Disappointment in Tech

With the start of CES, I can't help but think what has failed to advance in the past year. As always, battery life (particularly mobile) has yet to impress anyone.

The smart watch has not really done much to reduce the need to have the cell phone out all the time. Watches have not reached an adequate size for many women (or men for that matter). Personally, I'm waiting for something that isn't so reliant on the phone and better than a day of battery life.

Intel has really failed to capture the mobile market still. Intel's RealSense technology and their real-time sensor, Curie, are really impressive but we have yet to see many devices with them. I wonder how useful Curie will be for the average user. I understand it's potential for display statistics in sporting events, but how many viewers will actually care? It's going to be critical in training and safety but majority of the benefits will be behind the scenes.

Mobile payments seem to be actually picking up pace with the "something Pay" applications. More and more retailers are realizing that the importance of transitioning to the method of payment. It's still sad LoopPay technology will only be native on Samsung devices. One thing I'm keeping my interest in is Plastc, a smart credit card that plans to deal with magnetic swipe, NFC, EMV chip, and even barcodes using the e-ink screen). The company is promising a lot and is planning to use a strange annual subscription model (which you can avoid if you pre-order).

The biggest disappointment of all has to be the lack of decent Internet of Things solutions. It is nearly impossible to find one solution for multiple usages; there are certainly individual solutions for specific needs but it seems to have multiple of them (which may not be compatible or integrated together).