The Social Machines

Machine-to-machine communications, in which communication is carried out among machines without any human involvement at all, soon will be a part of everyday life. This year will see about 10 billion microprocessors sold and embedded in everything from computers to coffeemakers. In the future, such devices could be networked, said Nortel CTO John Roese, who calls the trend "hyperconnectivity."

Putting in 45 minutes on the health-club treadmill isn't the exercise in boredom that it used to be.

Today you can touch a button on a treadmill's screen and watch the "Office" episode you downloaded to your iPod. Plug a USB Latest News about USB stick into the machine, and your preprogrammed workout pops up. After you're done, just save your workout results on the stick and track your performance over time.

Welcome to a world where even treadmills are networked, as equipment designers strive to engage body and mind.

"We try to appeal to people in different ways," said John Stransky, chief of Schiller Park, Ill.-based Life Fitness, a global maker of exercise machines. "It's a combination of engagement and entertainment. Some people don't want to work out, and we try to take their minds off it."

Personalized Entertainment

In fact, some futurists predict that in 15 to 20 years more than 1 trillion devices, most of them wireless, will be connected to global networks, according to Nortel.

Hooking iPods to exercise bikes and treadmills lets users more easily select the music they want, using the built-in touch screen to control their selections. Video iPods can transmit directly to screens embedded in the exercise machinery.

"Personalized entertainment keeps people coming back to the machines," said Robert Quast, Life Fitness senior director for cardio-product management.

Networking equipment is especially helpful for patients who use machines for medically prescribed workouts, said Michael Shew, assistant manager of the Vanderbilt Orthopedic Institute in Nashville, Tenn. Workout information becomes part of a patient's electronic medical record that physicians can review, he said. It also may encourage the patient to keep working.

"What am I investing? What's my return?" Shew said. "When people can see a tangible result that measures progress, that's fantastic."

The Dark Side

Health clubs may use networked information to send messages to members who have been slacking off, trying to lure them back, said Ted Lepucki, senior director of technology realization at Life Fitness.

Getting people's competitive juices flowing is another way networked fitness equipment can help motivate people, said Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster based in Silicon Valley. Already there are video games intended to encourage children to exercise, he said, and exercise soon will become part of virtual reality Web sites such as Second Life.

"I guarantee people on stationary machines will stage bicycle races in Second Life," Saffo said.

However, he added, "There's a dark side to all this."

"When you put a computer into an ordinary machine, it means the machine will go obsolete sooner," Saffo said. "You'll have all these exercise bikes with obsolete computers appearing at garage sales Free White Paper - What Retailers Should Know about M-Commerce. It's diabolical. The more computers companies put into things, the sooner people want the new version."
A New Kind of Social Network

Machine-to-machine communications, in which communication is carried out among machines without any human involvement at all, soon will be a part of everyday life, Roese said.

"All machines will talk seamlessly," he said. "Nothing new need be invented. It's just a matter of linking things to the network."

Home appliances like air conditioners and clothes dryers should talk to the electric company to take advantage of rates that fluctuate by the hour, running full blast when electric rates are low and dialing back as they rise. The automobile is a prime example of how improved networking will change our lives, Roese said.

"With your car connected to the Internet, you should always been going to the right place," he said.

A phone call or e-mail from a client to cancel a meeting would go directly into the network, enabling it to reroute the car to the next scheduled appointment, Roese said. In this world, your car will even talk to your lawn sprinkler, telling it to shut off as you approach your driveway so you can cross the lawn without getting wet, he said.

Federal officials also are creating standards so that cars can communicate with traffic lights as they approach intersections. When the traffic signal communicates that it is about to change from green to red, your car would know to slow down for the stop, said Craig Pickering, a senior associate with the Booz Allen Hamilton consultancy.

A test of such a system is planned for the Detroit area, Pickering said.

"They're working on security Barracuda Spam Firewall Free Eval Unit - Click Here and privacy for the system," he said. "You don't want Big Brother to know everything, or hackers to get in."

Although much of this may have the ring of the distant future, experts predict that hyperconnectivity is just around the corner, as wireless networks are built and chips are designed to access them.

"I'd say that by 2009 to 2010, we'll see the maturing of this industry," Roese said

Jobs, Gates and a Trip Down Memory Lane

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates form one of the technology industry's great stories, from the time in the mid-'70s when, within a few years of each other, they formed computer companies that would change the world. During their meeting at the All Things Digital conference, Jobs quoted the Beatles: "You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead

They didn't introduce themselves by saying "Hello, I'm a Mac," "and I'm a PC" -- but the cheeky Apple. Latest News about Apple adverts ribbing Microsoft. Latest News about Microsoft were never far from the surface as the tech companies' founders, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, appeared on stage together for the first time in a decade.

"The art of those commercials is not to be mean. It's for the guys to like each other," Jobs said, raising a laugh from a Silicon Valley audience, and a disbelieving look from Gates. "PC guy is what makes it work, PC guy is great." Gates gave his chin a skeptical rub: "Well, his mother loves him."

The ads, which in the UK star David Mitchell and Robert Webb, have been needling Microsoft all over the world, and prompted Gates earlier this year to say Apple was spreading lies. While the atmosphere was more cordial as the two agreed to a historic joint interview at a technology conference in Carlsbad, Calif., it was hard not to think of the ads. Steve Jobs sat in a black polo shirt and jeans, while Gates had shined his shoes and gone for a casual striped white shirt.


Stormy Relationship

Gates wasn't joking when he answered a question about his rival by saying: "I would give a lot to have Steve's taste." He added that while he may see a software problem as an "engineering issue," Jobs "has an intuitive taste both for people and products that is very hard for me even to explain."

With Apple enjoying a resurgence in cool thanks to the success of its iPod, and with Microsoft's operating system Manage remotely with one interface -- the HP ProLiant DL360 G5 server. Vista being panned by users, the ads are the latest chapter in a stormy relationship punctuated by breakups and kiss-and-make-ups.

It is one of the technology industry's great stories, from the time in the mid-'70s when, within a few years of each other, they formed computer companies that would change the world. Attendees at the All Things Digital conference were treated to footage from an Apple event in 1983 when a long-haired Steve Jobs hosted a "Blind Date" style event with software executives, including Gates, who were vying to design software for his computers. (He picked all three.) There was also a reminder of the last time the two appeared together, officially burying the hatchet after Steve Jobs returned to rescue Apple from oblivion in 1997.

Joined Forces

The 90-minute conversation that followed was definitely in the kiss-and-make-up mold. "Bill built the first software company in the industry. And I think he built the first software company before anybody in our industry knew what a software company was," Jobs said.

They did trade a few jabs, not least about the iPod, which Microsoft is trying to replicate with a product called Zune. The Zune developers love Apple for having created the mass market for digital music, Gates said, trying to play nice; Apple loves Zune developers because, like everyone else, they all have iPods.

However, mainly they joined forces to defend the home computer, which is under threat from a host of other devices. "The death of the personal computer has been predicted every few years," Jobs said. "PCs are going to continue as a general purpose device, whether in a tablet form or a notebook or a big curved desktop you have in the house."

'Youngest Guys in the Room'

Latest News about Google and other upstart rivals snapping at their heels, the men looked back ruefully at their long histories. "When Bill and I first worked together," Jobs said, "we were both the youngest guys in the room. Now I am the oldest." He quoted the Beatles: "'You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead' -- that's clearly true here."

The pair were given a rock star welcome. While Gates is now concentrating on the philanthropic foundation giving away his US$53 billion (pounds 26.8 billion) fortune, he was as prone to geeky flights of fancy as ever. He predicted a home where "every horizontal and vertical surface will have a projector for information."

Steve Jobs, meanwhile, exuding cool as ever, took a long pause before giving his unwavering answer to questions of futurology: "I don't know. And that's what makes it exciting to go into work every day."