Tech tonic shifts

If you thought computers powered by fuel-cell technology that you can leave behind while wandering around town with a pen-enabled screen belong to the future, think again.

If you thought computers powered by fuel-cell technology that you can leave behind while wandering around town with a pen-enabled screen belong to the future, think again. These and a host of hi-tech gizmos were more than enough eye candy at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which ended in Vegas last weekend. Seems it was one place where you could get to see the high priests of technology like Intel, Google and Microsoft showcase their state-of-the-art wares, even as some of the more off-beat electronic consumer gadgets made their debut.

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Together these gadgets and products have created a digital networked economy. It is hard to separate these themes and see where one leaves off and the other begins — their evolution continues unabated. But having said that, there’s a disturbing trend in this explosive growth: the way manufacturers combine multiple functions like wireless, cameras and GPS into ever-smaller devices.

For this prompts them to build faster and faster processors for inventive, and often inexplicable, gadgetry — without bothering to check if consumers actually need them. Do you really need your cell phone to tell you when you’re tired? Or the newspaper projection on the screen to decide you’ve read enough and switch off? How many of us have used their cell phone camera recently? Maybe you wouldn’t want to have that future here in a hurry.