PERSONAL

LESSON 2 TECHNOLOGY: THE FUTURE IS YOU

CONVERGENCE, PORTABILITY, & PERSONALIZATION

Convergence, or Digital Convergence, describes the combining of several industries—computers,

communications, consumer electronics, entertainment, and mass media—through various devices that
exchange data in digital form.

Hybrid convergence devices have pros and cons, as follows:

Convergence: The Upside

The new Holy Grail of convergence seems to be a “digital Swiss Army knife,” a universal device that
will perform several functions.

Convergence: The Downside

Any convergent device where, as a result, a primary feature is compromised is just not a good idea.

Portability is possible thanks to increasing miniaturization, faster speeds, and declining costs, more and
more mobile phone and other electronic components can be crammed into smaller and smaller
gadgets.

Portability also has its upside and downside.

Portability: The Upside

The advantages of portability seem obvious: being able to do phone calls and emails from
anywhere that you can make a connection, keeping up with your social networks, listening to
hundreds of songs on a digital music player such as an iPod, taking photos or video anywhere on a
whim, watching TV anywhere anytime.

Portability: The Downside

The same portable technology that enables you to access information and entertainment anytime
anywhere often means that others can find you equally conveniently (for them). Nonstop
connectivity may rain digital information on you, but it can also have the paradoxical result of
removing you from real human contact.

Personalization
Telecommunications can be organized through two kinds of arrangements:

1. In the tree-and-branch telecommunications model, a centralized information provider sends out

 messages through many channels to thousands of consumers.

2. In the switched-network telecommunications model, a common carrier provides circuit switching

among public users; that is, a temporary connection is established by closing a circuit.

Personalization: The Upside

As a consumer, you have all the options to personalize things you get. In addition, of course, PC
software can be used to create all kinds of personal projects, ranging from artwork to finances to
genealogy.

Personalization: The Downside

The downside of personalization is that people may feel overburdened with too much choice.

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One result of having several choices is that many people do multitasking —performing several tasks at
once, shifting focus from one task to another in rapid succession.

POPULAR PERSONAL TECHNOLOGIES

1. Portable Media Players

Portable Media Players (PMPs) are small portable devices that enable you to play digital audio, video,
or still- image files. MP3 (M-peg Audio Layer 3) is a format that allows audio files to be compressed so
they are small enough to be sent over the internet or stored as digital
files.

2. High-Tech Radio: Satellite, HD, & Internet

Satellite radio, also called digital radio, is a radio service in which digital signals are sent from satellites
in orbit around the Earth to subscribers owning special radios that can decode the encrypted signals.

HD radio, which provides CD-quality sound and allows broadcasters to squeeze one analog and two
digital stations on the same frequency.
 Internet Radio, allows listeners to pick a category, such as alternative rock, and then play a number of
songs in that genre, with fewer ads than are found on traditional radio.

Podcasting involves the recording of internet radio or similar internet audio programs.

3. Digital Cameras
A point-and-shoot camera is a camera, either film or digital, that automatically adjusts settings such as
exposure and focus.

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A single-lens reflex (SLR) camera is a camera, either film or digital, that has a mirror that reflects the
incoming light in such a way that the scene viewed by the viewer through the viewfinder is the same as
what’s framed by the lens.

4. Personal Digital Assistants & Tablet PCs

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) is a portable device that stores personal organization tools, such as
schedule planner, address book, and to-do list, along with other, more specialized software.

A Tablet PC is a special notebook computer outfitted with a digitizer tablet and a stylus that allows a
user to handwrite text on the unit’s screen. The stylus can take the place of a keyboard when users use
an on-screen input panel or tap letters and numbers directly on an on-screen keyboard.

5. Interactive, Internet-Ready, & Mobile TV

Interactive TV lets you interact with the show you’re watching.

Internet TV is television distributed via the internet.

 Internet-ready TV (which some people also call smart TV) consists of television sets that allow viewers to
watch TV shows as well as go online to get news, stream movies, view photos.

6. Smartphones
Smartphones, cellular telephones with microprocessor, memory, display screen, and built-in modem.

Text messaging, or texting, is the sending of short messages, generally no more than a couple of
hundred characters in length, to a pager, PDA, smartphone, or other handheld device. Sometimes
text messages (“texts”) are called SMSes. SMS stands for Short Message Service, a text message service
originally designed for GSM mobile phones but now available on a range of networks

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