Items here now won't be there then

[ian]

Yeah, but you're the one dying out.

Having a fairly modern smart device is ubiquitous for anyone under the age of thirty these days, and honestly, the scope of such devices is amazing. The capability window has, like for computers, grown – as they become more powerful, there's no reason why a phone several years old won't be perfectly functional. But there will be fewer people waving their twenty-year-old Nokia at you and humpfing about smartphones.

Phone updates these days are incremental, I only update every half-decade or so.

[Woofage]

banknotes and coins.

Coins maybe, but I don't think banknotes will go. As long as there are men* in positions of power who wish to conceal their dodgy dealings there will always exist a need for traditional cash.

* they're usually men. My pronoun choice was deliberate.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Yeah, but you're the one dying out.

Having a fairly modern smart device is ubiquitous for anyone under the age of thirty these days, and honestly, the scope of such devices is amazing. The capability window has, like for computers, grown – as they become more powerful, there's no reason why a phone several years old won't be perfectly functional. But there will be fewer people waving their twenty-year-old Nokia at you and humpfing about smartphones.

Phone updates these days are incremental, I only update every half-decade or so.

It's not the phone itself though, it's the OS. If next year's apps were compatible with last year's OS then it would all work, but I don't see any reason why that should become the case.

[grams]

But there will be fewer people waving their twenty-year-old Nokia at you and humpfing about smartphones.

They wave their 10 year old smartphone at you and humpf about lack of app support and terrible battery life. "But it still works perfectly" they exclaim.

The latest one has so-called turbo charging so that you can't plug it in overnight but have to keep an eye on it for half an hour in case their charging algorithm is bollocks and the battery gets fried.

Have devices that require user intervention to prevent overcharging *ever* been a thing? Maybe in the worst days of early NiCads?

[ian]

Support is usually several years now, this computer is c2015 and runs the latest MacOS, I have a 2012 iPad that runs an older iOS and is admittedly failing to run a lot of newer and updated apps. It sucks for hardware manufacturers, of course. I won't cry myself to sleep.

But there's probably a point in they wave their 10 year old smartphone at you and humpf about lack of app support and terrible battery life. "But it still works perfectly" they exclaim.

[mrcharly-YHT]

banknotes and coins.

Coins maybe, but I don't think banknotes will go. As long as there are men* in positions of power who wish to conceal their dodgy dealings there will always exist a need for traditional cash.

* they're usually men. My pronoun choice was deliberate.

I thought they just used Bitcoin these days.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

The timescale was 3 decades.

Going back 3 decades we just got the WWW.  In that time it has changed the developed world.  Tech is moving faster than that now so I would suggest anything is possible in another 3 decades. 

One area of research that will produce dividends is exploration of organic computers, of which the human brain is an example.  Once it is possible to develop that area of expertise the potential for change is very large indeed.  Moore's law will be in the slow lane.

[Woofage]

banknotes and coins.

Coins maybe, but I don't think banknotes will go. As long as there are men* in positions of power who wish to conceal their dodgy dealings there will always exist a need for traditional cash.

* they're usually men. My pronoun choice was deliberate.

I thought they just used Bitcoin these days.

Aye, you're probably right. I still think that the folding stuff will be around for quite some time though.

[T42]

The latest one has so-called turbo charging so that you can't plug it in overnight but have to keep an eye on it for half an hour in case their charging algorithm is bollocks and the battery gets fried.

Have devices that require user intervention to prevent overcharging *ever* been a thing? Maybe in the worst days of early NiCads?

My first laptop, ca. Y2K:  I left it plugged in all the time and the battery died. Maybe it wasn't overcharged but simply taken to 100% too often for its own good, but it was still muttonsville.

[Cudzoziemiec]

banknotes and coins.

Coins maybe, but I don't think banknotes will go. As long as there are men* in positions of power who wish to conceal their dodgy dealings there will always exist a need for traditional cash.

* they're usually men. My pronoun choice was deliberate.

I thought they just used Bitcoin these days.

Aye, you're probably right. I still think that the folding stuff will be around for quite some time though.

It's hard to make a rhyme with coin to match "holding folding".

[Kim]

Antibiotics.

[Jaded]

 

Antibiotics.

    

[Jaded]

The timescale was 3 decades.

Going back 3 decades we just got the WWW.  In that time it has changed the developed world.  Tech is moving faster than that now so I would suggest anything is possible in another 3 decades. 

One area of research that will produce dividends is exploration of organic computers, of which the human brain is an example.  Once it is possible to develop that area of expertise the potential for change is very large indeed.  Moore's law will be in the slow lane.

Anything is possible in three decades.

As long as it can cope with apocalyptical weather and mass extinction.

[Diver300]

Have devices that require user intervention to prevent overcharging *ever* been a thing? Maybe in the worst days of early NiCads?

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/battery-maintenance/battery-chargers/halfords-up-to-1.8l-car-battery-charger-329059.html In spite of the availability of cheap semiconductors, that sort of battery charger still exists, and will degrade a car battery if left long term.

Of course, having a battery charger rating of 1.8 litres* rather than a maximum current would be a serious warning sign to me of tat.

*about 3 and a bit pints, which is just as irrelevant to charger ratings as 1.8 litres.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Calculators as standalone devices. You can make funny words on all sorts of things nowadays.

[Mr Larrington]

The latest one has so-called turbo charging so that you can't plug it in overnight but have to keep an eye on it for half an hour in case their charging algorithm is bollocks and the battery gets fried.

Have devices that require user intervention to prevent overcharging *ever* been a thing? Maybe in the worst days of early NiCads?

My first laptop, ca. Y2K:  I left it plugged in all the time and the battery died. Maybe it wasn't overcharged but simply taken to 100% too often for its own good, but it was still muttonsville.

My 2009-era Asus Eee PC fairly quickly reached the stage of being unable to boot on battery power alone.  I was mildly afrit that some airport security womble would ask me to prove it really was a working Babbage-Engine rather than a bomb.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The magnetic strip on bank cards. And probably bank cards themselves.

[rafletcher]

The magnetic strip on bank cards. And probably bank cards themselves.

Already facial recognition is being used to take payment direct from bank accounts in some Amazon shops. And in  China to take fines from people misusing the recycling bins or jaywalking.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The magnetic strip on bank cards. And probably bank cards themselves.

Already facial recognition is being used to take payment direct from bank accounts in some Amazon shops. And in  China to take fines from people misusing the recycling bins or jaywalking.

Wow. And I was only thinking of phones and 'wearables'.

[Basil]

Public phone boxes.
Actually this may be in the wrong thread as I don't think I have seen a working one for some years.
There are some in the surrounding smaller villages that have been painted yellow. These contain defibrillators.

[SteveC]

Public phone boxes.
Actually this may be in the wrong thread as I don't think I have seen a working one for some years.
There are some in the surrounding smaller villages that have been painted yellow. These contain defibrillators.

The one in our village has a defibrillator, but is still red.
The one in the next village appears to have a garden in it, although I've not stopped for a good look.

[Basil]

Some time back a bloke in Brum rented one and turned it into a micro coffee shop. Not sure how successful he was.  I'm guessing not.

[Efrogwr]

A friend bought the phone boxes in Llanberis; his wife runs a community art organisation that uses them for display.

They are not the smallest galleries in the world...

[MikeFromLFE]

I wonder what the future of new car dealerships is.
Already there seems to be a move towards on-line configuration and ordering, plus click and collect.

Test drive? Well sir, you can hire this model for a week, the cost offset against your 'purchase'. (Which will of course be some sort of rental deal).
Trade in? Sounds of laughter echoes from the rafters, because everyone else just has their car on a 'scheme'.

No, the days of glossy showrooms staffed by bright young things in snappy suits, all on commission, are very much numbered.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

They'll become old car dealerships. 

There'll be a boom in auto-nostalgia any day now.