The shape and functionality of computers is changing rapidly, after a decade plus of relative stagnation. Besides speed and storage capacity increases, there were few improvements to the entire computer usage experience during the 1990′s. Modems came into widespread use early in that decade, and merely continued to speed up. Content gradually shifted onto the web, displaced from its former home amongst the musty books on library shelves. Floppy disks were replaced by the much larger capacity storage devices known as cd’s, followed by dvd’s, but the primary idea of storage stayed the same. If one had data to be stored, one put it onto a digital storage device, and often carried that device around with them to use at their whim.
And that was how the world of computing and the internet arrived at the turn of the century. Not too speedy of a progress, but still substantially different than that which had come before. Information was available for those who wanted it, provided they were near a computer terminal or owned a laptop.
As the second decade of the new millennium rolls into place, it seems that everything in the digital world has changed. Pocket sized devices such as smartphones hold more computing power “ simultaneously controlling more applications“ than any typical store bought computer of a decade ago. These devices have also become the storage devices themselves, killing the need for an additional device to carry around, which cuts down on bulk while simultaneously making for one less item to misplace. With the advent of what equates to a portable internet, virtually anyone anywhere can have the world’s information at their fingertips. This, for example, helps to cut down on people being lost, as internet based maps are available. The number of information based uses is practically limitless, and the computers of today put the world into one’s palm. After years of promises in this direction, the future is here.