17.2.10

News of the Future (Written back in 2006)

Eventually news in the paper medium will loose it's hold in the market. Some promising technologies that are in development today will likely converge. While there is no telling what the new medium will look like we can expect how the technologies will converge.

Synaptics and Multi-Touch Interactive Research both own patents in multi-touch screen technology. Hewlard Packard is developing a flexible paper thin display. Sun Microsystems has developed the Java programing language over 15 years ago and it's potential for web applications still has not been maximized. Cities and communities are already beginning to enable open WiFi internet access free of charge or at the expense of tax payers. With all this emerging, a new medium of news will be a welcome invitation.

The way we will use news in the future will evolve into an interactive multimedia world where media outlets and the public connect instantly, poles presented in real time and voting done on the same device.

The multi touch technology will allow the reader to manipulate, size and move news content and news media with both hands or even with more than one person. The paper thin screen will allow the reader to fold it and put it in his/her pocket. The java technology is what will bring the multimedia and interactivity to the reader. Free WiFi access in major cities will allow readers and media outlets to connect from virtually anywhere.

The specifics of how the device will function or how the market will adapt to this technology cannot be determined. However, the way we communicate and the way we read news will soon converge, making newspapers obsolete.

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