Technology is a part of our life that draws mixed reaction from masses. At least it does not face as many polarising issues as may be the automobile or aviation sectors. Keeping the polarising topics aside, technology is something that does make us sit up and take note of what is happening around us. When the tech talk comes down to the things we use on a daily basis and can not think of living without, there are some demands that each and every one of us makes and all of us eagerly await for something that delivers what we demand.
Technology today is not limited to just our smartphones as our mobile phones have actually become more of a bridging device than something we can use to call other people. With the emergence of smart home appliances, smartphones have become central to the development of all that is personal technology. However, both smartphone industry and personal technology space have not been able to do enough to make people take notice of all that is happening. In terms of things that are visible to all of us, unless some prefer to sleep through their lifetime, there are some technological developments that have yet to become as popular as they should have been. Here’s us breaking them down for you:
1. Qualcomm Snapdragon 805/808 chips
We have written Qualcomm chips but we are maintaining a broader purview of what we consider in this part. Qualcomm is known to power most of the smartphones around us and its 800 series of processors are the ones flagship and high-end smartphones have been using. While the Snapdragon 800 and Snapdragon 801 processors found decent takers and were quite the rage back in their time, the real development came along with Snapdragon 805, Snapdragon 808 and Snapdragon 810 processors. The Snapdragon 805 chips introduced us to the idea called Fast charging technology. The Snapdragon 808 introduced us to the idea of 64-bit computing, something folks at Apple had already known and Samsung used to market its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge as they come with its Exynos processors. The Snapdragon 810 builds upon the pros of Snapdragon 805 and 808.
The important thing to note here is that Snapdragon 805 brought the idea of fast charging technology to us folks (Motorola fans know it as Turbo Charging). However, the same processor is not present on more than 4 smartphones which have been split evenly between Motorola (Moto Turbo and Nexus 6) and Samsung (Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge). Even more stark a truth is that Snapdragon 808 is present on only one smartphone named LG G4. Considering that every smartphone maker focuses on making its flagship smartphones the best that can be out there in the market, this is a pill hard to swallow. Even more strange is the fact that devices running on Snapdragon 801 and 800 are still available in the market and that they have roughly 35 smartphones spread between them.
The important idea here is not about a processor’s wider availability but the fact that there are no takers for something as important as fast charging technology or 64-bit computing ability. As far as Apple’s target audience is concerned, they have either moved on to adopting the new iPhones (forcefully or by own willingness) or have switched to Android OS, most Android OS users are still living in stone age and are only happy with new look and feel about their smartphones. Strange, but true and the simplest of reasons why Android 5.0 Lollipop supports 64-bit computing and is not a 64-bit OS as such.
2. Wireless Charging
Wireless charging is just a nice idea to keep yourself free from the net of tangled and/or damaged cables. Most of the times when we are charging our phones, we are forced either by circumstances or by our own habit (smartphones are no longer lifestyle accessory but absolute necessity) to use own device while its battery tops up. If there is a USB cable attached, we might just plug it out, in which case the battery stops topping up (we do reconnect them later). However, if we do not disconnect the cable, chances are some of our actions end up damaging the USB cable. It is easy and cheap to get a new cable, but why bother?
Wireless Charging has enabled us to avoid such scenarios by letting us keep our phones away from us while its battery tops up. During such a time, we tend to either keep our hands from our smartphone away or ensure we do not end up accidentally damaging a USB cable or any other thing around us (though so can not be said about the smartphone and the charging pad). Various manufacturers have taken various ways, with some like Sony even going for Magnetic Charging support instead of Qi Wireless Charging support. However, its insistence on making you buy a different charging dock for devices launched at different times is pretty annoying (why can’t the same dock that is used Xperia Z2 be used for Xperia Z3 as well?)
3. Quad HD Display
QHD or Quad HD or 2K displays have become popular since the LG G3 hit the market. However, the idea has been around for a long time now since the television industry has already been utilising the 4K display technology. The mobile industry has not been benefitting from the advancement in the display technology much since more pixels lead to more battery drainage. As compared to Quad HD display-equipped smartphones, their Full HD display-equipped counterparts have been able to consistently dole out great battery performance while also being great at displaying available content. The Quad HD displays not only harm the battery life of the device they have been put up on, they are unable to add much value to the content being displayed as not much is available in 2K format in the first place. As much that is a fault of lack of necessary stuff to make such media available, the other side of smartphone makers not really pushing for development in this area is also true. Only Samsung and LG have been pushing for development in display technology sector by offering only Quad HD displays on their flagship smartphones. Motorola has joined their ranks with Nexus 6 and Moto Turbo and we wish HTC and Sony would join them up soon.
– HTC has come up with One M9+, One E9+ and One ME come with QuaD HD displays. Sony does not have an offering in the smartphone market, but its Xperia Z4 tablet has Quad HD display. Sadly, that is not available in India right now.
4. NFC
NFC or Near Fields Communication is an idea that, in theory, would have made Bluetooth file transfer a redundant idea a long ago had it not been a hardware-related issue. NFC requires placement of a chip that can enable such an exchange between two devices. Android OS-based devices had adopted this technology long ago but it was limited in its scope. The limitation came in the form of the size of the content that could be transferred from one device to another. With Android 5.0 Lollipop has also come increased NFC functionality. In fact, the increase in functionality is so much that entire data can be transferred from one Android smartphone to another (both running on Android 5.0 Lollipop) via NFC through the Android Beam feature. NFC also made Apple sit up and take note of the promise it held and based its Apple Pay system around the said technology.
Even though that is true, there is still a dearth of smartphones and other mobile devices in the market that come with NFC capability. While NFC was never meant to be a long-range option like Bluetooth (a few feet for Bluetooth versus a few centimeters for NFC), it could have very much led to the demise of Bluetooth and instead be used to connect smart wearables to smartphones. However, the lack of mass market availability and adoption has led to this technology being unable to reach its full potential and beyond.
6. Smart appliances
There are a lot of people out there who would do anything to get a washing machine or an air conditioner which they could remotely control with their smartphones. Yes, Nest is working on the idea of smart homes, it is the smart appliances space that has yet to be explored. Even Nest equipment does not completely automate your home and instead is limited in its functionality. Nest’s scope is currently limited to thermostats and smoke alarm systems, though appliances like washing machines and fans are slowly coming out to work with the system to automate your home.
7. Smartwatches
Smartwatches is a space that is undergoing a lot of development but the real trouble is not the development, it is the lack of their popularity and adoption. Take it this way, until Apple Watch arrived to the scene, there were not many takers for a Moto 360 or an LG G Watch. We are still not sure if sales of Moto 360 and G Watch have picked up as yet, but like all things Apple, expect the Apple Watch to be as popular as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. This brings us to the next trouble in this sphere which is the aesthetics.
A smartwatch is expected to be a watch that can do more than what a usual watch can already do. It is understood as an extension of your smartphone and aimed at giving you the bits of information that you would normally be accessing on your smartphone. While every smartwatch is able to achieve that, it is the shape, battery life, compatibility with various devices and cost issues that are holding the smartwatches from becoming more widespread and popular. Unlike other things in this article though, expect smartwatches to become more widespread in coming few months though.
8. Water and dust-resistance
What makes a smartphone worth the attention it gets? Gimmicks like fingerprint scanner, build materials, OS, cameras, processors and RAM, etc. have been the defining factor for most of the manufacturers. However, in the process, more important factors like damage from accidents was ignored. Strangely, most damage, while being accidental, came from water and dust and continues to do so. How many of us have faced those days when it would suddenly start raining and we had to look for a plastic pouch in which we can safely encapsulate our phone.
Sony toyed with the idea of waterproofing and dust-proofing its smartphones to get users to care less about elements and more about being able use their smartphones under most conditions. Samsung toyed with the same idea, in the same way Sony did, when it came out with Galaxy S5. However, only Sony offers waterproof and dust-proof smartphones right now in the market with Motorola offering water-repellent devices. The real problem here is the absence of important technology from our daily lives, especially in the places and on devices that matter the most to us. Is it because we do not care or is it because we are always cloaked from the elements that we have to face everyday?
9. Cooling methods for portable devices
Those who have been using laptops for a few years now are quite aware of this problem. But the issue of heat dissipation is not limited to just laptops and has found its way to tablets and smartphones as well. While laptops have a lot of things stuffed up inside them and can still have a fan, smartphones and tablets do not have spaces for such cooling tricks. As a result, while it become easy to use a laptop with an accessory fan stand, so is not the case with smartphones and tablets. Masses have been clamouring for slimmer and slimmer devices and that has led to tight packaging of hardware, leaving no space for use of any cooling equipment.
However, in this case, smartphones and tablets could benefit from some of the extreme tricks that are used to cool down overclocked computers. While putting in a fan on a smartphone is a daunting task, circulation of cooling gases in available spaces could help in making smartphones more efficient and less prone to overheating. The inspiration could be driven from the automobile industry where radiators have been in use to cool down engines and well as coolants. If some method could be devised for smartphones and tablets, it would be a boon for all users.
Technology, Automobiles, etc. 