On 03/20/2013 03:58 PM, Joe Zeff wrote:

On 03/20/2013 12:50 PM, Gordon Messmer wrote:

There will continue to be high-end workstations with whatever features
you want that aren't in mobile devices,

Like keyboards big enough for touch typing?

Auxiliary keyboards big enough, as you say, for touch typing, are under development right now. As we speak.

The even bigger item will be a Cloud-based back-end application that will directly transcribe your spoken dictation.

Imagine if you will, yet another remake of the motion picture Double Indemnity. Imagine Walter Neff hauling out his smartphone, right where he stands after Phyllis Dietrichson has just shot him, starting the Dragon Dictate App, and starting to talk: "E-mail: Walter Neff to Barton Keyes, Claims Manager," and instantly the e-mail app loads, starts a new message, and puts Barton Keyes' name and e-mail addy in the To: field. Then as Neff keeps talking, "Dear Keyes, This will probably sound like a confession when you read it, but I don't like the word 'confession,'..." the app will start filling in the body. And keep filling it in as long as it takes.

Right up to the time that Mr. Keyes tracks Mr. Neff down using the GPS locator service on their two smartphones.

Think that's the stuff of science fiction? Well, hold onto your seat, because voice command is already a feature of most smartphones that use the i- and Android OS and, I presume, the WinPhone OS, too. From command to dictation is a step that I predict will take not more than five years to take. (Smartphones also carry GPS functions, but that's an aside.)

Now will someone tell me again that smartphones will never replace laptops? What am I missing here?

I can think of only one thing: someone concerned about anyone else, including a third-party Cloud host, having any access to his stuff, even by accident. For example, I don't imagine that James Bond, if he were a real person, would care to store his notes on the Cloud, where Ernst Stavro Blofeld or his minions could hack into it and read them.

But whoever is that concerned with his own security, might wind up paying more, not less, for desktop or laptop equipment with the passage of time. Am I right or wrong?

Temlakos