Farewell!

To all my readers, I just wanted to say thank you for reading my blog thus far. Technology will never cease to improve and that is the exciting part of living in the current era.

We are at the dawn of an era that has just begun to see rapid advancements.

The point of this blog was to show you, and hopefully try to get you to think outside of the box, and think of the ramifications of the future.

It’s been fun!

-AF

Goodbye Brick & Mortar

Every day, more and more people are using online shopping as a means of…well, shopping. But this form of retailing is posing serious problems for physical retail stores. 

“Mom and pop” shops have been feeling the effects for years, but recently, large retail chains such as Modells, or even Target, for example, are feeling the effects. 

I think with my current generation, there are still things that we need to see and touch in the “physical” realm, so that beats out online shopping, but what happens when my generation (Generation Y) grows old? 

Once the baby boomers die off, a generation raised with computers could pose a gigantic problem for physical stores.

What do you guys think?

3D TV

Within the last few years, watching movies in 3d has spread across America in movie theaters everywhere, but there was a catch…you needed to wear glasses to experience it. 

Toshiba is now starting to release televisions that play in 3D that need NO outside glasses or accessories. Obviously it is expensive, as the starting price for the lowest model is around $1400, but not having to wear glasses to experience 3D TV could be worth it. 

Aside from that, I start to question the future of television. It has been reported that in the not too distant future (even as soon as 2020) we will start to become more immersed in our entertainment. Video games will become more real than anything we have ever played before, and even a fully functional synthetic brain is rumored to become constructed.  

The distinction between reality and synthetic reality could become harder and harder for us to judge as time continues. 

Obviously the opportunities and possibilities in the future are infinitive, but at what cost to our existence? 

Maybe it's a little unnecessarily deep, but still interesting to think about nonetheless.

What do you guy's think?

In the meantime, check out these links!

Possibilities of 2020

Toshiba 3D TV - without glasses 

R.I.P. Blockbuster

By my house there is a Blockbuster that has been open since I have lived there (10 years) and on my Spring Break I noticed that everything in the store was on sale. People were running in and out, grabbing whatever DVD's, posters, and video games they could, before the store was completely empty.

Just recently I returned home for Easter break and the store is completely gone, and I blame not only NetFlix, but OnDemand as well. These two HUGE movie corporations have forced stores like Blockbuster and even SunCoast to “die out.” 

It is just too easy now to sit on the couch, browse new releases, and have them automatically play with a single click of the remote, instead of going out of your way to a video store. 

Maybe it is just me, but I have grown to love going out and browsing PHYSICAL copies of movies and choosing the one I want to see. Maybe it’s the nostalgic aspect of it all, but the more these mega movie corporations weed out and destroy these stand alone movie chains, the more I want to walk into one of them and choose a movie like I used to. 

I think only one word describes the inevitable future of our home movie watching experience (besides “convenient”), and that is…

LAZY!

What do you guys think?

Facing Extinction?

Tablets: The new craze at the moment that is taking the world by storm. Most can do everything a standard laptop can do, but the major difference is that there is no touch screen. 

Before the beginning of this craze, almost everyone I knew shook their head in disbelief, and doubted it would gain the type of popularity it has raised to today. “It just looks uncomfortable to use” was a usual response or “I need my keyboard,” but once they tried it out for themselves, they couldn’t believe why they said those remarks in the first place.  

Now, Sony is planning to release two new tablets this coming year with Android technology, which has quickly become the operating system of choice thanks to the Motorola Droid. 

What does the increasing producing (and using) of tablets mean for the future of laptops?

They can do everything a laptop can and more. Apps are constantly being released; for entertainment purposes, business, and all other in between, and it is because of this where the Tablet shines. The Tablet is slowly merging the “business” and “fun” aspect of portable computing. 

Laptops were never conveyed as “fun,” but now consumers are given the chance to conduct business while having fun, as using a Tablet is plain and simply fun to use. 

Are laptops slowly becoming extinct? Or are they just facing major environmental issues that they will overcome in time?

What do you guys think?

Stars Virus

According to the NY Times, Iran has discovered a new type of virus that is capable of damaging government systems. Called the “stars virus” it has been sent to laboratories for further investigating.

This is interesting, but when thinking about it on the global scale, it becomes downright terrifying. It has been speculated over the years that the next terrorist attack will probably revolve around the use of technology. We as a nation have become so dependent on technology, such as internet, television, radio, and everything else in between that if we didn’t have that, our government and nation as a whole would come to a complete standstill. It would take years for us to even SLIGHTLY come close to what we had before. 

This type of technology and possible terrorist tool makes me question the future of the world. If something like this was to happen on a grand scale to any nation, they would have to rebuild society from the ground up, and look how long it took us to come this far? 

Click to read the NY Times article:

 

What do you guys think?