Breathing Phones

The Economist released its Technology Quarterly a bit ago, this edition is a must for anyone that enjoys seeing science fiction turn into tomorrow's reality. Among other discussions in this quarterly, there are two interesting looks at mobile technology.

One article talks about alternate reality and its potential with the growth in the smartphone market. Programs are being created to overlay information about a place that you are physically looking at thanks to cameras, GPS, and internal compasses in smartphones. The GPS can position exactly where you are and the compass can tell what you are looking at through the screen based on its direction and the angle of the phone. Then, the world turns into Real Life-Pop-Up Video Version. This has great application for traveling: forget having to research the wikipedia places before you go see a monument. Now they can show up and no one has to struggle to remember what happened. Or, on a more day-to-day basis, it can be used to overlay the menus of restaurants as you are walking down the streets.

Another article talks about phones that breath. Well, they don't actually breath but they do use air to keep the charge in the battery. The result is something that is down to one tenth the weight of a normal phone battery and reduces the cost of batteries by 30%. Basically, you remember Zach Morris' classic 80's block phone from Saved by the Bell? Well today's phones will start seeming like that and new phones could start looking like Will Ferrell's phone in this video.