Imagination from Microsoft

An interesting video that illustrates some of what might be just around the corner.

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage">Video: Future Vision Montage</a>

When Thinking About Tomorrow...Forget About Today

Today is so yesterday...really. Tomorrow, in fact, might already be yesterday.

If you had your doubts that wireless and mobile devices (among other things) are the future check out the work being done at the Georgia Institute of Technology:

[from electronista] The Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology has announced a CMOS chip that is capable of transmitting 60GHz RF signals. The technology is claimed to be capable of wireless data-transfer speeds in the multi-gigabit range. Potential applications include high-speed short-range communication between desktop computers, data centers, wireless home audio or video systems, or moving gigabytes of photos and video to and from mobile devices. The single-chip component integrates a low-power radio with an embedded antenna, while drawing only 100 milliwatts of power. GEDC researchers have experimented with a variety of configurations, reaching speeds up to 15 Gbps at one meter, 10 Gbps at two meters, and 5 Gbps at five meters. Tests also successfully streamed uncompressed 720p or 1080i video.

Low power requirements, lightning fast speeds, and if HD video can be streamed there's no audio content it won't be able to handle with ease.

Any plan for tomorrow must factor in and try to anticipate the (completely) unexpected.

I believe conventional wisdom in the radio industry today still believes in-car internet is still a long way off. Don't believe it! We (radio) were slow to recognize and participate in the tech revolution--even though it was already moving at warp speed.

High speed...wireless...cloud computing coming sooner than we all think.

The Year Was 1969...

And some futurist came up with this--computers in 1999. Found it on You Tube:



Remarkable how close they came--at least conceptually. They missed the mark on the interface, but hit the bulls eye when it came to many of the computer functions we now take for granted.

I'm not sure of the origin of this film, but in this clip the focus was on functionality and it got me wondering if there was a "part II" that focused on entertainment.

One can imagine what things will be like 40 years from now. Maybe I should make a film?

What's Next: Tweens

Move over Millennials--if we thought Gen Y was the tech generation just wait until today's Tweens graduate into young adults.

41% of Tween internet users listen to the radio less than 1 hour per week--that according to a survey conducted by DoubleClick Performics and ROI Research. Let me repeat that - less than one hour per WEEK.

83% of 10-14 year old Tweens use the internet at least an 1 hour per day. The recent survey concluded that young US consumers spent more time on the Internet than with any other type of media.

According to Arbitron's 10 year TSL trend trend, through spring '07, among teens (12-17) there has been a 20% decline in weekly TSL. For the purpose of comparison I have taken the data an converted it into average daily TSL.

As of the Spring '07 the average teen uses the radio about 1 hour and 42 minutes a day down from 2 hours and 8 minutes in fall '98. Spring '07 cume was 90.6% compared with 95.6 back in fall '98.

So if we were to correlate the two studies--not so easy to do since they are apples and oranges in terms of demographics and sample--one thing the recent survey does convey is potentially a pretty grim picture of what radio usage is like/will be like with the next generation. Maybe we should call them Gen T for Tech.

I hate being doom and gloom, but it is hard to paint a positive picture of the future when survey after survey tells a different tale. If we take the recent survey at face value, only 29% of today's Tweens use the radio an hour or more a day. And that can't be good for our future.

This and That

Sometimes talking about the future, commenting on the present, and opining for a healthier radio industry needs a little rest.

Today's post is really 4 posts in one. Lucky you!

1-cool new device; 1-iPod tidbit; 2-mashups (I love mashups!!)
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Lenovo (formerly IBM) has a cool new "do it all" device coming out. Check out the Ideapad U8.




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The iPod Death Clock

Like all gadgets, even the lauded iPod will eventually make its way to scrap heap. Check out this site and put your iPod on it's very own death watch.

Deathclock


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ABBA and 50 cent mAsHUp (why not?)




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And this one: Queen and Outkast