Sep. 23rd, 2017

garote: (programmer)

I made a list like this about 7 years ago. Today I wondered: What's changed?

A lot less is honestly impressive now, so I've rearranged the entries, and added some new stuff (the items in green).

Totally unsurprising:

  1. Call people on the phone.
  2. Keep an address book that is synchronized online.
  3. Keep appointments with a calendar that is synchronized online.
  4. Set alarms and timers, including vibrating alarms.
  5. Do basic math.
  6. Type and sync unformatted notes.
  7. Send and receive emails, text messages, instant-messages, twitter alerts, et cetera.
  8. Record, play back, and sync voice memos.
  9. Use as a portable hard-drive (Air-Sharing, FileMagnet).
  10. Estimate currency conversions using up-to-date ratios (Currency).
  11. Take photos with GPS tags embedded, and post them online or send them to people immediately.
  12. Make international telephone calls at a discount (Skype, etc).
  13. Get local and remote weather forecasts.
  14. Watch movies in a tiny screen (Netflix).
  15. Purchase and read e-books and music.
  16. Pair with a physical keyboard for easier data-entry.
  17. Subscribe to video/audio podcasts, play them, and download current episodes.
  18. Scrawl pictures with my finger and save them (Scribble).
  19. Download and install enhancements to the device (App Store).
  20. Record a track of my physical location, and play it back later.
  21. Remotely view and crudely interact with the screen of my desktop or laptop (VNC, WinAdmin)
  22. Search on a map for services of all kinds, and call them up on the phone with one button.
  23. See a view of my living room, from a wifi camera attached to the wall, in real time, from across the country.
  24. Take a picture of a document and have it automatically read all the text on the document and turn it into a PDF.

Somewhat impressive or surprising:

  1. Mark areas of poor signal coverage and automatically report them to my provider.
  2. Connect to a television and present movie and slide shows.
  3. Calculate resistor color codes (OhmEE, ResistorCC).
  4. Record and do minor edits to a video, then place it online or send it to someone immediately.
  5. View and manage my bank accounts fairly recurely
  6. Locate the nearest movie theaters, see their schedules, and book tickets (Fandango, Flixster).
  7. Lose all my money in the stock market (E*TRADE Mobile Pro).
  8. Listen to a continuous mix of new music that the device thinks I will like, based on an ongoing analysis of my selections (Pandora)
  9. Wirelessly control nearby lighting fixtures, dimmers, and consoles (Luminair (DMX lighting control)).
  10. Display a number pad, and pair it with a nearby computer keyboard that lacks a number pad (NumberKey).
  11. Spot tornadoes and get advance warnings with weather graphs (Radar Scope).
  12. Browse my home music collection on it and play music through speakers in different rooms of my house (Remote with an AirPort Express).
  13. Track plane flight status, with real-time departure info, gate delays, and flight locations (FlightTrack, Live Flight Tracker).
  14. Attach a thumb-sized credit card reader and conduct business transactions (Square).
  15. Have a two-way video chat with someone in another country.
  16. Get a map, satellite view, or street view, all over the world, see my present location, and calculate walking or driving directions.
  17. Ask basic math questions out loud, and get the answer spoken back to me, e.g. "What's the square root of 1207?" "The answer is approximately 34.7419."
  18. Automatically grab photos and videos from my Canon DSLR camera, as I take them, and perform a variety of scripted actions on them. (ShutterSnitch)
  19. Poke a button in my chat history with a person, and see their exact location (assuming they're with their phone) on a map, accurate to within the last 5 seconds.
  20. Learn a new language 15 minutes at a time, on an app that speaks the language back to me.
  21. Attach a cardboard sleeve to the phone, with a pair of lenses in it, turning it into a 3D VR headset that can play back videos I record with my 360-degree handheld recorder.
  22. Track packages and get a notification seconds after they're placed on my doorstep.
  23. Automatically gather stats on my car's fuel efficiency, diagnose check engine light problems, and compile maps and mileage info on all my car trips. (Automatic)

Impressive or surprising:

  1. Mine a database of real-estate listings, including purchase and tax histories. (ZipRealty).
  2. Search for and then book international flights and hotels across multiple airlines (KAYAK HD).
  3. Carry and use a reference for how to recognize various animal tracks (MyNature Animal Tracks).
  4. Carry and use a reference for how to tie various knots, with video and written tutorials (Knot Guide).
  5. Scan barcodes of almost any product, accessing a worldwide database of products to both identify the item scanned and provide comparative pricing and locating (RedLaser).
  6. Control the presentation of slideshows (Keynote Remote).
  7. Tune my guitar (Guitar Toolkit, OmniTuner, TyroTuner).
  8. Record my voice as I sing along to music, measure my accuracy, and apply automatic pitch correction and harmony (Glee Karaoke).
  9. Measure the level and slope of flat objects and sides (Clinometer).
  10. Make a surprisingly accurate guess at the title of whatever music is playing in the environment (Shazam).
  11. Strum a mathematically emulated guitar (Twang).
  12. Mine and cache a real-time database of plane preflight information, including icing forecasts, wind mappings, radar and satellite images, flight rule and terminal procedure listings, approach plates, VFR and IFR charts, etc (ForeFlight).
  13. Act as a crude and uncalibrated seismometer (Seismometer).
  14. Hold the phone up to the sky and get a map of what constellations should be visible in that direction (Starmap, Star Walk).
  15. Remotely lock, unlock, and start my automobile (Viper Remote Start System, Mercedes-Benz mbrace).
  16. Record the amount of tossing and turning done in bed, and use the data to time a wakeup alarm to avoid REM sleep (Sleep Cycle).
  17. Automatically report back to the public works department when I hit a pothole in the road, so the accumulated data can be used to dispatch repairs (Street Bump).
  18. Get an automatic announcement about which lane I need to move to as I approach an interchange on the freeway.
  19. Shoot video that is processed to look like an ink sketch on paper, in real-time, at 60 frames a second.
  20. Secure my phone with my fingerprint, scanned fast enough that it unlocks the phone in less than a quarter of a second.
  21. Have my photos automatically organized by who's in each one ... including photos of my cat.
  22. Attach it to a wireless controller, and fly a drone with it, showing and recording its location and everything it sees. (DJI Go 4)
  23. Hold it up to a sign written in a foreign language, and have the translation appear in the picture as though it's written on the sign. (Translate)
  24. Rent a bicycle from a kiosk downtown. (Zagster)

Very impressive or surprising:

  1. Locate and reserve a nearby rental car, and when you get to it, unlock it (Zipcar).
  2. Explore 3D recreations of large cities around the world, at 60 frames a second, so detailed that I can see into the windows of my own car parked on the street.
  3. Summon a person to my door, driving their own car, who will then take me to my destination for less than a taxi would charge. (lyft)
  4. Secure my phone with a 3D scan of my own face, more accurate than using my fingerprint, validated in less than half a second.
  5. Speak to the phone in English, and have it translate my sentence into Mandarin and speak it back to me, after less than a second of delay.

What do you think, fellow modern people? Are there any items here I've forgotten about? Any new developments?

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