What will replace the phone?

[Vrex360]

Standing on the rooftops and yelling at each other from long distances with a megaphone.

or:
Standing on the rooftop
Wait until the bomb drops
'cause this is all be got now
scream until your heart stops
I'm never going to re-gret
watching every sun-set
listen to your heartbeat
all on of the regret
SCREAM...YOUR...HEAR...OUT

yay for obscure refereance to song that I like.

But seriously, my option is standing on the rooftop screaming your heart out.

 

[Pyre00]

I don't think anything will replace the phone, short of telepathy.

I mean, we'll always call it a phone, in the same way we'll still call flying cars "Cars", most likely.

But you wouldn't call a teleporter a car. Its a completely different mode of transportation. Your thinking on the wrong wavelength.

True, but that was kinda weak analogy, since there's nothing that is as teleporter is to car as phone is to anything else(apart from telepathy, once again, which may or may not be possible).

 

[santaandy]

They'll put a chip in your brain man, you can't turn it off! They can see and hear everything! AAAHHH!!!

Yeah, I think something dystopian like that will happen.

 

[Gruthar]

The way current trends are going, I think communication is going to move towards VOIP and mobile computing devices. I'm guessing over time, cheap or free wireless internet will permeate urbanized areas to the extent that cell phone towers are going to relegated solely to rural areas. Communications over the internet are cheaper and generally of better quality, not to mention that with the additional bandwidth you can do video chat or whatever new type of communication the future brings. The role of current cell phone companies will change to one resembling ISPs.

The next 'phone' will probably be a small general computer. Like a smartphone on crack. What would distinguish it from a smartphone would be the user interface. If I were to design it, I think it would be a two-piece system. One part would be a small ear bud for audio, the other would a wrist-mounted general computer. Said wrist mounted device would be able to detect hand gestures, as well as keep a projector aligned with the user's eye for display purposes (the caveat is you have to have your hand ahead of you do be able to see, but it's naturally there if you're gesturing in thin air.) You could point to move a cursor, tap your finger to click, then write in thin air to type. Beyond that, I don't think it would have to innovate much, just have two different types of transmitters. One for internet access, the other to interface with other personal or short-range devices (a la Bluetooth.) I don't know if it's feasible to power the audio bud wirelessly, but it would be neat if it could be done efficiently.