[Closed] Smartphones - have we reached peak innovation or have they got further to go?

We have bounced to big from small so I reckon small is next 🙂
Faster, cheaper, better will be the progrssion

Wireless charging will be the next big one, especially when its compatible across all devices not manufacturer exclusive

Imagine walking into your home/office/car and never thinking about charging your device

Reliability, waterproofing, and ultimately as a substitute for laptops etc - have a monitor and keyboard on your desk with some kind of wireless connection, just bring your phone close and use it.

Having the grunt / interfaces to replace a desktop pc by just placing it next to the keyboard and bug screen,
Probably won't happen due to the sales drop off of PCs though.

Edit: what mogrim said

Wireless charging will be the next big one,

Reliability, waterproofing,

Having the grunt / interfaces to replace a desktop pc by just placing it next to the keyboard and bug screen,

It'd be nice to have one with decent/reliable phone reception...

Mine's presently cooking my tea. It always over-seasons things though. Perhaps the boffins can address that particular issue

Mogrim, I believe that's the roadmap for Windows devices.

Think of using whatever device you have with you as a terminal to access YOUR online PC....

We're talking projector keyboards and screens, motion detected mouse cursor movements etc.

Wireless charging will be the next big one,

seriously about 2 years late on that one....

Native on an iPhone? Nope

Mike....2 years too late on inductive charging yes, I don't see many Costa/MacD's outlets saying you can use free phone charging here via wifi

Features i'd like
- Star Wars hologram projectors
- "Find me", whereby the phone flies into my hand
- autonomous text/phone conversations with people, especially PPI callers
- screen that is clear in the sun as it is at night

Oh, if it was as easy as that we could all work for Apple or Samsung for a fortune.

One gap in the market I can see that I don't understand why Apple (or the others) hasn't filled yet, the non-phone smart phone. Here me out on this....

I have an iPhone 6 and it's very lovely, especially as I don't have to pay for it. I use it mostly for mobile e-mails and web searching I make less than 1 call a day on it on average and receive about the same - and bear in mind this is my WORK phone. I could live without the phone element of it.

On the other hand a guy in the office has an iPod touch, it looks almost the same, does almost the same thing, but the batter lasts a lot longer and it's thinner/lighter not that that bothers me, but I know it's a battlefield in the smart-phone wars.

I'd live without the telephone element, if they made a 4G enabled iPod touch in favour of longer battery life. I use WhatsApp a lot which I know needs a number to function, but I've had it working on a different phone to the number I've assigned it so that wouldn't be a problem.

I know it wouldn't be for everyone, but for me personally phone calls are a completely pain in the arse - I get lots of work in every day and it comes in nice neat, ordered blocks via e-mail, a phone call jumps the queue and if I'm out and about requires me to remember it and make notes.

Mogrim, I believe that's the roadmap for Windows devices.

I know, and it sounds great. I love the idea of being able to get home, drop my phone into a dock and seamlessly use it as a home PC.

Although it must be said a lot of the advantages of this idea have been eroded by the move to cloud computing and online storage: "back in the day" I'd frequently find myself cursing that the file I wanted was on a different machine, that happens less and less these days.

The next big thing that people actually care about is batteries being replaced by something much much better (possibly involving fuel cells, graphene, or nano-something-or-other) to give a charge that lasts weeks not hours.

But aside from that I'd also like to see some flexible screens than can be resized (unfolded or stretched) as required.

When the best you can come up with is wireless charging then yes I'd say we are 90% there already.

Replacing a PC isn't going to be a big one especially for Apple as it will cannibalise their own sales. No need for a MacBook or ipad, just use your phone!! Works out better for Google or MS down this route as they aren't really hardware people.

MS need to put the XboxOne onto their handsets like you can with the PS4 and a Sony Experia.

Battery technology is the current tech bottleneck IMHO, that's where we hopefully should see the biggest improvements.

I'd like to see a solution to the size paradox; I want a large-screen phone whilst carrying the smallest device possible, which is always a trade-off. Advances in display tech to give us foldable or rollable screens aren't too far off I don't think. Imagine a big daft phone like the iPhone 6+ or some other 'phablet' (ugh) that you could just fold in half when you've done and stick in your pocket.

Wearables is the other one. I used to think that eventually people will stop carrying wallets and replace them with phones in folio-style cases that also can carry cards and money. But as the increasingly inaccurately named "phone" gets more functionality the need to carry all this crap goes down. NFC payments negates the need for cash, and we already have "an app for that" for a lot of store loyalty cards and the like. But if we get all that together and stick it in a watch, you don't even need to carry a phone any more.

So, that would be my holy grail I think. A smar****ch taking a SIM and responsible for core connectivity, NFC (fingerprint-reading glass to prevent walk-by fraud) payments, GPS etc, combined with a tablet to do all the heavy lifting; web, games and suchlike. If you don't need that functionality then all you really need to carry day-to-day is some sort of Bluetooth headset for making calls. Until bio-wear tech takes off and you can use a cochlear implant for that, anyway.

almightydutch - Member

Mogrim, I believe that's the roadmap for Windows devices.

Think of using whatever device you have with you as a terminal to access YOUR online PC....

We're talking projector keyboards and screens, motion detected mouse cursor movements etc.

I wouldn't be surprised, pretty much everyone in our neighbours office are using Surface Pro devices as PCs, admittedly they're i5 based but with a external screen and wireless mouse and keyboard they're undisguisable from desktops when they're in the office, but far more portable than laptops on the move. The CAD guys are still using big workstations of course, they're using massive dual-Xeon based things.

give a charge that lasts weeks not hours

Battery tech is unlikely to see massive jumps just incremental improvements. Until then buy a Sony far better battery life than Apple and Samsung IME.

Mine's presently cooking my tea. It always over-seasons things though. Perhaps the boffins can address that particular issue

Don't complain. It's good security practice to salt a hash.

geoffj - Member

Wireless charging will be the next big one,
seriously about 2 years late on that one....

Native on an iPhone? Nope

"Basically smartphones are highly portable computers "

My wife says her little Samsung has virtually replaced her laptop (and she'd even bought a new one recently to replace the ageing fire hazard Vaio thing). She only really does emails, Whatsapp/Skype, BBC radio player/iPlayer anyway, so it can do all those things. The only limitation for her is the small screen size. The ability to link with a larger screen would be good.

I find mine astonishing; I use it for all sorts of things, including the above, as well as video, compass, maps, flashlight, music player (through wireless speakers), and although I've got a fancy DSLR with lenses, the camera for still photos is surprisingly good.

I don't really think I want more features to be honest; I am very wary of things like NFC and automatic wireless communication with other devices. I don't do anything that I want to be secure, such as online shopping, on it.

We have bounced to big from small so I reckon small is next

On the subject of wireless charging, we're not at the stage where this can be done without having a charging "pad/cradle" of some sort. Is that correct? What Apple do well is launch a new tech with the necessary infrastructure to ensure success and adoption. Maybe they will be the ones who release "proper" wireless charging where the phone is charged using the Force or some other magic. Are we nearly there yet? 🙂

I don't do anything that I want to be secure, such as online shopping, on it.

Really? There are many, many, many, many more malwares, spybots, keyloggers etc on PCs than there are on smart phones.

- screen that is clear in the sun as it is at night

next big step will be making them wearable as they slowly move towards becoming part of our very bodies.

in the mean time wireless charging should have already happened and fuel cells for phones are coming soon. I also want mine to be a drone.

maybe I'm just wanting an Iain M Banks world.

The ability to link with a larger screen would be good

Chromecast?

"Chromecast?"

Would that work on a standard computer screen? IE, not a tv, as they already have such technology built-in.

"Really? There are many, many, many, many more malwares, spybots, keyloggers etc on PCs than there are on smart phones."

Not on my computer there aren't.

I'd like an iPhone 6 with a slide out keyboard.

I'm a bit surprised that nobody has yet shoved a kindle screen on the back of a smartphone

I give you the [url= http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/5/7338753/yotaphone-2-hands-on-preview ]YotaPhone[/url]

Don't complain. It's good security practice to salt a hash.

Ahem, this way please sir >>>>>> http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/jokes-that-95-of-people-wont-get

We won't have any of that kind of behaviour in here. You'll be wanting the Lounge Bar.

I think with the speed that nano technology is developing ,there will be closer links to live health monitoring and testing built in to some models.

Battery Technology is holding them back a bit - I think a faster charging battery, which lasts days (rather than 1 day at best) would be a big improvement.

Flexible chassis/screen would be good.

I'd like an iPhone 6 with a slide out keyboard.

There have been keyboard cases around for quite a while for [s]perverts[/s] people like you:

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

Though any true Bluetooth keyboard will work with most smartphones.

I'd like one i cold plug in to my brain to do my work for me

Wireless charging is already here but yes you need a cradle and I'm not sure I'd want to be in a coffee shop with such a large electromagnetic field that it charges everyones phones! A friend of mine was a Nokia tester and her bike computer and the wireless charging on her phone had a bit of an 'interaction' causing it to heat up to scary levels in her bag.

I think Project Ara is the next step in terms of hardware. Modular phones, so you plug-in/upgrade a bit of the phone at a time.

Fuel Cells - couple of years out methinks:

[url= http://www.macrumors.com/2015/08/24/hydrogen-fuel-cell-phone/ ]Hydrogen Fuel Cell [/url]

Hopefully iPhones will beam their own keyboards shortly:
[url= http://virtual-laser-devices.com/ ]Virtual Keyboards[/url]

I think a faster charging battery, which lasts days (rather than 1 day at best) would be a big improvement.

I don't really want longer battery life especially; it's rare than I'm away from a power source for long enough to merit it. Rather, batteries need to be much, much smaller.

bartyp - Member
"Chromecast?"

Would that work on a standard computer screen? IE, not a tv, as they already have such technology built-in.

As far as I understand (I haven't got one yet but it's on my purchase list!) a Chromecast will work on any screen with a HDMI port. You'll need wifi also.

There have been keyboard cases around for quite a while for perverts people like you:

They're all massive, I'd like it to fit in the current sized phone!

I give you the YotaPhone

They're all massive, I'd like it to fit in the current sized phone!

Right so something as small as the screen, that doesn't extend the form factor and has no room for physical key actuation.

Hmmm... maybe some kind of on-screen keyboard then? 😉

you dont need a cradle for wireless charging

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/S89094953/
[img] [/img]

im sure once apple invent it, kleenex shares will surge

Can't say I've ever found plugging in a cable terribly difficult.

I mean I [i]could[/i] invest in charging pads, cradles and furniture and then leave them all turned on to save myself up to several seconds a fortnight - but really there are a lot of others things I'd rather they got sorted first!

The only really good point I can see with inductive charging is that it makes it easier to seal the phone to make it waterproof.

I think we need to make the distinction between induction charging with proximity to pads, and wide area wireless charging. Imagine shoes having wireless charging transmitters from walking energy, or solar panel hats? The future's coming people!

I do like that yotaphone though.

wide area wireless charging

The future is here. Electricity over the airwaves.

[img] [/img]

My contribution is to say that nobody knows. Yes we will see the refinements above. But they are not the revolution that a touch screen smart phone is to a Nokia brick.

Key board and mouse has been stable on a PC for a while. So maybe the essence of a phone might not change for a bit, with the current touch screen being the as good as it gets

I wouldn't count on hydrogen fuel cells anytime soon! There are substantial issues with hydrogen power (infrastructure, refueling, safety, packaging etc) before they become a mainstream product.

I do know that intelligent energy are playing around with planar fuel cells for embedded systems in consumer electronics applications though.

Talking about wireless charging. There was a story in a recent New Scientist where radio authorities investigating a black spot in the LW frequency narrowed it down to a house where a guy had hidden an aerial around his garden fence and using it to charge a load of batteries to power 12v lighting in his house he'd pinched from a railway depot. He was also in the process of setting up an inverter to get 240v. That was 50 years ago. 🙂

Screens that can provide feedback by changing shape - IIRC it's been done already but not ready for production yet - eg that little icon would actually be slightly raised so you could feel when you press the right part of the screen. That would significantly improve accuracy of smart screen use.

And ultimately they'll be integrated into your body with a screen in your eye initially and ultimately projected into your mind's eye. Those two may be a little way off though.

in his house he'd pinched from a railway depot

Good effort!

Graphene is the future. Smaller, lighter, bendier, everythinger

mikewsmith - Member
geoffj - Member
Wireless charging will be the next big one,
seriously about 2 years late on that one....

Native on an iPhone? Nope

Yes your phone maker has decided to stick it's head in the sand, sad isn't it? You only get the tech they decide you can have, that they think you are ready for. Could that be one of the biggest stumbling blocks in tech advancement?

project ara where the phone is modula

http://www.projectara.com/faq/

I'd like to see flexible folding screens. Some sort of bio mechanical control. Maybe make calls by movement so you dont even need to look at a screen and tap your contact.
Separate the screen from the phone so we can project the phone ui onto any device we are currently using ( pc, tablet, wrist / arm display)

CountZero: True, but then physically plugging something in so you can transfer data is a pretty archaic practise anyway.

Surely long range wireless charging (as in walk into a room/starbucks with your phone in your pocket and it will start charging) is going to be insanely inefficient? Unless the power transmitter is able to know where a given phone is, and then send power in a narrow beam directly towards the phone (which might well be possible one day, but seems very difficult).

Otherwise with power being beamed out in all directions, it will be analogous to walking around a room that has a lightbulb in the middle of it and a phone-sized solar panel in you pocket. Only a fraction of a percent of the power would make it to the phone.

The New Scientist article about the guy harvesting power from lw radio signals sounds absurd, maybe a fun experiment but the wattage must have been miniscule.

Personally I think that the changes to phones since iOS and android first came about have been mostly gimmicks (galaxy s2 still going strong here). I really don't get what the newest phones can do that mine can't.

Like others, I think the next big thing is being able to wirelessly use a phone to connect to mouse, keyboard and tv/monitor, and have a fully working computer, either using the processor in the phone or a cloud.

Fueled I can't find a link to the full story

But you know the Droitwich Transmitting Station is 500KW?

Chorlton, do you have a link to the article?

Frankly, it's an answer to a problem that most people just don't have.

Yes this thank you not just me. All its saving is the action of plugging and taking a big chunk of plastic and electronics to do so. I've seen people get excited by this and have to wonder why.

Surely battery technology is lagging behind. It'd be nice for a smartphone to last a week of heavy use in between charges.

Imagine a world where you could pop the back of your phone off and easily insert a spare battery when your one is flat.
I would have bought an iPhone if Apple could trust me to perform that simple manoeuvre.

Well the internet appears divided on the truthfulness of the anecdote:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3336114/Over-to-you-Mythical-electricity.html

Even at 500kw at source, it will be a whole lot less once you are just a mile or so away. Can lw transmitters be directional? ie. more power going away closer to a flat plane rather than up and downwards?

The manufacture of these are very close to reaching a price point where they can be integrated into future phones.
http://www.compoundphotonics.com/products/light-engines

the moto g is the pinnacle of smart phones for me, don't need any more, or rather I'm not willing to spend any more.

Might invest in new tech when the suss out proper augmented reality (it's a silly idea on a phone)and your phone turns into a contact lens, which is the only way that technology will ever catch on. you can shove yer google glass nonsense! 😆

tbh implants and the like are the natural conclusion to the smart phone and technology I reckon. It's seems weird to us, but in the next couple of generations they won't think twice about it.

As a mate pointed out watching an ad for one of those phones at the cinema, you still have to have a charging pad plugged into something to supply power, so what's the difference between that and just using the little cable so thoughtfully supplied by Apple, that not only allows the device to be charged up, but simultaneously allows the transference of data!
I don't see charging pads allowing the device to sync data.
Frankly, it's an answer to a problem that most people just don't have.

Unfortunatly the lack of common place integrated wireless charging in tables etc. may have something to do with apple not adopting a standard and being worried they will end up with incompatible tech.

Chorlton, do you have a link to the article?

No. Looked for it myself and thinking about it, it was on the letters pages. Just thought it was a good story.

Battery tech is unlikely to see massive jumps just incremental improvements. Until then buy a Sony far better battery life than Apple and Samsung IME.

I'm always amazed at how long the battery lasts on my Xperia SP (so not even one of the flagship models!) compared to friend's phones, especially IPhones. So liberating to be able to listen to music in the car for a few hours, do a bit of surfing and make phone calls for 2-3 days without a charger being thought of! It's like having a modern Nokia 😀

I don't really want longer battery life especially; it's rare than I'm away from a power source for long enough to merit it. Rather, batteries need to be much, much smaller.

Try working in a job where ready access to a socket is not guaranteed. Just witness the shock of the teenagers when the battery warning pings onto the screen. It's all very well having all the latest connectivity but if the battery is dead it's just a pretty brick of plastic and precious metals. From a semi-luddite perspective the power appetite of IPhones etc seems to be the barrier to everything else mentioned here. Same as with electric cars.

hmmm

The smart phone no bloody good as a sat nav at least mine isn't so i have a garmin for that

to small for email despite the 5 inch screen so i have a tablet for that.

touch screen is bloody annoying for my fat fingers battery is always flat if i tun anything on..games are all the same you are just chasing pixels across the screen and its to big and fragile for my pocket.

My next phone will be dumb! fed up with the smartphone it promises much and delivers little.

I don't know about peak innovation but the usefulness peak is in the past. 3/4G is about the Internet right?

The browser will give you a lot of advertising rather than something that really corresponds to the key words you entered.

When you find what you are looking for you click and get something else due to an advertising hijack.

When you get rid of the redirect site you find so much advertising on the site itself you have to zoom and move around then accidentally click on something and get more advertising.

I use my phone as a phone, for SMS and as an mp3 player.

A solar charger in the screen wouldn't go amiss...

The browser will give you a lot of advertising rather than something that really corresponds to the key words you entered.

When you find what you are looking for you click and get something else due to an advertising hijack.

When you get rid of the redirect site you find so much advertising on the site itself you have to zoom and move around then accidentally click on something and get more advertising.

This seems very strange and nothing like the browsing experience I have at all, in most cases it's either exactly the same as the web page or a decent mobile version that scales correctly. The only annoying bit is when people don't get the keyboard switch from text to numbers right.

I was in Spain and trying to find a hotel for the night. I gave up and went to the tourist office.

The smart phone no bloody good as a sat nav at least mine isn't so i have a garmin for that

My phone is often used in preference to my in-car sat nav - which is crap.

games are all the same you are just chasing pixels across the screen

In the same way that books are all the same because they just have words in them.

This seems very strange and nothing like the browsing experience I have at all...

Ditto. That sounds more like a Pebcak issue with the sites you were using, rather than any particular failing of smart phones in general.

Graphene.

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[s]Graphene.[/s] Photoshop fantasy

Wake me up when they can do [i]any[/i] of that.

Bit like "science fiction" you mean?

[img] [/img]

Well yeah, but that science fiction capsule has one foot in science.

As far as I know, graphene isn't actually invisible.

Here's a more realistic sci-fi future:

[img] [/img]

😀

They could make the things a bit tougher.... I'm sick of replacing phone and tablet screens where someone in the house (even the cat!) has dropped, stood upon or just plain unexplainably broken the ****in thing. There must be a polycarbonate type material out there that can withstand scratches like glass and still has the slick touch feel of glass but is practically unbreakable?

CountZero: True, but then physically plugging something in so you can transfer data is a pretty archaic practise anyway

Archaic:

Previous definition: of an early period of art or culture, especially the 7th–6th centuries BC in Greece.

Current definition: about 3 years

🙂

I was in Spain and trying to find a hotel for the night. I gave up and went to the tourist office.

Google Maps -> set to current location -> search for "hotel". ???