Facing back to the future

When I see new technology devices, I often think back to the world of technology I grew up in.  It was full of Amiga 1200s, uncastrated mice and a rather troublesome Cyrix-branded Pentium clone with a whopping 4 megabytes of RAM.  TV came through an analogue signal via an aerial and, in the UK at least, four channels broadcast for the majority of the day.  The telephone was indeed mobile - albeit confined to a few metres near the wired holster - and mobile computing was limited to Casio scientific calculators and a novel device called a Palm Pilot.

Sat right beside me in the present, is a pocket sized device containing all the gadgets heroes from most pre-millennium science fiction shows would have on their utility belt.  It can display high definition video, connect with a headset without wires, snap high definition still photos and capture video, share and download  data, show me a satellite image of where I am standing, find my nearest coffee shop, remote control my cable TV and obviously make telephone calls.

Don't you look at devices like this and think to yourself "this is fucking awesome: I live in a sci-fi show where everyone can find out who sang the Swedish entry of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993 where-ever they are"?  Okay, you might not place as much stock in the ability to know about Arvingarna's song for Europe, but I'm sure you get the idea.  Technology is exciting and hopefully will continue to be.

On the other hand, I'm sad to find that I've been  underwhelmed by the new games machines such as the PS4 or XBOX ONE, as they don't seem to be that much better than their previous incarnations.  The same can be said about mobile phones and other tech.  Maybe it's a slow down due to the economic conditions, or just a slow down as companies wait for customers to be ready for the next big thing.

Either way, I'm still amazed at how much a device the size of a half-slice of bread sandwich can do anyway.