Predictions from PCworld

PC World just came out with 100 technology predictions

Here are some of the ones that I liked:

Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech-recognition program claimed an accuracy of 99 percent, but PC world tests showed an accuracy of 96 percent. Expect higher accuracy to allow use of machines without keyboards.

Adding flash memory to the motherboard could lead to PCs that boot up and load applications more quickly. (expect in 2007).

(2007) 1-terabyte desktop hard drives. 2 terabytes (2009), 8 terabytes (2013).

Current Blu-ray specs allows for a maximum capacity of 50GB (with two layers), TDK has already demonstrated a prototype Blu-ray disc that uses six layers to hold 200GB of data.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have produced a prototype of a light-sensitive protein coating that they believe will eventually store up to 50 terabytes on a DVD-size disc. (2008-2010)

The Helio display can create a TV out of nowhere, projecting an image onto a curtain of compressed air. Right now it is prohibitively expensive (around $20,000), but the price will fall as the technology matures.

Fiber-optic broadband service is currently available in 17 states, providing up to 50-megabits-per-second downloads and 5-mbps uploads to the lucky few subscribers who happen to have access. PC World thinks 200 mbps down/20 mbps is coming.

Analyst Ron Glaz of IDC thinks that shoppers will be able to buy a 10-megapixel camera for less than $300 by the end of 2007, and a 20-megapixel camera for less than $300 by 2015

Nanochip could delivery tens of gigabytes of memory on a chip.

New printhead design dubbed JeTrix, in a couple of years could allow one thousand printed pages per minute.

Comments are closed.