This post is basically my ramblings about thoughts that occur to me in the shower. See, most of us do it, myself included, but I’ve never actually taken the time to write anything down. Just standing in the shower, lather-rinse-repeat, and all these ideas running through your brain. So, here are mine:

We are so close to having technology that can seamlessly go with you from place to place and eliminate the need entirely for a home PC, a work PC, and anything in between. Imagine simply sitting at your desk at home working on a full screen monitor with a full sized keyboard and mouse. You look at the time and realize you need to catch the subway to work. You run to the station, sit down, then whip out your phone and see exactly where you left off from your home PC. Same screen, same place in your document, same webpage, etc. You continue your browsing or editing as the train lumbers along. You get to your stop, put your phone back in your pocket and make the walk to your office. Sitting down at your work PC, it immediately turns on to the exact place where you were on the train. No need to re-do or start anew; it is all right there.

How?

Ah, here’s the good part. The information never leaves your pocket. There are so many technologies on the cusp of breaking through to commercial use. These are technologies that already exist, but have yet to be pulled together into a single cohesive unit. Wireless, bluetooth, inductive charging, near-field-communication. All ways to communicate and transmit information over the air without need of being tied physically together. Smartphones are rapidly becoming powerful enough to handle the processing needs of all of our daily workload. This little 4″ or 5″ pocket device will carry the brains of the operation, then it will synchronize wirelessly with any number of docking stations.

Imaging your home PC as simply a large monitor, a full sized keybard and a comfortable mouse. All of these devices can currently be powered by batteries or through a wireless inductive charging base. As the technology gets better, you might still have to plug your desk into the wall for full power, but it will broadcast that power to your peripherals, including your fax, printer, scanner, etc. When you walk into the room, your workstation will recognize the proximity of your smartphone much like keyless entry on newer automobiles. It will then mirror the display onto the workstation monitor (DNLA). Anything you input at your desk is actually being input into the memory of your phone. You are just interacting with your phone with a more traditional “PC” interface.

With a similar setup in your office, you never have to buy another computer again. Your peripherals simply recognize your phone when it is near, and wirelessy communicate the information. You can input information into your phone through its onboard interface (touch screen) or through these traditional devices (mouse). The data can be wirelesly backed up to an external harddrive if you need, or can be saved to the “cloud”.

Cloud computing is another technology that already exists and that you may already be using. Instead of homeowners spending the money to purchase harddisks and storage medium, we simply will lease it from companies. We will turn over the cost and hassle of upgarding storage technologies to these companies who can do it in bulk to keep costs down as well as maintain redundant backups to ensure no data is ever lost due to power outage or natural disaster.

Imagine a world that is so fully connected where you never have to remember a website address or leave a document on your work PC that you want to edit at home. Everything will be with you at all times. In fact, this very post could have been started at home (when I first thought of it), touched up at work (during the downtime provided by the massive amounts of rainfall), and then finally uploaded while I ride in the carpool on the way home. How convenient is that! And again, this is all done with existing technologoies. We just need to learn to integrate them better.

– UPDATE –
Links to existing technologies:
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer
Motorolla Atrix docking station
Wireless Monitors & Displays
Inductive Charging