The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Walk around your house counting all of the products you have that plug into something. They may plug into an electrical outlet, a phone line, a satellite connection, or even another product. It seems that more engineers at major companies have walked around their homes and have seen far too many products, and now they are searching for ways to put things together. Some of the attempts at convergence over the last several years have been ridiculous. I saw a fridge two years ago with a built-in video screen and an Internet connection. Supposedly to find new recipes and nutritional information, I began to wonder when I'd want to spend $7,000 so I could surf as I cook. Reality has set in as technologies mature and companies begin to understand better how people use the electronics they buy. A better example of what convergence can mean for consumers happened last week as Comcast finally signed a long anticipated deal with Disney to carry much of their content, including news and children's programming over the Internet. This makes sense to me. The first steps at bringing together computers, broadband connections, and television and music programming are well underway. Downloadable music and movies are here, and soon more regular programming will be available online. Along the same lines is radio content. Websites like Live365.com list hundreds of radio stations available online playing any format you could want, from any corner of the globe. The Windows Media Player probably already on your computer (or iTunes software if you have a Mac) also lists plenty of stations. Hooking up your computer with either a home stereo system or a home video system will guarantee you high-quality streaming content. If you want, you can go as far as buying a satellite radio for your vehicle so you can enjoy what you have got used to listening to at home while you are on the road. Phones and PDA's have also come together to the point now that Sony is no longer selling its Clie line of products. Most phones are increasing in power, bringing together PDA functions, text messaging, and cameras along with allowing you to make calls. Rumours are that more companies are seriously considering doing away with PDAs from their line of products. This year we have seen the beginning of products that will play music as well as allowing you to view still pictures and even video in the format of a portable player. Now that digital cameras and video cameras are everywhere, people want to bring their files with them to share with others. It's now possible. Many of these advances seem small. They almost seem like ways that companies can charge us more for products by adding more features to the things we buy. But they are more than that. They are signs of maturing technologies, giving us more choice and power as consumers. As we demand more from our electronics, as we find new ways of communicating with those around us, and as we demand the ability to tune into content that has been produced for us, whether it be online music, television programming, or sports scores wherever we are, we are only seeing the beginning of these changes. ([email protected])
