Mobile phones have become so tightly packed with technology it’s difficult to find the “phone” bit on them. It plays silly tunes every now and then but it's actually a mobile personal device enabling people to excel in the social and business environments of the 21st century. Love them or hate them this is one technology that is here to stay and will grow and grow, they've become central to everything we do in our social worlds, our business environments, leisure activities, communications, our everyday functioning. When once mobile phones were a luxury they are now a necessity. In a century where NOW is often too late, being able to communicate immediately socially and in business is imperative. But it’s much more than that. With social networking you can send thoughts and instant micro feelings in seconds; you can take pictures, use it as a sat nav; play games when you are bored; listen to your favourite music; browse the internet; text, and if you have time, makes a telephone call if you can find it. The mobile phone is not a mobile phone anymore. It is an essential tool which allows us to keep with the pace of the modern world. In the computer and internet world where once questions about how the mobile market would adapt to new applications were a secondary thought now designers have to consider the concept before anything else. Eric Schmidt, Google's chairman and chief executive says: “Google is now a "mobile first" business, with programmers and developers building mobile versions of applications and software before they built the desktop versions.” He said that more than 60,000 devices running Google's Android mobile operating system were being shipped every day, and that smartphone sales would overtake PC sales in the next few years. Here are some of the up and coming latest ideas to take these mobile things to the next level: Wear your mobile phone! Soon on the market will be the Nokia Touch sensitive body cover. Where this is different is it is bendy. If you want to have it on your arm as a bracelet it will wrap itself around your arm. All the controls are touch sensitive too! You can also just bend it up and put it in your pocket. Even at my age I find this quite cute . Read more… The see-through mobile phone. Another new development from Nokia is transparency. Apart from looking magnificently cool it allows you to read the interface from any angle including the back. Also it means the normal LED display for the camera is transparent. So you can see quite clearly what you are taking a picture of within a distinct frame. . Read more… The drivers mobile phone. As voice control becomes more and more powerful the TripleWatch is soon to enter the arena. Designed by Manon Maneenawa, this is a device in a wrist watch. It changes between being a wrist watch and a mobile phone some of the time. A little like an occasional table. An occasional wrist watch. The speaker button allows the user to answer the phone and hang up while driving – and just by speaking. . Read more… Your mobile phone is listening. Smart technology within mobile phones will soon allow the device to detect what environment you are in, what devices it is compatible with and can configure it to. It can also store a massive amount of information about the user simply by the gestures he is making! In this way it brings synchronisation to external technologies and work teams to a new level. For example, on entering a room a nearby computer can configure itself automatically to your preferences, or in a bar another phone can alert its owner to your sexual availability. Authorisation and payment. The future will see this personal device double as a credit card. So, for instance at the train station your phone can automatically pay for your first class ticket. Secure payments will in time lead to secure authentication for other purposes, such as vehicle or building access. The mobile can become a component in the standard three-part authentication system, of something you know (for example, a passcode), something you have (for example, the mobile device) and something you are (for example, through the measurement of a biometric feature). I have to admit I hate mobile phones and will continue to curse them daily but I am beginning to see my very small laptop as a quite endearing part of my life and family.
