Home | The Gadgety Path Away From the Living Room TV, Part 1 »
By Dave | December 31, 2007
Welcome to the inaugural post at GadgetyTech! To kick off the new year and the new blog, I thought I’d run through five specific gadget advances I’d like to see in the coming year.
iPhone – 32 GB storage capacity: I don’t have one yet, and the reason I don’t is storage capacity. When the iPhone was announced, I was using a 60 GB iPod with Video for a mix of music and video. I just couldn’t see trying to designate a subset of that data to fit in an 8 GB device. I wanted the iPhone to allow me to replace two devices with one, but that storage limitation just wouldn’t do it. So this year, in the anticipated iPhone 2.0, I’m wishing big and hoping they double the storage available in the 16 GB iPod Touch that I’m currently using (and have completely filled). An iPhone with 32 GB would finally get me to leave my iPod at home, and allow me the mix of music and video I want to carry.
iTunes – Greater control for multiple devices: A lot of people, including myself, have multiple iPods. I’m sure this is a trend Apple would like to encourage. But they absolutely must devise a sync control scheme that allows finer control when selecting content to be automatically synced. If I have a 4 GB Nano and a 16 GB Touch, I’d like to be able to load different sets of music to each from the same library, while still automatically syncing. I’d also like greater granularity in podcast syncing. For some podcasts, I want to keep all shows on my iPod, but for others I might just want the unplayed episodes. One size never fits all.
Amazon Kindle – Concept proven, now make it pretty: I was in the first wave of Kindle owners. And I really enjoy it. But there’s no denying that it looks (and sometimes handles) like a device from another decade. For version 2 of this eBook reader, I’d like to see a color touch screen, sleeker design of the case, and richer graphical content in the software. A few of the publications available have images included, but I’d like to see more, and I’d like to see a wider array of fonts available to give each publication a more unique look. I love the experimental web browser and hope they mature it and bring it forward into a new version, but if they do, it needs better navigation. That’s where the touch screen comes in. Once you get used to touch-enabled devices, everything else seems underserved.
Apple TV – DVD and computer independence: I’m almost surprised to hear the rumblings that there will be another version of this one, as it’s seemed rather neglected in the dust kicked up by the iPhone. But the Apple TV fills some very specific niches in delivering content to a television in a simpler and less expensive way than a media PC. There are two simple changes I’d like to see here: Add a DVD player, and make it capable of contacting the iTunes Store regardless of whether the computer with the synced iTunes library is currently available. This could work just like the wireless iTunes Store does now: Download to the device and sync to the library when it’s available.
Nokia N810 successor – Make it cellular: I absolutely love the N810. It’s probably the best mobile Internet experience I’ve ever had. The fact that I can do essentially all of my web and e-mail activities from it, with virtually no compromise (except a little squinting), is fantastic. That I can link it to a wireless keyboard for easier writing makes it even better. Just one problem: I need to have access to Wi-Fi, or run it through my cell phone (which can be a bit problematic). I’d love to see a nice cellular radio added to the next Nokia Internet tablet. I don’t really need to make phone calls from the device, I just want much broader coverage for Internet access.
So there they are. If I get even a couple of these wishes fulfilled in 2008, I’ll be pretty happy. What about you? What would you like to see offered in the next year? Leave a comment and let me know.
Topics: Wishes |
Comments
January 1st, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Here’s my iPod/iTunes wish: A better library of cover art for albums. Imagine my shock at THIS notice: “Artwork for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band could not be found.” Really? Honestly? Come on, folks! Get the damned artwork in the system!
February 5th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
[…] iPhone, as I bought an 8 GB model two weeks ago. Second, I’m feeling better than ever about my 2008 wish for the iPhone to hit 32 GB with in the year. That now seems very likely, probably when we get a real 2.0 […]