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Your PC in 2009 and Beyond

Blindingly fast chips, flexible displays, nanotube cooling, and more: Tomorrow's technologies will change everything about computing, whether you're at home, at work, or on the road.

The pace of everyday living may be hectic, but the pace of innovation is downright frenetic. Technologies barely imagined a few years ago are now poised to change the face of computing, as digital devices continue to burrow into every aspect of daily life.

Kiss your power cord good-bye
You hardly think twice about connecting your wireless laptop to the Internet, but you still have to fumble for a power cord when your battery runs out. How quaint. Soon all those cumbersome power bricks will be just a footnote in your grandchildren's history books, as wireless charging comes to market.

What is it? Currently two ways to accomplish wireless charging exist. Inductive charging works by matching the resonance of the charging pad's electromagnetic field to that of the battery, allowing the battery to charge over a small physical gap. In contrast, conductive charging passes electricity directly between two surfaces in contact. Which method will win out is not yet clear, but in either case you'll be able to simply place your laptop, phone, and music player onto a universal wireless charging pad that will immediately begin juicing them up.

When is it coming? This year both inductive and conductive charging technologies will emerge onto the market, but most devices will require a $30 adapter to work with them. WildCharge expects to roll out its first conductive-charging notebook product (paired with a compatible notebook) in time for 2009's back-to-school season, while eCoupled is pushing to get its inductive technology into cars, countertops, and desk surfaces in 2009. Look for wireless charging to become commonplace in 2010, after major phone and laptop vendors sign on to support it.

Print from anywhere (and anything)
Forget about running home to print out your photos or--gasp!--ordering prints online. The next generation of mobile devices will come with their own built-in printers.

What is it? Zink (short for "Zero Ink") Imaging, a spin-off of Polaroid, has been working on a new way of making photo paper. Zink paper has a crystal substrate sandwiched between its layers that colorizes as it passes through a slim-profile printer. The printers themselves are so small that you can slip one in your pocket, and they can easily be built into cameras, laptops, or other devices.

When is it coming? By 2009, Zink will partner with a major camera vendor (name not announced) to release the first pocket-size digital camera with a built-in printer. This early model will produce 2-by-3-inch photos. At the same time, the company will begin selling a tiny handheld printer (probably for about $99) for camera phones; it'll print adhesive-backed photos that will likely grace the school binders of many eighth-graders. Two or three years after that, the technology may be integrated into laptops and other mobile devices.

Great graphics inside
"Integrated graphics" has long been synonymous with "sluggish graphics." But soon the phrase will have a whole new meaning, thanks to new CPUs with powerful graphics hardware built in.

What is it? AMD's acquisition of ATI brought the company's rivalry with Intel--which already made its own basic graphics chips--to a new level. Since then the two competitors each have been working to bridge the gap between CPUs and graphics processors. Building graphics-processing functionality directly into a CPU eliminates the delay you'd otherwise experience as data passes between the CPU and GPU across the system bus. Such combined CPU/GPUs will feature DirectX 10 support and acceleration for Blu-ray and HD-DVD while consuming substantially less power, requiring less space on the motherboard, and performing significantly better than most of today's discrete graphics cards do.

When is it coming? Intel plans to put its graphics-integrated Nehalem processors into production by 2009, beginning with a line of server chips. AMD intends to release its integrated Puma notebook platform about the same time. In 2009, Intel will bring its graphics-integrated chips to desktops and notebooks, while AMD's Puma will likely reach desktops in 2010.

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