is the iPhone the pocket communicator dreamt of in SF?
Gavin Bell
Friday, 23 May 2008 12:18 UTC
Tenuously science I know, but how much of the iPhone is the communicator you read in science fiction. If the rumours are to be believed, the 3G iPhone will access the internet, allow installable applications and geotag photos with location. It will know where you are and tell you information about your location.
What role might it perform in a science / lab setting?
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Replies
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Not until it includes a phaser. And a universal translator that let’s me converse with aliens in English.
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When they have mini spectrometers built in, then things will really kick off. Uploading spectra directly to your synthesis wiki? Yes please (in our dreams…)
Although I’m not at all opposed to a phaser ;)
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It wouldn’t be that hard if you had an independently calibrated tunable light source and a fibre optic to couple it into the camera. Could you get enough light off the screen, cycle through the wavelengths (just need a video for that)and then a collector, and fibre optic back to the camera…uploading of course is trivial :)
D’oh, just realised the fatal flaw in that plan…
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Only if it had the 2G (’Gentleman’s Gentleman’) function (as opposed to 3G, which is for the hoi-polloi). This organizes your entire life for you without your having to spare a second thought for anything more complex than precise temperature of your next martini (actually, the 2G iPhone would do that, too); runs a perfect bath; books tickets to the theater; and has an inexhaustible list of excuses for why you’re out of town when Aunt Agatha comes to call.
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Blackberry. All else is trivia-collecting and foolishness.
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