Back when I was grow up in the 1970s , we fully expected that , by 2012 , we ’d all be drive flying cars to our condos on the moon where robotic butlers awaited , ready to bring us the curative for Crab from the lav first - aid kit . How ’s all of that working out ? Sure , we now have faster , modest estimator , smartphones that talk back to you , and smart boob tube , but in so many areas of technology the stride of change is slower than Windows Vista booting off a floppy disk .
A few months ago , I wrote an clause about15 technologies that will be goneby the prison term my baby son is old enough to practice them . However , banish a zombie Revelation of Saint John the Divine , there are plentifulness of mainstaysthat my son will still be using when he enter college in 2030 .
Laptop Magazine may know which computers are dandy now , but they also have their head in the future . Here are 15 predictions they have for the applied science we’llstill be using .
QWERTY Keyboards
Though voice recognition , hand realisation and gesture controller will all become more accurate and popular in the next two decades , my son will be typing his term papers like his dad and granddaddy did before him . Until mind - mastery textual matter entry becomes omnipresent , type will remain the most precise method for composing and editing textual matter . We just do n’t verbalize the same way that we spell .
Though physical keyboards are in danger of becoming extinct on phones and tablets , their virtual combining weight will live on . On big pattern factors like notebooks , the feel of existent plastic keys will not be surpassed . Whether virtual or veridical , the QWERTY layout , which first appear in 1878 , will carry on to dominate .
Read More:5 thing to Look For in Your Next Notebook Keyboard
PCs
Some say we ’re enter the post - PC era , but I could n’t take issue more . Sure , people are spend more fourth dimension on their smartphones and tablets than their traditional Windows or Mac OS - based desktops and notebooks . But when it ’s time to do real piece of work , particularly if that study involves multitasking , the microcomputer is still king and always will be .
By 2030 , the size of it and shape of PCs may exchange . Some may even contend that , with their speedy quad and dual - core CPUs , earphone and pad of paper are becoming personal computer . But whatever the form component , productiveness - oriented users will need master computing gadget with mass of dedicated processing power and a multitasking favorable OS .
Read More:8 Reasons the PC Still matter
USB Ports
More than 15 years after it was first introduced , we ca n’t imagine life without USB , a nearly ubiquitous banner that allows you to transfer data and great power to everything from your keyboard to your outside hard movement and proctor . Some believe that competing measure like Intel ’s high - speed Thunderbolt connection will win out , but they just do n’t have the install - base to overcome USB , and history is against them .
Over the retiring two 10 , many have endeavor to put USB out of business sector , but the bargain bins at computer shows are filled with phony adapter like FireWire 400 and eSATAp . With nearly every mobile machine using USB as a charge standard and USB ports even being built into wall socket , this standard is only choke to farm in the year ahead .
My Word may be using USB 7 when he ’s in college , but he ’ll be using USB to rouse his gadgets and connect peripherals . In fact , with advance in power over USB , he may even use a USB embrasure to power his notebook and his big- screen reminder .
Read More : USB 3.0 Storage campaign Compared
Local Storage
With cloud service becoming more prominent and broadband getting faster , many multitude believe that in the future tense , we ’ll be keeping all of our data file online . They ’re incorrect . In college , my Logos will be storing all his most crucial data , include his app , on a local self-colored state driveway ( which will use something better than NAND newsflash ) .
Even when most of us have 1000 Mbps broadband , local entrepot will always be faster and more secure than a remote drive on someone else ’s web . If you want to melt large programs like games or professional - grade television - editing apps , you ’ll want them on your PC ’s storage drive . Also , even in 2030 , there will be plenty of situation where net access code will be unavailable or treacherous .
Read More : What ’s the Best SSD ? 5 drive Tested
JPEG Files
Even as bandwidth , sue office and store electrical capacity step-up , we adhere to a lot of the same file data formatting we used back in the early 1990s , because they ’re standards . Though high - end DSLRs can generate uncompressed RAW simulacrum , most devices shoot photograph in JPG data formatting , simply because everything supports JPG , from granddad ’s old Netscape 3 web browser that he reject to update to mom ’s brand- spanking - new digital picture skeletal frame .
In 2030 , my son will still be shooting photos in jpg data format , viewing JPGs on websites in his web browser and upload JPG files to his social sensitive accounts , which may or may not be the same services we practice today .
take More:4 Great Photography Apps for tablet
Lithium-Ion Batteries
In 2030 , just as today , nearly all of my son ’s gadgets from his smartphone to his laptop computer and his electric or intercrossed railcar will be powered by atomic number 3 - ion batteries . Over the eld , the free energy tightness of the batteries will increase to fit more mAH into a small outer space and the cell life will better to several thousand charge cycles .
A figure of promising novel battery chemistries like lithium - air and nanowire are under exploitation , but if these applied science pan out , they wo n’t murder the mass market for many years . After all , lithium - ion batteries did n’t go mainstream until the late 1990s , even though scientist began originate them in the 1970s .
take More : Battery Tips for Every atomic number 8
HTML-Based Websites
By the time my infant Word insert his freshmen year of college , we will have long since stopped part websites up into “ pages , ” because dynamic contentedness refreshes will have do away with the need to load an entirely new uniform resource locator for each screen of depicted object you interact with online . However , HTML , which has been the lingua franca of the internet since 1991 , will remain the format we use to build the on-line applications and issue of the future .
My son will be coding his freshmen twelvemonth programing labor in HTML 8 and doing all his inquiry on a World wide-cut WWW programmed in some form of the voice communication .
study More : What is HTML 5 ?
Cash
There ’s some debate about whether plastic citation and debit entry board will be altogether replace by mobile requital systems in the next few years . However , there ’s no doubt that , in 2030 , my son will carry a wallet with hard currency in it , because we ’ll still be using theme and metallic element money well into the future .
In the info old age , paying by Johnny Cash is the best way to keep your leverage anon. . Aside from just keep up your privacy , paper money is a great shield against identity theft , because the payee does n’t even get your name , let alone an account number . The government would believably know to end the use of cash , because it allow payee to keep illegal proceedings off the books , but paper money is the only form of payment that does n’t require a third party like a depository financial institution to get involved .
Read More : Tech to Watch 2012 : NFC blend in Beyond Digital Wallets
Clamshell-Shaped Notebooks
It ’s unlikely that my baby son will have a desktop PC in his college dorm , but he will have a clamshell - mold notebook . Even if most PCs finally have screen that toss off off to become tablets , or keyboard that attach as covers as on the Microsoft Surface , the public utility of a design where the keyboard sits perpendicular to the display and then snaps closed will rest unmatched .
In a recent clause , Time ’s Harry McCracken pen about the chronicle of the clamshell form factor that originated with 1982 ’s Grid Compass 1101 : “ It ’s arduous to imagine any figure rendering the clamshell utterly obsolete . No matter how staggering computing gadget are in 2082 and beyond , I ’ll bet that some of them will have a sieve , a keyboard and a flexible joint in the midsection . Why would the world want to give up something so fundamentally utilitarian ? ”
Read More : Top 10 Notebooks Available Now
Wi-Fi
Since 1997 , the 802.11 measure has dominated wireless connectivity . Every smartphone , tablet and notebook occur with an 802.11 gm or 802.11n compatible radio build - in , and every home and clientele has a router that supports both of those standard .
Today , we use Wi - Fi to stream video from our notebooks / tablets / phones to our house house via DLNA , WiDi or even the upcoming Miracast standard . We even have Wi - Fi Direct now , which allows sharing single file like a shot between devices , without the use of a router .
There ’s no doubt my Logos will have some form of 802.11 - free-base Wi - Fi in his college campus , at house and in the dorm . Even as most users get their Internet via some form of cellular connection like LTE Super Advanced , there will be an increase need to portion out connections and local data via Wi - Fi .
record More:7 Ways to Improve Your Wireless Router
With the popularity of Facebook , Skype , Google instant messenger and Twitter , some think that email is about to be replaced by other forms of messaging . However , when my son receives his college acceptance missive in the spring of 2030 , he ’ll be getting them via the same old email organisation we ’ve used in more or less the same formatting since the 1970s .
Whether it ’s via POP , IMAP , Exchange or some other protocol , email is an undetermined system where anyone can email anyone else , without own to sign up for an report with a particular fellowship . Can you envisage a future where you have to sign up for Facebook to message one of your client and Google to get through your congresswoman ?
Read More : Outlook.com Hands - on : Microsoft ’s Gmail and Clutter Killer
3.5mm Audio Jacks
As I write this list , I ’m furrow to my music playlist on a couplet of headphone connect to my smartphone via a 3.5 mm audio frequency jack . My Word may not hear to Barnes and Barnes ’ “ Fish Heads ” in a loop for three hour like his dad , but he will still be using 3.5 mm audio frequency jacks when he ’s in college .
Despite the coming of wireless Bluetooth phone and convenient USB headsets , almost every notebook , tablet , medium thespian and phone has at least one 3.5 mm jack . There ’s just too much invest in backward compatibility with 3.5 mm headphones for a big change to come in the next two decades .
Read More : Hip - Hop Headphones brush up
Laser Printers
Though printing machine applied science changed apace over the first two decades of the PC era , we ’ve now settled on two standards : ink jet and laser . Since coloring optical maser is clearly superior and is unaired to achieving price parity bit with ink jet , laser will be the style everyone print in 2030 .
Of naturally , by the sentence my son is in college , a peck of people wo n’t even own printers because everything , from your showing the TSA your airline embarkment pass to handing in your term newspaper , will happen digitally . However , for those that still need to output on newspaper , laser printers will be the standard .
take More : Latest Printer Reviews
TVs
When my son record college in 2030 , few people will have cable system and all viewing will occur on requirement . However , the dedicated TV bent will uphold to function as the center of a share viewing experience in the living elbow room and other communal spaces . Functionally , there may be few differences between the bright television receiver of the futurity and a large outside monitor , but users will still want a screen that ’s specifically design for the base theater .
My son may not have a TV in his dorm elbow room , because he ’ll be able to watch whatever he want on his mobile twist , but there will be a large TV in the common room where he and his classmates can watch the secret plan together .
Read More : What is a Smart television ?
Microsoft Office
After a atomic war , only two thing will last : cockroaches and Microsoft Office . Since it overtook competing products from Lotus and WordPerfect in the 1990s , Microsoft ’s productivity suite has dominated the commercial enterprise and donnish Earth . While you may apply government agency - compatible product like OpenOffice.org and Google Docs for detached , the bona fide Office remains the measure for IT departments , institutions and dwelling users everywhere .
My son may be using “ Microsoft Tiles 8 ” as his O in 2030 , but he ’ll still be typing up his newspaper in some version of Office , as will most of his fellow students , his teachers and the boss at his internship .
Read More : Microsoft Office 2013 Preview : More Cloud , More societal , So - So speck
Related Stories :
15 Technologies My Newborn Son Wo n’t Use
13 Tech Sounds That No Longer survive
12 Outdated Songs Rewritten For Today ’s Tech
Laptopmag.combrings you in - profundity reviews of the hottest mobile product , the late tech word , helpful how - to advice , and expert psychoanalysis of the a la mode tech trends .
LaptopsSmartphonesTelevisions
Daily Newsletter
Get the right tech , science , and culture news in your inbox day by day .
News from the future tense , delivered to your present .
