Half watched Clash of the Titans yesterday. Really crappy movie. Bad casting, bad mythology, just overall bad. If you are scraping the bottom barrel of recent DVD releases and thinking of giving this a watch, skip it, really, don't bother.

Yesterday I did a post on how everything was feeling pretty covered techwise, so today I'll muse abit about what could be new and next.

Good Ubiquitous Voice Recognition/interaction - The ability to ask your device to fetch information and speak it back to you. "What's the weather?" "What's Jenn's schedule today?" "What's the current price of Grapenuts in the supermarket?" And then beyond a single call and response, the ability to continue to have that conversation deepen in context all while constantly connected thru a bluetooth earpiece or something similar.

Small Smart Cars that drive themselves - This would be huge. 30 minutes to an hour or more extra day for reading or watching video. Travel becomes a completely different experience, suddenly a 4 hour or 5 hour drive becomes much more practical as a weekly occurrence (or even daily occurrence if you can do your work enroute as your car becomes a personal traveling cubicle) Leave the driving to a computer.

Augmented Reality - Your smartphone connected to glasses that present a heads up display and also constantly communicating via audio, giving you real time information about the people, places and things where you are. Not in a smartphone stare at a screen and click buttons look up way, but more like a true digital assistant at your side providing constant running commentary (some of which will be likely to be very entertaining).

A personal PVR life recorder - Constant background recording with the ability to push a button and save the last 5, 10 or 20 minutes to a highlight real of the day. Blogging would be taken to a whole new level. There are Orwellian concerns of course, but make that video searchable using the voice recognition tech mentioned above and you'd have an amazing system of augmented memory and immersive way to share experiences with people.

A nano-assembler 3D Printer - Create objects from base materials. Eliminate the need to mass produce all manner of small consumables. Download the file, hit print, instant object.

A post job (or seriously reduced-job) economy - Not really tech, but when you look at all the above, we're not going to need as many people doing as much as what they do now, so we're going to have to start thinking about what people are going to do all day with increased free time.

The seeds for all of the above already exist. If you squint, you can see the outlines for all of this in the devices around us. It'll be interesting to start to see them take shape, and how they'll effect society around us, which is used to moving much slower than all of this is likely to happen.

There's a lot of great tech out there. In the last 3 to 4 years it's all become very very affordable too.

So if your a a typical tech focused geek, I'm guessing your geared up with the below:

• Smartphone -- You've got a touchscreen, you're loaded with apps, the world of information and communication is at your fingertips 24/7 (as long as you can get a wi-fi or 3G signal)
• Laptop -- It's got enough power to game and video edit on the go. But mostly you're flippin between the Dee O C, the eX eL eS, and the Pee Pee Tee. You still have your desktop, but other than an occasional need for it's pair of dual screens the laptop gets you by.
• Netbook -- On the go a lot, then you're probably netbooked up. You were hesitant at first about the smaller screen and smaller keyboard, but you realized that you mostly were just checking and responding to your gmail and watching the occasional youtube video anyway, and more often than not, the netbook is what you grab on the go. It's so much easier to throw in your tech bag than the laptop. In fact sometimes you feel the laptop gets left behind with the desktop often enough that while you're out they talk about you and how it used to be, behind your back
• MP3 player -- Your MP3 player doesn't get left behind, but it does spend a lot of time on the bottom of your tech bag because, well it's just so easy to stream Pandora or podcasts on the Smartphone, the MP3 player seems like too much trouble to dig down deep for.
• eReader -- For those that still like to get lost in a good book when not immersed in the blinking world of LEDs and LCDs, an eInk reader has already been a must. No need to burden the tech bag with the latest couple novels in dead tree format. You've got a library on the go with gigs more space yet to fill. Amazon next day book delivery? Why would anyone wait that long? It's all about the 30sec dee double u el dee.
• Tablet -- The new hotness, whether you are an early adopter in the cult of Apple with the iPad, or dabbling on the fringe with an Android based import. The tablet has already become a must have, even though now several months in, you're not quite sure that you really needed it as much as you thought you did. Still it's bling bling trek tech not to be without.
• Camera/Camcorder -- Whether you're just Smartphone snappin, or dedicated Flipin' or givin your neck a work out with a DSLR hulk of steel/plastic and glass, your picture taking needs are covered. Seriously your Flickr's blowin' up and vids are drippin from the Tubes and even Mom and Dad don't want to wade through all that media your postin.
• The Big Screen with all the boxes and remotes -- Kirk didn't see this coming. It's was supposed to be the big screen in front of a chair, but you've got the hook up with media streamers and PCs, a DVR, a DVD (and even still a VCR although your embarrassed to admit it.) then there's Wii's and Xbox 360 all tangled together with cables, cords and wires too. So many plugs powered on the AC is to the max just so your living room can chill.

And beyond the gear there's the social. Sure you've had the blog since way when, and your flickr goes back years, but all the action is in your Facebook and Twitter. All teched up with the content generators of Buck Roger's dreams and really, it's all reduced to the one hundred and forty character streams.

So as you scour the latest Gizmodo and Engadget feeds you wonder what's next-- and day after day you realize that they're still bringing the new and shiny, but with each passing post it's starting to look like that real next next is past. You're on the other side of next-- and that-- that is very interesting indeed.

When I see stuff like the video below where this guy gives a tour of his 100 sq foot house. It really makes me want to better organize my space.