Every now and again I’m taken aback by technology, I become overwhelmed by my own sense of awe with things we can so often take for granted.
I’ve written before how incredibly useful I find my tablet, a nice ASUS Transformer tablet running Android, not a terribly flashy device but still a marvel in my opinion.
One such occasion happened a few months ago. For context, I use my tablet heavily for note-taking. On this particular morning, I needed to discuss something with a colleague that I had sketched out with a different colleague the night before. I had diligently taken notes and pictures of the whiteboard with my tablet from the previous evening’s brainstorming. The next morning Lookout was busy as per usual and I had something else I needed to run and take care of before I could really dive into a discussion with my coworker. Without thinking much of it, I pulled up the note on my tablet, handed him the tablet and walked away.
It wasn’t until somebody pointed it out to me that I properly understood how “futuristic” the interaction was! “Captain Kirk! I have these read outs for you to review on my magic computer slab, what do you think?”
The second occasion happened this morning, EC left to go shopping leaving me alone. My father would have taken the opportunity to sit quietly at the kitchen counter for an hour, read the newspaper and sip coffee while eating a couple slices of toast. With the remnants of the terrible coffee EC had made (that’s another story for another time) sitting on the counter I decided to walk to a near-by cafe. As I was headed out the door I threw my tablet in a messenger bag and walked to the cafe.
Less than 15 minutes later, I’m sitting outside at a table in front of this cafe, sipping my coffee and catching up on the news with my tablet (tethered to my cellphone) and occasionally taking some notes to plan out today’s project.
The confluence of high-speed cellular data access, beautifully-thin touch screens, the vastness of the internet and high-performance low-power processors all came together beautifully on a casual Saturday morning over coffee.
How marvelous it is to live in this era.