Thu, 28 Mar, 2024

The Power That Has Never Been Fully Utilized

By Bimal Gaire

Photo Courtesy: http://time.com/ dwit-news-5th-special-logo Did you know the smartphones that we carry today are more powerful than the computers used by NASA to send rockets to the moon? Doesn't sound right? Hard to believe but t's true. We are getting more advanced in Science and Technology than ever before. Evolution is taking a rapid pace. Things that could never be imagined in the past are making their way into existence. Some of the gadgets have become an integral part of many of us. The Orion spaceship, which was launched by NASA on a mission to take astronauts to Mars, has a less powerful computer than our smartphones. But that was almost 50 years ago! Why would a rocket today have such a basic computer in it? Because it's designed for reliability, not power. These include a 12-year-old IBM processors. So, why do we need all that specs in our smartphones? We'll talk about this in a moment. The use of smart-phones has increased rapidly, and we just love playing with these gadgets. Every year, the phone companies come up with their flagship devices and these surpass their predecessor in every possible way. They are heavily loaded with latest specs (both hardware and software). 4 gb of RAM in a phone? Don't get surprised. It is becoming a new standard in the smartphone world. Anything less than 3 gb is considered sub par these days. The processors that are used in these devices are breathtaking too. Who would have thought of a quad core processor in a mobile phone? To be honest this is unbelievable. So much power in that tiny device. How can anyone adjust that much of power in a chip as small as that. When Nokia used to rule the mobile phone market, the handsets used to be small and would easily fit into our palms. Anything bigger than that was unacceptable. Chinese mobile phones which had bigger displays used to be a joke. When Samsung brought the idea of bigger phones, most of the critics were mocking at them. No one had thought that it would change the trend of the market. Now, even 6 inch smartphones are readily accepted by the customers. Talking about the screen resolution, these phones boast a heavy resolution. 1080P has become a common stock. Some of the phones now have 4k resolution. This is not fair. My laptop has far lesser resolution than that. Do we really need that sort of resolution. Do you even find any difference between a 1080p and a 4k resolution in a 5 inch device? Most probably not. Then why are you paying a lot more to own a device that has very less to offer than what you have today. Does it really worth the price? And what do I see is all these specs and power used for nothing. Gaming, web browsing and photo clicking; all the power for nothing demanding. 42 mega pixel camera in a mobile phone surely does sound insane. Even five years back 5 mega pixel was considered to be the highest possible standard. With all those sensors and special features, these devices are more like robots that can act on their own and assist you in several tasks.

Though we've come so far in smartphone innovations, there is still so much further we can go. But the question is how much further? Yes, innovation never stops. Soon there will be a 48 core processor, a 100 mega pixel camera and a 20K resolution for a smartphone. But, all these specs only for fun and entertainment. Doesn't seem too right for me.

More and more of these specs means we will be deeply plunged in the virtual world. These gadgets will be more important to us than our relationships. We will be so dependent on these gadgets that it will be really difficult to look back and enjoy the life we have with real people and real relationships.

And most importantly,will the smartphones still look like a phone in coming years? This can make you scratch your head for a while. Enjoy!!!