If you go back to pre-millennium, you would be surprised at just how different life was. There were no smartphones even at the turn of the century. In fact, virtual reality was ahead of the touchscreen tech industry at this point and investment into artificial intelligence was in full swing. People generally communicated via SMS on their mobiles and to connect to the internet while on the move GPRS was the main signal used, which was slow!
Technology has always influenced our lives. The first Walkman was amazing because it meant portable music. The very first car phone meant we could receive calls while on the move. Then we started to get portable computers (laptops) and game systems Nintendo Gameboy. On top of this, DVD players were made portable – this is after DVD took over the VCR cassette players!
Miniaturization of Entertainment
It all began with making the TV, DVD player (with FM radio), telephone, and sound systems smaller. Even speakers were made smaller when headphone were invented. It was this miniaturization that led to everything being portable. It was amazing when you could go on holiday and pack your portable Discman for music, portable DVD player, and Nintendo Gameboy giving you music, movies, and games while on the move. This was all before the smartphone and 4G!
Technology Integration
In the end technology would be integrated into one. Arguably this began when the original Apple iPod was invented. Apple thought let’s compact this iPod, make it touchscreen, and allow people to download audio and video to the iPod. You could also play games with reasonable graphics on the first touchscreen iPod. Essentially, you had a music player, movie player, and a source of gaming all in one place. On top of this, you could connect to WiFi and surf the internet.
The Smartphone
It was only when someone decided to turn the iPod into a mobile telephone did things really start to change. Blackberry had the business market at this time with its multi-function email, web browser, and iPod had the music market. However, integrating everything into a small handheld computer would mean our lives were about to become more convenient in every way.
Today you can connect to high speed 3G and 4G connections, download games, movies, music, books, and pretty much use your smartphone in a similar way to the way you use your desktop computer at home or your laptop. We can watch on demand movies in multi languages. For example, if you want to connect to Netflix USA schauen, then you can do this from any country in the world.
Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and Blockchain Tech
Today we are looking at the possibility of more technological changes in our lives. Ones we could never have imagined in all honesty. It is not too far fetched to say that virtual reality is the next best thing and it will change our lives completely with the capability to stop wars and disputes. In fact, virtual reality might even create a society in which we end up socializing more online than we do with the outside world.
Imagine being able to come home and watch TV while sitting on a Caribbean beach surrounding. Zoom in your friend who lives overseas so you are both sat there next to each other pretend sunbathing with the only difference from actually being physically in each other’s presence is the fact that you cannot touch each other. Now I would like to put a bet on virtual reality one day adding sensations such as smell, heat, cold, and the ability to touch things, but I doubt that will happen within the next 50 years.
There might even be a Netflix virtual reality channel in the end. You would connect to something like netflix Österreich filmangebot and pull up the location you want to be in on demand! Companies will be giving you virtual tours of houses they have for sale and you will be booking your virtual reality tour online then taking the tour of the house without even leaving your household. You will be able to sample vacation accommodation through VR before you book it.
Fancy walking down Wall Street or trekking over the great wall of China? Well you will be able to because the possibilities are endless once virtual reality finally makes its mark on our every day lives.
It is amazing what technology has done to us in just the last 20 years or so. Back then we would never have imagined that we would be so interconnected via online connectivity through a device that neatly fits in your pocket. It has changed the way we watch and use sources of entertainment and the future is sure to continue to change this no matter how far fetched or impossible it might seem at this time.
