GOODBYE DESKTOP

by John Brandon, World of Tech News

Who’d have thought a decade ago that portable music wouldn’t mean a cassette Walkman or Discman? Or that the VCR would be all but obsolete? That nobody would use fax (or even dial-up modems) any more? Or CRT? Let’s take a look at what technology of today will become redundant over the next decade.

1. Keyboard and Mouse will be replaced by highly-detailed touch interfaces allowing the computer to respond to your movements, eye-tracking, head gestures, and, one day, your very thoughts!

2. Public Wi-Fi:  WiMax networks that run in major cities will negate the need for a local hotspot, and will allow cities to develop smart grids where citizens can see their power usage in real-time, electric cars report mileage and traffic info over wireless, and streaming video systems replace telephone networks.

3. Landline Phone: Landlines will be replaced by smartphones.

4. Optical Discs: It’s amazing that current notebooks and desktops come with an optical drive, and that we’re still buying Blu-ray discs. In the future, more ubiquitous fibre networks, even in rural areas, will make Broadband faster.

5. Standard Game Controllers: The Xbox 360 controller will morph into a combination of the Nintendo Wiimote with accelerometer sensors, video systems that scan body movements and other hardware extras.

6. Desktop PCs:  Intel and AMD processors, and graphics chipsets in notebooks, can now compete with desktop equivalents.

7. Operating Systems: The bloatware of today will be replaced by an extremely thin OS that maybe doesn’t have a name, and certainly is not run by a commercial entity.

8. Blogging: The web will become much more interactive, as proven by services such as Qik.com 

www.techradar.com

UK LAUNCHES ONE-YEAR PROGRAMME TO MONITOR EVERY EMAIL

In a move that even the most nonchalant of privacy advocates is crying foul over, the UK has put into effect a European Union directive which mandates the archival of information regarding virtually all internet traffic for the next year.

The data retention rules require the archival of all email traffic (the identities of the sender and receiver, but not the contents of the messages), records of VOIP telephone calls (traditional phone calls are already monitored), and information about every website visited by any computer user in the country.

The rules are being pushed down “across the board to even the smallest company,” as every ISP large or small will be required to collect and store the data. That data will then be accessible -- to fight “crime and terrorism,” of course - by “hundreds of public bodies” to investigate whatever crimes they see fit.

Technically the new directive applies to all countries of the EU, but individual nations appear to be complying with the rules to various degrees. Privacy-obsessed Sweden is reportedly ignoring the rule completely, for example.

Privacy concerns aside, another issue is how exactly to manage all this data. A report dating back to 2004 estimated that a single large ISP in the UK would need up to 40 million gigabytes of storage capacity to store the traffic data from a year of user activity. 

http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/null/136610