Still waiting for a ticket to play in techno-utopia

CHRIS BARTON wonders when those oft-promised tools to better living will arrive.

A great convergence is coming that will fundamentally change our lives, say the experts.

Perhaps, but when you look at the convergence here right now, you have to say life has not changed much.

No doubt the vast melting pot of telecommunications, television, radio, music, graphics, photography and print will morph into something new and fabulous any day soon. But so far much of it has been, well, pretty ho hum.

Take newspapers, for example. Just about all have now converged on the net - jumping from paper to a new digital existence.

But while the content is the same, the experience of reading online could not be more different from the traditional version.

It is darned handy to be able to read newspapers from all over the world and to dial in anytime to keep in touch when overseas. It is pretty good for research, too.

But it is not exactly earth-shattering. How quickly one becomes blasé.

The big convergence in newspapers will come when instead of going to the letterbox to get it, our newspaper arrives magically through the air and forms itself onto a thin portable electronic slate we keep by the breakfast table.

It will likely be personalised with a mix of general news and specifics you have requested - such as the fortunes of certain stocks or what is happening with your favourite sports.

When? Some of these specialised electronic news tablets or "readers" are already being enjoyed in the United States - especially by train commuters - so they reckon we will see them take off in about two years.

But understand that "two years" in this context is using the language of techno-hype. Translated it means "10 years if we are lucky."

I discovered this secret code early in 1994, two years after such a prediction by Andy Grove, head of chip-making giant Intel.

He claimed that person-to-person video communication from your PC would be a "pervasive reality" by the middle of the '90s. Of course it was not and still is not.

But the promise of the George Jetson videophone remains.

Today the cellphone manufacturers beat the drum - saying this long-awaited pervasive reality will be here in about two years.

That is apparently when the new "3G" mobile networks will start to appear. The truth is they do not have the "2.5G" networks running yet and 3G handsets are still a figment of phonemakers' imagination.

My advice: start preparing for the effects of phone convergence about 2010.

One has to admit that cellphones have converged with print. The ability to send text messages, e-mail and even surf websites shows the device is no longer just for voice.

Television sets are also showing signs of convergence. Those who sign up to Sky's digital TV package now get a programming guide for most channels on screen. And thanks to a phone jack installed nearby, will soon have the ability to send and receive e-mail.

However, the big rendezvous for television comes when TVNZ and TV3 go digital and new set-top boxes find their way into homes. Not only will these let us surf the web on our TV screen, but they will carry software to automatically find and show websites associated with TV programmes, using split screens.

But that is not all. In this new era, sites such as www.tivo.com tell us, we will be able to store entire selections of programmes. That means when you arrive home from a hard day at the office - in need of a blob-out - you will not have to put up with the broadcast dross, but can instead watch your favourites such as The Sopranos and X-Files.

When can we expect this to happen? Probably in about two (translation: 10 if we are lucky) years.

But while the phone and TV are latecomers to the conflation party, the PC has been melding media for some time.

It began with the CD-Rom of the early '90s that brought not only audio, but video and interactive graphics to the PC screen. So when the internet started to grab hold around 1995, the PC already had the grunt to handle multimedia.

All you need is a bit of "player" software and you can listen to radio, music and watch video via the net anytime you choose.

The main players are Media Player, RealPlayer and Quicktime.

There are others at shareware sites like www.yippee.co.nz.

The good news is that basic versions are free to download. The bad news is they take an age to do it - about 40 minutes for Media Player and around 20 minutes for Real Player on a dial-up connection.

Audio works very well on the net today. Once you have your player, point your browser to the Windows Media website, for example, and hundreds of radio stations covering just about every country you can think of are available. You can also watch video and TV via these players but it is not great on a dial-up connection. The video is displayed in a small "Post-it note-sized window" and does not run very smoothly.

Yet tuning into channels on the other side of the world is interesting - for about five minutes. Likewise, peering through a webcam mounted in a home such as those at www.kiwiflatmates.com and watching a blurry nobody amble about.

The big conflation on the net will come when we all have fast, "always-on" connections that make watching video, film and TV a much more viable experience - in about two years. Yeah, right.


Links


The World Press

Tivo

Media Player

RealPlayer

Quicktime

Yippee

WindowsMedia Radio Tuner

Kiwiflatmates