We ’ve get complacent with many of our technological needs , simply commit up with what we have available now , even if it ’s horribly dated .
In some cases , it ’s because we ’re contented with what we have , ignoring the thought that something effective may actually be within our reach . In other cases , it ’s because we have no other choice but to get bent over the tabular array by huge corporations who simply desire our money and could n’t handle less about institution or forward-moving progress if it means less profit .
MaximumPC decidedto take a step back to keep some of the more wanting engineering science in do-or-die penury for reform , replacement or upgrade :
13. Business Cards
Trading business cards is a scrap of a custom , as is the exercise of compare them amongst fellow , but it ’s a tradition that should be put to rest . Instead of give out business card , it ’s much mere for both parties to distribute digital contact circuit board , with einsteinium - mails or via WWW links .
Those willing to embrace the futurity may even need to think the various smartphone answer available . Smartphone apps like Bump lease you trade contact data instantly , and you could let in a luck more info than could fit on a traditional occupation card . NFC splintering also hold a tidy sum of potential when it come to revolutionizing societal business interaction .
12. Mail Tracking Services
Mail table service have seen a lot over the year , expire from horse pull out buggy to overnight flights , but people are still seldom satisfied with the quality of the service . One of the cracking improvements as of late is the parcel tracking systems most couriers provide , but it could still use some oeuvre .
Parcel service have their pitch routes plan out in immense point . They know on the button how long it will take to get your package from one sorting station to the next , but somehow their ETAs are rarely spot on . Sometimes the package arrives sooner than expected ( which , to be bonnie , for certain is n’t always a bad thing ) , other time it make it considerably later . It ’s understandable that there may be some margin of error when count on the ETA of a software system at the beginning of transportation , but as it approaches its delivery goal , that margin should be keep down . It would be nice if the tracking systems would update eta like this accordingly .
It would also be nice if parcel of land services could be consistent about how they deliver things . In some cases , they view as it acceptable to go out your software at your door ( Sometimes even late in the evening . Without knocking . And you spread out the threshold in the sunup to witness a dew cover package with expensive electronics in it that was sitting out all dark ! Or maybe that was just us . ) . Other times they pull up stakes a note , asking you to peck up the package at their warehouse , but when you show up , they severalise you it has been sent out for a 2d delivery endeavour . Is it so operose to include some of these details on the trailing pageboy so that we know what to have a bun in the oven ?
11. Fax Machines
In office environments , there are very few mathematical product that are more wasteful than a fax machine . Faxing a text file generally entails printing the document in the first place , just to have it scanned , institutionalize over an antiquated parallel short letter , and then print again at its finish . To make matters worse , the document is often thrown away immediately after .
Just about all of this can be accomplished without ever take the text file out of its digital form through the economic consumption of due east - mail or web service . Most cloud storehouse avail even provide advanced backup root so that there ’s no need to print out multiple copy just to be stuffed into some folder buried somewhere .
Who use fax machines any longer ? Answer : the government . Any clock time you have a written document that you need turn into the government speedily , such as to avoid a tax audited account or panel responsibility , you have to fax it . The only matter extending the life of fax machine now is the fact that in orderliness to post someone a facsimile machine , you take a facsimile machine machine ( though some web based fax services do exist ) . An ideal resolution would be Modern fax machines that are subject of interpreting e - mail attachments as well as facsimile machine to act as a step stone in phase out the aging engineering .
10. Landlines
Landlines . They just ai n’t what they used to be . Whenever anticipate on a land line , the odds of turn over the intended person are fairly low , since they could easily be away , in the next room . Or the can , or a motion-picture show … Cell phones provide us with an instant gratification that the landline never could . So now that we ’re firmly entrenched in our always available electric cell phone mode , what are our landlines bring home the bacon us with ? Sure , a landline will still work if the power go out , but so will a cell phone .
To make the landlines ’ case worse , many are work up on ancient wiring with some only capable of data contagion around 14kbps . Considering that near everyone owns a cubicle sound these 24-hour interval , there is a with child chance to repurpose the primitive landline mesh and refresh it with fiber optic connections right down to a residential level , and ideally starting with those on the old ( read dumb ) of strain . Even though it ’s a high-priced endeavor to advance the entire country ’s infrastructure , companies like Verizon have already started its undertaking , though the rollout will take some prison term and is focused primarily on metropolitan areas . It ’s prison term everyone get to join the digital era .
9. Television Remotes
How many remotes do you have for your telly / amusement heart ? I have three : one for my idiot box , one for my cable box , and one for my videodisc player ; and even though both my cable and TV remote control are programmable universal remote control , neither works absolutely with all three telephone receiver .
With today ’s cyberspace colligate TVs and the digital Robert William Service cable provider use , we should be capable to utilize our smartphones and computer to control our TVs . We can already manage our DVR remotely . Is add the ability to modify the channel or volume really that difficult ? This would also give us an easy time find oneself our favored appearance with advanced lookup feature as well as open up the potential to look at lagger , extend serial and installment information .
8. Car Radios
When you consider the quality of your standard wireless station , it becomes distressingly absolved that tuner is in heroic need of an raise . Static is a constant pain in the neck , audio calibre is subpar , and there ’s changeless incumbrance from station on neighboring frequencies .
HD wireless is a decent attempt at improvement , bringing near CD - quality audio ; however , a want of HD radio stations resulted in a lack of requirement for HD radio tuner , which cyclically led to a deficiency of young HD radio stations . orbiter wireless has been importantly more successful than HD radio , but it still suffers from character issues when traveling through tunnel , in parking garages , or amongst tall building . It also has relatively pricey subscription fees .
What we could really get behind are internet free-base radios working off of nomadic broadband services already blanket most of the world . Such connectedness could also be used for backseat video amusement , clamant traffic condition and GPS counsel .
7. Indoor Climate Control and Home Automation
Air conditioning is a wonderful invention , but even advanced thermoregulator do n’t do a very good job managing it . When you ’re all nestle up in bed , you really do n’t need to keep your house at a balmy 70 degrees , but at the same sentence , you do n’t desire to wake up up to a chilly 55 . The same goes for when you ’re at workplace ; there ’s no need to blast the A / C to keep a frizzly 67 degrees , but you do n’t want to come up home to a sauna . thermostat have timer for such things , but that does n’t quite cover your Clarence Day off , occasional house guests , or vacations .
It ’s fourth dimension our domicile became more meshing integrate . The thermostat should have access to our daily schedule ; know what time our alarm redstem storksbill are set for , and give us a nice WWW based interface to tweak configurations as we please . The same should go for thing like the water heater , illumination , lavation machines , and protection . I want a house as smart as Tony Stark ’s JARVIS , and I want it now .
6. Calculators
When it comes to canonic mathematics , calculators do n’t need to be all that fancy , and at this point , anyone with a cell phone has no need for a standalone calculator . Now , graph estimator are an entirely different story .
The TI-83 is one of the most common graphing calculators out there , but in tech years , it ’s as old as dirt . Fifteen years old , to be exact , the TI-83 has in reality been discontinued since 2004 . Though the TI-89 Titanium has taken its place , even that good example is pushing 7 now . There ’s a whole cosmos of raw functionality calculators can take on , like wireless connectivity , COLOR displays , physics pretending , and gaming . Not to name useful , educational app .
One of the biggest limitations to advanced calculator design is exam acceptance restriction . An iPod Touch with a few of the ripe apps would make a nearly idealistic calculator , but skillful luck using that on an SAT test . luckily , Texas Instruments seems to be on the correct lead with its TI - Nspire CX serial . It ’s still nowhere near as powerful as a smartphone , but because it habituate modular accessories for things like wireless connectivity and data recording in lab environments , it ’s allowed on about all standardised tests . The TI - Nspire CX is unquestionably a step in the right direction , and the sooner it hit the marketplace , the good .
5. Printers
Printer technology has check steady improvements over the years , but it has never hit upon anything really rotatory . All we get are faster print f number and maybe some extra colour quality . The biggest innovation in the printer world as of latterly was the integration of wireless networking .
It ’s time that printers got saucy . I ’m tired of strain to obtain the right drivers to instal my Wi - Fi printer onhe w my 64 - bit electronic computer without installing all of the bloatware included in the machine driver frame-up filing cabinet . I ’m tired of have to reassign documents from my telephone to my information processing system just to print them . I desire a pressman knows what a .doc or .pdf is and can interpret and print it all on its own . I want to be able to get at my pressman ’s mark waiting line from any web impound equipment , drag and drop , and start printing .
While I ’m at it , why do we have to rely on open source projects like RepRap to get low-priced 3D printer . Here ’s a intimation to all of the big pressman producer out there : there ’s a vast mart of mass who need a simple sub-$300 3D printer .
4. Laptop Cooling
The term “ laptop ” variety of suggest that it ’s mean to be used on your circle , yet a enceinte majority of laptop models put their chill intake vents on the bottom of the chassis . Whenever you try using your laptop on your lap covering , those vents become block and your laptop is no longer adequately chill . This results in uncomfortable heating of your legs , and in some cases , overheating hardware and crash . Asus is one of the few notebook computer manufacturers so far to have addressed the subject – at least in a few of their gambling serial publication notebooks . These notebooks draw air down through the keyboard , which would obviously be clear any clip the computer is in utilisation . It sustain your hand ventilate too .
Another laptop cooling complaint is the location of the exhaust , often on the right side of the system , exactly where it ’s most comfortable to use your shiner . In the case of in high spirits - performance and gaming systems , the exhausted breeze can be quite hot , to the item that it ’s almost painful to bequeath your manus there . How about we just avoid all uncomfortable burning sensations altogther , alright ? We can do better .
3. The Internal Combustion Engine
The inner burning locomotive engine has been around for well over 100 years – when it come to our automobiles , we ’ve stay with the same fundamental design since the Model T rolled off the assemblage line .
While there ’s no denying that the combustion locomotive has seen some pretty massive improvements since Henry Ford ’s time , it ’s creating a dependence on non - renewable fuel and having adverse effects on our environment . contamination in metropolitan areas is start out to get out of hand , and do n’t get me start up on the cost of filling up your gas pedal tankful .
Sadly , replacing the combustion locomotive is n’t so easy . attempt with battery power electric cars have been made , but in the past times have ultimately fail due to poor range and lengthy recharge times . Solar powered solution have been look at as well , but any nighttime ( or poor conditions ) travel is met with the same drawback of traditional electric cars . So far , our ripe attempt at overcoming our gas dependance has been the Hybrid , but it ’s still using a traditional burning engine .
It ’s time for a shift to the Hydrogen Fuel Cell electric car . Much like your gas gulper , you’re able to satiate up any time your tank is dispirited , except or else of petrol , you utilize hydrogen . The car run most silently , and has basically no emissions at all ( preserve for a bit of H20 ) . Even better , H is wide-eyed and unobjectionable to give rise . The only veridical impediment right now is the deficiency of hydrogen filling station – and heck , that can be contract charge of .
2. Integrated Video Accelerators
When you think GPUs , you probably conceive either Nvidia or AMD ( formerly ATI ) , but in fact 50 % of GPUs sold in 2010 came from Intel , and they ’re all integrated fries . Now , nine times out of ten , your average end user wo n’t need anything more than the bare minimum public presentation that Intel ’s current GMA video recording C.P.U. provide , just your standard HD video recording playback and web browse , but what about that tenth meter ?
Where integrated GPUs often fail is gaming , and we ’re not talk high - end , all the bells and whistle , total eye candy gaming . Many innovative title do n’t support Intel ’s latest GMA solutions whatsoever , and those that do are scarcely ever optimized enough to provide any sort of reasonably acceptable game play . As a result , many citizenry who would play microcomputer games simply do n’t because they do n’t have a organization capable , and it ’s dead killing the PC gaming industry .
It ’s time for PC manufacturers to step up their game . The overall price of adding a dedicated entrance - degree gaming GPU is intimately negligible . Just because people do n’t expect to be able to diddle microcomputer games on their budget computers does n’t mean they do n’t want to . Why not give them a fleck more than they wait ? Some personal computer maker , like Dell , have already slowly started to enclose dedicated GPUs as received equipment for some models . It ’s a trend we ’d like to see continue .
1. Current Generation Gaming Consoles
The Xbox 360 and PS3 are the two most potent gaming consoles on the market today . In actuality , they really are n’t much dissimilar from a information processing system . Both have a CPU , a GPU , some RAM , and a hard drive , just like a personal computer , yet most computers are put back every three to five years with upgraded mannequin . Despite being about five twelvemonth former already , the PS3 and 360 both have a planned biography - cycle cover through 2015 .
These old system are leading to stagnancy in the gambling diligence . Every year , multitude flock to bribe the young Halo or Modern Warfare , but all we get is a bit of newfangled game content ; graphics overhauls are out of the question . personal computer games – and gamers – are suffer for it . In ordination to make games cross - platform compatible developers have to cater to the importantly weaker hardware in consoles . Epic Games has already produced a technical school demo of its latest Unreal Engine 3 run on current multiplication microcomputer hardware , pushing hard for next - gen consoles to get here faster .
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