Lately I’ve been reading online tech. news and watching tech. news shows and one common theme prevails: technology is quickly changing right now. While most people would shrug their heads and say “Duh Chris,you idiot,everybody knows that”; the fact remains that while technology may be changing, the people using it aren’t adapting quickly enough to these changes.

The most obvious answer to this fact can be seen everyday when I still see people using 56 k modems or old VHS VCRs at their homes or are still using some old computer with windows 98 or earlier on it. I try not to get upset as I realize that not everybody is wealthy, including myself but it becomes painfully obvious that some people are unwilling to adapt to new technology and are hurting the rest of the technology community.

Recently we have seen new trends in technology from the ipod to the PVR but these new items don’t seem to be catching on as quickly as I would have hoped. You can blame the companies or retailers for selling the items at an elevated price but sooner or later these items will come down in price and hopefully consumers jump at these new items and helps to speed up the entertainment technology value of humans for the future. So, let’s look at a couple of new items around the corner as well as old ones and how we can help to make things better for all humans.

(In no particular order)

1. The 56 k Modem

This little device was great back in the early 90s when the internet was beginning to expand but the time has come to get rid of this piece of garbage for good. While most computer companies are still adding the 56 k modem into their computers for potential consumer use, the time has come to get rid of this little device for it has no value left in today’s ever increasing broadband world. The price of broadband has come down significantly to the point where broadband is even considered out of date itself and is trying to be replaced by newer fiber or copper options in the future.

Even basic DSL is relatively cheap instead of getting the regular high speed option and will only cost about 20$ a month to at least upgrade your browsing speed. What’s even worse is when you’re playing an online video game or filesharing and have to have a bunch of idiots try and do that stuff because they think “they can” while they’re suing the internet. Instead, they’re simply pissing off people like me who would like to eliminate people like them from the marketplace.

2. The VCR

While the DVD player has caught on a little faster than people initially thought, there are still some people out there who are pessimistic about the DVD player and wish to continually purchase old VHS tapes. While this may seem like a logical choice, the fact is that companies such as Sony are already waiting patiently to try and roll out the successor to the DVD with newer technologies such as Blu-Ray or HD-DVD which will be able to store data at a much higher capability than the DVD itself. The reason for the wait is due to numerous companies bickering over which technology is greater, Blu-ray or HD-DVD.

But eventually, one of these technologies will be the new DVD standard and people will be forced to not only give up VHS but potentially DVD as well. The fact remains that it will be up to the consumer to be willing to buy the new 50 gb Blu-ray or stick with the old DVD. My advice is to start pumping out the newer technologies but of course there will be people out there who are unwilling to change their DVD library and rebuy all of their favorite movies or shows on a newer technology so soon after the DVD technology came out. This new marketing approach will be up to the companies and the consumer to decide and hopefully it becomes as successful as the switch to DVD was.

3. Cables

I spoke about this earlier in one of my gaming columns but the truth is that cables are annoying and there’s less of a need to have to buy anything with a cable now that newer technologies are coming out more and more wirelessly. Whether it’s a video game controller,router,keyboard,printer,television etc; the time has come to get rid of those damn wires. With more and more companies coming out with wireless versions of products with companies like logitech leaning the way than companies should get off their lazy bums and just make wireless products more and more of a common thing.

4. Broadband technology

While people who are still using 56 k modems is bad enough; what’s even worse is people like me who are stuck on our current dsl or cable profiles because companies can’t figure out to advance this technology any further. As with the case of DSL, your speed is only as good as the location of where you live and as the case with Cable, the more people who have it,the slower your internet speeds will be. Now, DSL and cable providers are at a standstill as to what to do about this problem and even if they do have a solution, their solution isn’t being implemented fast enough. DSL providers are trying to upgrade their speeds while at the same time forgetting about places that can’t even attain DSL in their area.

For starters, upgrade people to make sure that everyone can achieve DSL and can get rid of their 56 k modems so that everybody can achieve the same relatively good service in their areas if they choose to. Once that’s done, you can than concentrate on making sure people are being upgraded to higher speed profiles which in the long run will help out everybody. Instead, competing companies are left with the problem of who will bite first and take the risk while other countries like China and South Korea are advancing at twice the pace of North America in regard to internet connectivity because they have a major plan in place and stick to it.

5. PVR

While PVRs and things like Tivo are already out in the marketplace, the price of these great electronics is simply too much for consumers to pay. In order to get more and more of these things in people’s homes, we need to drop the price of these things like the way we did with DVD players to be able for the general public to enjoy these things.

6. DVD Recorders

If only these would have been out at the same time the DVD player was released. Basically the recording option of a VCR now with DVDs is very cool and with the price on these things going down the same way that DVD burners did for the computer and we have a very good replacement for your VCR recorder.

7.Old Portable media players

To think that some people are still listening to walkmans, or even cd players still is a bit confusing when you have things like the IPOD, Creative Zen or the new PSP coming out soon. While the prices on these beauties is still way too much for the average consumer, hopefully when they come down in price we can move off of those old cassettes and CDs and move onward to a better digital format.

8.Cameras

While old cameras still have good use for those into photography; the average joe on a vacation should stop using these cameras and buy themselves a digital camera already. The prices for them are now reasonable and gives the average user of one of them the ability to basically capture and recapture as many pictures of their loved ones as they need.

9. Old video game consoles

Unless you’re a fan of nostalgia, there’s no reason that little jimmy should still be playing with his old gameboy or sega genesis system. Even something like the playstation 1 or the N64 is pushing it a little bit. There should be no need for the use of these systems especially when most of the newer systems out there like the Playstation 2 or Gameboy SP support backwards compatibility. Most classic games you can play on the computer anyways thanks to the help of game emulators that allow gamers to play their classic console games on their computer.

10. HDTV

The last thing on our list is probably the hardest to change due to the price tag and durability of its products. While more and more channels are moving over and including HDTV digital broadcasting on their stations; the problem is that more than 50% of the nation can’t see these new digital pictures unless they go out and buy a new HDTV ready television set from their local electronics store. And , unfortunately, the price of these TVs is way too expensive for the average consumer. The other problem is that most television sets last for a very long time so there’s no need for people to go out and buy a new one.

Once the price goes down or the industry does something to enforce HDTV on the public,we’ll be stuck with the same old picture for a while. The same can be said for plasma or LCD TVs which should be replacing those big square like TVs that everyone has now but are still too expensive for anyone to buy which unfortunately is a shame.

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