Sudden convergence

It crept up on me when I kind of wasn't paying attention, and I like it: digital convergence.

There was the empowering feeling last month when our wireless router really started working, and suddenly I could use my laptop in any room in the house. What a fun sensation it was placing it on the kitchen counter and hitting a recipe site to learn how to make pear tarts.

My new cellphone takes pictures which can be uploaded to the web, and it also lets me check movie times on the Internet for whatever zipcode I happen to be in. Or the weather, or the news. I can also read my email on my cellphone and answer it if I like. (The keyboard interface for typing is still a bit cumbersome.)

Today the UPS guy dropped off the box for the new VOIP service. I plugged it in to the wireless router, turned it on, and lo and behold, a common old telephone set had a dial tone through the Internet. I picked up the new cellphone, called my VOIP phone and left myself a message. Then I went to my account management page on the web and played my message back to myself on my laptop. Seamless.

I'm listening to one of my favorite radio stations as I write this, Channel 2 from LiveIreland.com, broadcast(?) from Dublin. Later at night I like to take my laptop down to the family room, plug it in to the surround sound and listen to hip music from Detroit or Philly.

All this and more is part of something called ubiquitious computing. I just finished working on a book about it for Peachpit. By Adam Greenfield, the book is called Everyware. This is heady stuff that'll change our lives.

Not all of this is good or easy. I still have to call my y-gen techno son sometimes when I can't figure out how to turn on the TV.

.