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No one can know the future. But can we predict the future gadgets? The answer is yes, of course our prediction will not be 100% accurate.

We predict the future gadgets by paying attention to current trends. The trends will guide us to discover what devices will become part of our life.

The trends for the gadgets of the future are:

* Miniaturization

* Futuristic and bold design

* LCD with touchpad usage

* Usage of hi tech and hi speed chips

* Usage of green, eco technologies

Miniaturization

The trend in technology is to create ever-smaller scales for first mechanical, then optical and most recently electronic devices. The miniaturization trend can be traced back to ancient times both as an abstract science and a physical practice, beginning with atomic theories of the nature of matter and the use of early microscopes and leading, centuries later, to the current sciences of nanotechnology and molecular nanotechnology.

Regarding the gadgets the miniaturization is transforming them into: easy to use, easy to fit everywhere carry, travel and store devices.

Futuristic and bold design

All the actual gadgets have great design. The new devices use futuristic designs or a combination between classic design and futuristic one. Another popular combination is retro futuristic design.

The trend for the hi tech is to adopt a futuristic design.

Of course there will be a large number of simple devices which will use the classic design. This gadgets are for the ones who consider simplicity to be the new complexity and for the ones who don’t like hi tech and adopt very hard new items.

LCD with touch screen

Touch Screens are cool and are becoming more and more present on different types of gadgets.

The future gadgets must use touch screens because there are simple to use and have enormous popularity. A big plus for using touch screens is the new technology which permits making cheaper electronics.

Touch screens are use today for gadgets like: mp4 players, car Cd-Mp3-Radio’s, GPSs, mobile phones, computer monitors, LCD TVs, PDA’s.

Usage of hi tech and hi speed chips

The impact of this tiny chip has been far-reaching. Many of the electronics products of today could not have been developed without it. The chip virtually created the modern computer industry, transforming yesterday’s room-size machines into today’s array of mainframes, minicomputers and personal computers.

The integrated circuits made the gadgets faster and smaller. They played a major part in the miniaturization process.

The gadgets for the future will use tiny, but powerful chips which will make them super powerful.

Now the hi tech gadgets are very popular. Mp players, mobile phones, games consoles, hi fi audio systems, GPSs and PDAs are best sellers.

The gadgets which don’t use hi technology will continue to exist for two categories of people: the ones who prefer simple things and the ones who don’t like technology.

The usage of green, eco technologies

Eco technologies became more and more popular in our days. The love for nature encouraged people to protect it and adopt environment friendly technologies.

The trend for the new gadgets is to use less energy to operate and to be recyclable. Solar power is used as much as possible because it is free and harmless for the environment.

Conclusion

The gadgets of the future will be smaller, smarter, faster and more eco friendly.

Designate An Electronics Drawer

Does your home office have various cords and plugs and gadgets scattered around, laying on shelves, in the bottom of boxes, and at the back of a drawer? You find random USB cords that you *think* came with your digital camera, but you’re not really sure… Hmmmm.

Solve this chaos by designating one spot for all cords. Go to any Walmart to the plastic bin section and purchase a $15 3-drawer tabletop plastic chest. Also buy a pack of file folder labels. Go back home and treasure hunt for all your random cords, gather them around you and sit down on the living room floor and get organized.

1st: Label the drawers something like this…

- USB Cables and Miscellaneous Accessories

- Old cell phones and chargers

- A/V cables, Printer and Monitor Cables

2nd: Label the cords

- Write the cord’s name on a file folder label, then use it to tag the cord.

- Use rubber bands or bread bag ties to keep them from sprawling out of control.

In fact, I even tag all the cords plugged into power strips. You will eventually have to unplug one of them, so isn’t it smart to know which one you are pulling? Yes!

3rd: Put them into their designated drawers, properly labeled and the last and most important part of this project…..

Tell Your Family!!! Announce the new system!!! They will soon come to appreciate that one spot and no more frustration finding cords.

Computer Gadgets Worth Having

There are just some things in my home office that I can’t live without. I highly recommend these simple and inexpensive items so your computing time is streamlined.

I buy as much of my stuff online at Newegg’s Electronic Store as possible, but I also take a look at clearance tables at my local office supply stores. I use a laptop, so a laptop stand recovers desktop space and I store my notepads and post-its under my laptop. I use the ALLSOP stand from Office Max.

I also have only 3 USB ports on my laptop, but about 8 USB items to plug in. So a USB Hub is vital to keep me running efficiently. The Kikkerland Hub Man is awesome and entertaining. I LOVE IT.

I use a variety of color coded USB Flash drives. These are very inexpensive and get better/bigger all the time.

A second monitor keeps my email on one screen and my active project on the other. A very efficient setup, but not necessarily a cheap addition.

New vs Old

This is an important topic; have you seen the price of computers? They’re incredibly low! Buying a new computer isn’t such a bad idea. But it’s a hassle to buy a new one. All that time to transfer files, install software, the expense of buying software you already have on your old computer, and the list goes on.

Instead of buying a new computer, I’m going to upgrade the one I’ve got this week. Just one easy click into The Crucial System Scanner takes the guesswork out of upgrading your memory. (By the way, the Crucial Memory company was started in Boise, Idaho.)

It’s going to cost me $58 to double my RAM, speed up my Window’s delay and web page loading. That’s alot cheaper than $800 (+ tax and setup time) for a new computer. When the memory sticks arrive, you will get a set of instructions on how to install them. (Involves removing a side panel on a PC and a bottom panel on a laptop. Fairly harmless. I’ve done it multiple times and have survived it.) *smile* I MEAN IT!!

Open source gadgets mean any software whose source code is made available for use or modification for users or developers.

The advantages of the open source gadgets are evident: since everyone can modify the source they are improved continually by software communities and the vast majority of open source programs are free.

Being free is a huge advantage sometimes you, the computer owner want to do simple, one job, like editing a document or a picture, and you don’t want to spend a small fortune doing it, so the free open source programs are your best friends.

The most of the open source gadgets were initially created for Linux owners, but in the last period of time more and more open source gadgets were developed for Windows. And in this article I’m going to tell you about the best gadgets for Windows users.

The free and open-source software that you should use are: web browsing – Mozilla Firefox, video player and video podcasting: Miro, instant messaging: Pidgin, e-mail – Mozilla Thunderbird, RSS: RSSOwl, peer-to-peer filesharing: Cabos, video player – Media Player Classic, DVD ripping and video conversion – Media Coder, word processing suites – OpenOffice.org, podcasting: Juice, sound recording: Audacity, photo editing Paint.NET, FTP – Filezilla.

I’m currently using: OpenOffice.org to write and manage documents, Filezilla for FTP connections, Paint.NET to work with graphics and Thunderbird to read and write emails.

Don’t aspect the open source gadgets to have as many features as the paid ones, after all you get them for free.

Well known are the open source Google Desktop Gadgets like: Google-battery (Never lose track of your power. Always tell you how much battery power is left) Google-calculator (Calculator gadget for Google Desktop), Google-cricket-news (Displays cricket news headlines and images), Google-cricket-videos (the same like the previous only it displays videos on your desktop), Google-desktop-sdk (Complete examples of using the Google Desktop Gadget APIs) Google-digital-clock (is one of my favorite desktop gadgets, it is obviously what it does: it shows time, but in a beautiful manner ),Google-flower-pot (It is a Virtual Flower Pot which will grow to full bloom right before your eyes if you give the flowers some water using your mouse like the old Tamagoci games), Google-moon-phase (Displays the moon’s current phase) and Google-timezone (Find what the time is in different locations).

For now the most used software’s are the paid ones, but the free open source ones come fast from behind. Each day communities of developers work on them for us to have a better experience and free programs.

Too often we think about gadgets like small devices made for us to have fun: mp3 players, cell phones, PDA’s, music players. So we forget about the ones made to help people and really change their life.

This article is about the gadgets that improve people life and aren’t so known as party and funny gadgets. I’m going to talk about the gadgets built for people with disabilities, devices that help this people to have a better life. The majority of these gadgets are made for the blinds so I will start with those.

Electronic eyes

This high-tech device recognizes the white stripes of a pedestrian crosswalk and reads traffic lights could tell a blind person when it’s safe to cross the street. The electronic eyes are being developed at Kyoto Institute of Technology.

Braille PDA’s and computers

The Braille Display allows blind users to use standard computers or PDA devices. The Braille gadgets use refreshable Braille displays, which raise small dots through holes in a flat surface to create Braille that refreshes as the user inputs commands. So a blind person will be able to play music, read books, take notes, making presentations or reviewing/editing documents.

PC with a screen reader

Screen readers access information displayed on computer monitors and interpret that information via text-to-speech output. This software must be used along with text to speech synthesizers to allow the blinds to use the computer easy.IBM offers Home Page Reader, special software to read and navigate Web pages for those who are blind.

Cell phone with Talks software

Talks software was created by Cingular Wireless. With it a blind person will have full access to the capabilities of the cell phone using only his voice.

Other usual gadgets for blinds are: Braille and talking clocks, Braille color-identification labels for clothing, tactile writing and signature guides, talking calculators and magnifiers.

For deaf persons there are several helpful gadgets which I will tell you about.

Portable amplifiers

These are small devices that can be easily carried and they are used to provide increased sound amplification.

Telecommunication devices

The telecommunication devices for deaf have typewriter keyboards, and the typed conversation appears either in a readout display or on paper.

Telecaption Adapters

The adapter is attached to television set. These enable viewers to read captions on their television screen.

Alerting gadgets

Now a deaf person can know when someone knocks at the door, when the baby is crying or the telephone is ringing. All these are possible because of the alerting systems. An alerting system for deaf will send a signal if: the baby is crying, the doorbell rings, telephone rings, the smoke alarm systems is on, the security alarms or the wake up alarm was started. The signal may be visual (a flashing light); auditory (an increase in amplification); or vibrotactile.

For the ones without hands or fingers there are some new gadgets designed to improve their life.

X-Finger

X-Finger is medical gadget replaces lost fingers created by Dan Didrick. X-Finger is a non-robotic prosthetic finger, or set of multiple fingers, with a full range of motion, including being able to curl like normal fingers.

The Bionic Hand

The Bionic Hand was created by David Gow. It is unique because thumb and fingers can move and grip just like a human hand and it is unique because it is uses patients mind and muscles control the movements.

So when you hear the word gadgets don’t think only to a device to have fun with, think about devices that improve people life, especially the ones with disabilities.

There have been quite some people who have been amazed with technology. Though there are some who are not usually gadgeteers, they still do get amazed when they get to witness some of the coolest gadgets there is in the market. Well, you do know that the market is full of these — from the most useful to the craziest ones.

Let’s now take a look at the gadgets that you could use with your PC. See, there are gadgets also known as USB gadgets. USB, as we all know, is a port in your computer. This actually stands for universal serial bus. This port in your computer allows you to connect to gadgets and other devices so that they could play right in your computer. Sometimes, there are gadgets which need power. Now, the USB port actually has some power which could give life to these gadgets.

In Gadget Epoint’s collection of USB gadgets, you would find the USB turntable. Yes. There is such a thing. Now, this is a real good one to have around. See, if your dad has quite a collection of old records, there is no need for you to throw them all out. If you have the USB turntable with you, all you need is connect this gadget to your computer. When you have done so, you could put in any of the records you have around. The gadget would convert any songs recorded in that vinyl and they would become an MP3 which you could now save in your computer. Nifty, right? You would not have to say goodbye to the old songs that generations before you have enjoyed.

USB gadgets are some of the most interesting ones that you could probably see in the market. Check out what Gadget Epoint has to offer.

Computers of the future will use atoms instead of chips for memory. That’s a simplified way of saying that within the next few years, we can expect miniaturization to go into the atomic level to bring to the consumer and the office more power computers that require significantly less power and possess lesser footprints. Using nanotechnology advances, the computers that we know today will become more powerful and more energy efficient and can fit more snugly inside a handbag.

What we have today

Computers have evolved from using vacuum tubes in their earliest incarnation to transistors in the 60s to integrated circuits of the 70s and to Very Large Scale Integrated circuits (VLSI) of the 80s. The latest VLSI has reached its maximum miniaturization potentials using Lithography to engineer the laptops, netbooks and mobile hand-held phones and gadgets we use today. It’s a landmark technology of the 20th century. But Lithography can only go so far. The microprocessor chips that power the computing gadgets in our hands house millions of transistors in lithographed wafer thin circuit in multiple layers inside those chips. To get them more powerful with ever decreasing sizes and lower power requirements, we need a new technology.  We’re headed for something far tinier.

The New Technology for the 21st Century

Tiny means in the vicinity of a billionth of a meter or around 1/500th the width of a hair strand.  That’s mathematically called nano.  And the engineering technologies behind working at such a microscopic atomic-sized level of parts fall within the ambit of nanotechnology. The benefits behind nanotechnology are so immensely far-reaching; they redefine the technology landscape to open new possibilities that are mostly considered impossible or at least expensive in today’s world.

Computers are among the first to get there.  A nanocomputer chip designed at the molecular level is expected to be 3-4 magnitude orders smaller than the smallest chip in the market today and their computing power doubled or tripled. It offers the next generation of computer chip design and manufacture with greater possibilities after exhausting the most that current Lithography VLSI can offer.

Nanomemories

In the near future, expect to boot up a PC in no time.  If you’ve ever started a PC or laptop, you know it can be excruciatingly slow.  With a new nanotechnology derivative called nanomagnetics that can provide faster memory chips called MRAMs, waiting for the PC to boot up can be banished forever. The new MRAMs are non-volatile memory storage chips that remember virtually all that it captured before power is lost. That makes it useful as a computer DRAM. It is also expected to be employed in other mission critical areas like databases and sensors that require instance access to large quantities of data with minute powering requirements. Smart cards that have embedded chips will get a boost with larger data storage capacities that can contain a person’s entire life history.

When to Expect It

Nanotechnology is real. Realizing this promise is only a matter of time as engineers are perfecting the manufacturing processes for commercial-grade nanotech products to reach the market at the end of the next decade. Grade schoolers of today just might get their mobile phones on a ring by then.  In the meantime, expect mobile phones and netbooks to get just incremental improvements in features, nothing radical until the first nanotech atom computers become available.  GP