I recall being a kid in the 1990s and wandering about the Mall. Many malls at the having an AT&T store, though these AT&T stores didn't sell cellular phones but landline service, answering machines, cordless phones, caller ID units, most likely long distance plans and other phone related services. But I wasn't really interested in of the cordless phones or wired handsets I was interested in the video phone they had. It had terribly slow frame rate and plenty of lag but it was in front of me and for sale. More than once did I wander into the AT&T store to just look at and poke at the video phone.
After years of watching various incarnations Star Trek and films like Back to The Future (II) and Johnny Mnemonic which promised me face-to-face tele-communications in the future. The future was for sale in front of me. The AT&T video phone never really caught on and would later vanish into the past.
Fast forward. Here we are in the not so distant future from my tween mall wandering, videophone marveling days. AT&T stores dried up for several years only to be replaced later with new AT&T stores selling cellular/mobile phones, cases, lanyards, face plates with various team logos, patterns and colors, and wireless hands free units for our wireless phones. Phones have displays and custom rings so we can tell who is calling with out looking at the display. Our computer monitors and televisions are now large, flat, wide and everywhere. Some monitors include tiny video cameras and others TV tuners that can act as computer display on one half and TV on the right or another computer on the right.
Portions of future we dreamed of collectively are here and hardly anyone notices or takes advantage. Web cams have been around for years but few seem to use them to actually have a two-way conversation/communication. Recently Kala and I have started sway more towards using google video/voice chat from phone calls. Years ago it was nearly $1000 to get that AT&T video phone which did , today you can buy a $300 netbook/laptop will send email, surf the web, watch movies, listen to music, edit photos, and video/voice chat. Video chat costs virtually nothing, you may need to pay for a camera but chances are you already are paying for the bandwidth.
The future is here we just don't seem to care or maybe everyone else is waiting for the transporter...
Posted by Ben at May 07, 2009 12:37 PM