Beyond the PC: Mobile digital gadgets overshadowing personal computer and their impact will be far-reaching
Posted in: Internet Use/New Technologies at 09/10/2011 23:10
If you have a phone, these days even space is within reach. Last year Luke Geissbühler and his son, who live in Brooklyn, popped a high-definition video camera and an Apple iPhone into a sturdy protective box with a hole for the camera's lens. They attached the box to a weather balloon, which they released about 50 miles (80km) outside New York City, after getting the approval of the authorities. The balloon soared into the stratosphere and eventually burst. A parachute brought it to the ground. By tracking the iPhone's inbuilt global positioning system, the Geissbühlers were able to retrieve the box and the video of their "mission", which shows the curvature of the planet clearly. The results can be seen at www.brooklynspaceprogram.org.
The iPhone and other smartphones are proving extremely useful on Earth too. These devices, which let people download and install applications, or "apps", from online stores run by phonemakers, telecoms companies and others, are starting to displace ordinary mobile phones in many countries. Ofcom, Britain's telecoms regulator, recently reported that more than one in four adults there uses a smartphone. Nielsen, a market-research firm, reckons the devices make up the majority of mobile-phone purchases in America. Emerging markets are embracing them as well: in Indonesia, BlackBerry handsets made by Canada's Research in Motion (RIM) have become a status symbol among the country's fast-growing middle class.
http://www.economist.com/node/21531109
