Article Written By: stevemckarmik
Convergence is a fairly modern term which describes the trend that we are seeing with more and more modern devices to become smaller and to run more things. This is seen most notably in the form of the smart phone which is a phone that handles many other tasks such as those you would expect from an MP3 player, or from a small computer. Phones today can work as satellite navigation devices, card readers, mobile storage devices, web browsers, word processors, cameras, video players and much more. More and more people aren't really needing to buy multiple devices at all, but are instead just opting to buy one small item that can do everything. This is possible due to a range of different recent technological breakthroughs. In particular, the dominance today of flash storage cards such as 64GB compact flash cards has helped to enable this. With a 64GB compact flash card it is possible to have a device that has no real memory of its own, but then has as much as 64GB when you insert a tiny card. This enables it to do things such as store multiple feature-length films, or entire catalogues of someone's music collection. Likewise it enables the users to install programmes onto the storage cards so that they can run high performance software such as voice recognition software or satellite navigation. Other breakthroughs that allow devices to get smaller and more multifunctional are the introduction of more advanced internet connections. With 3g internet connections today most phones and PDAs have permanent access to the internet. Meanwhile those that do not can make use of wireless hotspots. This also enables them to make use of storage and processing power other than that which is on the device itself that it gets from the internet - this is called 'cloud' processing and means that you can run files and programmes remotely and use your actual device more as a portal really to view and control that cloud processing.This has resulted in many devices clamouring to offer the definitive on-the-go multi-function experience, and there are many more permutations of devices that don't fall into any of our older categories and that blur the lines between computers and phones, tablets and laptops. For instance smart phones as they are today simply did not exist ten years ago, and have since essentially replaced PDAs such as the old iPAQ devices. Meanwhile other devices have also developed out of old ones - such as notebooks and netbooks which are laptops taken to the extreme that weigh less than 1kg. Then there are the tablet devices that do away with the need for a keyboard relying just on their touch screen. The recently introduced Dell Streak now offers something new - a tablet/phone that is 5'' large and sits between a web-browsing device and a phone. Currently there is no single device that can take care of all of your computing needs, but with a few of them, and a 64GB compact flash card to transfer files between them, you can certainly carry a few devices that can handle everything.
This Article Has Been Published on Sat, 30 Oct 2010 and Read 148 Times