and simpler. . . . (read more)
My experiment in shutting off cable was five years ago this month. . . . Now, five years later, canceling television subscriptions has become a trend. For the first time ever, the total number of television subscriptions is declining this year. . . . (read more)
The shortest distance between two cities is underground. . . . (read more)
The startling Arctic Ocean ice melt of 2007 caught almost everyone by surprise. . . . (read more)
I’ve spent part of this month trying to get my new book on computer programming into e-book form for release as an e-book, but what I’ve found so far isn’t encouraging. Major e-book readers, at this point, can display a novel just fine . . . (read more)
A CD jewel case now costs more to make than the CD it protects. It’s the same story with DVDs . . . (read more)
Blinking, moving, and shifting lights are about to take on a more prominent place in modern life, and here are two developments I didn’t see coming. . . . (read more)
The James Cameron movie Avatar was successful largely because of an unprecedented two-year research effort that defined both the story line and the visuals for the movie. Avatar’s unprecedented success has persuaded Hollywood of the value of research . . . (read more)
With so much content available now, you’re going to need the help of technology, of what theorists have called “intelligent agents,” to get through it all. And I’m not just talking about spam filters. . . . (read more)
A court ruled this month that Pink Floyd’s record deal with EMI did not entitle the record label to sell all of the band’s songs as singles. This is a ruling that is likely to affect the entire music industry. . . . (read more)
DVD movie sales are declining, and were actually less than movie theater box office totals in the United States in 2009 . . . (read more)
Energy is controlled by big companies, many of them monopolies. It’s delivered over wires, in pipes, or on heavy trucks, because it’s too inefficient to deal with on a smaller scale. But this is going to change. . . . (read more)
Recent observations of water on the surface of the moon tell us that water is not the rare property of Earth-like planets and comets, as was previously thought. Instead, we find that water is one most common chemical compounds in the universe. . . . (read more)
Advances in music performance video games are blurring the line between game performance and musical performance. . . . (read more)
The main focus of philosophy in the 21st century will be focus. . . . (read more)
Most mobile phone users pay for most of their usage on a subscription plan. It’s simple: stay within the plan limits, and you pay the same amount every month. But there is a simpler approach to cell phone use that is becoming more popular now. That’s the prepaid cell phone . . . (read more)
For a third of a century, ISBNs in numeric and bar-code forms have been obligatory for any book sold to the public. Now that run is about to end. . . . (read more)
Social networking is booming — but here are three recent signs that hint that the trend can’t last forever. . . . (read more)
The last popular uses of film in photography are going away. . . . (read more)
The distinction between still cameras and video cameras is slowly disappearing. . . . (read more)
Mail used to be what ties the world together. Now you could go for a week without checking your mail . . . (read more)
E-mail is moving rapidly from the open Internet to the comparatively safe environs of social network web sites. . . . (read more)
I’m converting my audio cassettes to CDs — before it’s too late. . . . (read more)
It’s not a new issue. Ever since televisions got remote controls with mute buttons . . . (read more)