Top Five Things I’d like to see in future smartphones…
1. Built-in QR/2-D Code functionality in smartphone cameras – The technology has been great, the adaptation? Not so great. QR and 2-D Codes are a great idea that has wide appeal abroad, but has been slow to catch-on in the States. While it has the potential to match its brother the Bar Code in importance, it will need the boost of a standardized smartphone industry to take it to that next level.
2. I/R Transmitters – I’ve thought for quite some time now that I/R transmitter integration into smartphones could potentially double its value to the user. Literally. Imagine a smartphone device that was your “click for info” portal to the world. With receiving IR receivers or barcodes being placed on store signs, advertisements, street signs, any user can have “click-for” info abilities on many things in the environment. Walking by a restaurant? Point your device at the bistro as you drive by and receive deli specials immediately on your device. Driving by a theater? Click for movie times and to purchase some movie tickets, displayable on a mobile screen.
3. Flick-style data transfer of all media/file formats – Apps like iPhone’s Mover have made great strides towards this important and under-recognized ability, but in the near future users are going to demand smartphones, including ones from different networks, to allow flick-sharing of all forms of media and file formats. Be it in the business world or personal, emailing will quickly become too obsolete for data transfer amongst these powerful little devices.
4. Solar-cell technology – Some of the most innovative minds of the past decade, smartphone producers need to take some green-friendly steps by investing in hard-cased solar cell shells that can extend, or eventually replace, the need for toxic batteries. Solar cells are becoming more efficient in capturing broader wavelengths of light, meaning we could be making solar cells that can capture and use light from our cubicle fluorescents in the very near future. Imagine how much power the world could harness from leftover office space lighting.
5. ‘Mother’ Devices – The core of the 3.0 movement, people on the go want lightweight, durable, powerful devices that can get them any form of data/communication instantaneously. We seem to all be bingers in the electronic world, taking in way more data and info than we could ever use in 3 lifetimes. But we want it, we love to compare the size of our iTunes library amongst one another. Having a mother device that houses the data, while being fully and wirelessly connected to the smartphone at all times, is the future. The iPhone/iPod relationship to the computer will someday be its ancestor.
