By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
We’ve seen a lot of changes in technology over the past decade, whether it be with our phones, home appliances, vehicles, etc. Now, we’re wearing smart watches, plugging in our cars and asking our Google Home’s if they can turn our TVs on for us. Certainly, this would have all been something foreign to us ten years ago, but now it’s just the norm.
Back in 2003, everyone thought that Blu-Ray was going to take over the entertainment industry. And for a while, it did seem that way. However, as time moved on and industries provided us with services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime the feeling was that there was no longer a need to go to a store and pick up a Blu-Ray copy of your favorite movie. Why spend hundreds of dollars on a DVD player when you could buy a monthly subscription to Disney Plus for ten dollars and get all your movies there?
According to Bill Youngblood, owner of BWS Technologies in Prattville, there have been several technological milestones over the past decade besides Netflix, dating apps, and google hubs.
“The biggest personal technology advancement in the last decade would be wrist worn computers aka smartwatches,” Youngblood says. “New smart watches have finally brought a wrist worn Dick Tracy style communication device straight from the 1931 Sunday comic strip into reality. These wearable computers have more power than computers used to go to the moon, more power than super computers in the early 1990’s, and more capabilities than many computers made a decade ago. We can monitor our health and exercise, check the weather, listen to music and books, make phone calls, and get directions right on our wrist.”
Apart from the wrist-worn miracle workers, Youngblood says 3D printing has made a huge impact on the world as well.
“In the last decade advancements in lowered costs and larger size of parts created in 3D Printed manufacturing have changed the way businesses are manufacturing products and maintaining equipment. With 3D printing, parts can be manufactured on demand without the need for expensive tooling and startup costs. Also, parts for older machinery and equipment can be created easily and inexpensively once existing spare parts have been exhausted. This new technological manufacturing method ranks right up there with the assembly line and interchangeable parts in changing the way products are created and sold.”
Even the lighting inside our own homes and workplaces have changed throughout the decade, as Youngblood says LED has become the lighting of choice.
“Solar energy may get a lot of attention in the press, but the biggest influence reshaping our energy use in the last decade is the simple light bulb. Savings from these highly efficient and increasingly inexpensive LED bulbs continue to replace older lighting technology, in our homes, city street lights, Christmas decorations and more.”
As we move on from this decade and begin the next, Youngblood says there’s a few things to look forward to as we head into the year 2020.
“In 2020 we will see the newest super-fast 5G smartphones and mobile data plans that will bring broadband speeds we have only been able to get at home or at the office. The transition from 4G to 5G is even bigger and frankly much more revolutionary than any mobile data speed increase we have experienced in the past. The new 5G data speeds will be 10 – 30 times faster than what current wireless data plans are,” Youngblood says.
And while that’s fantastic on a worldwide level, Youngblood says technological changes will be coming much more locally as well.
“Locally the biggest technology advancement in 2020 will be Central Alabama Electric Cooperative’s rural broadband project, Central Access. This project will do for residential internet speeds what rural electrification did for most people living outside the city limits beginning in 1939. CAEC expects to have service begin in late 2020. Giving access to rural areas of the counties they serve will be great for residences and businesses. Having access to broadband internet is a fundamental utility to life in the 21stcentury,” says Youngblood.
So, prepare yourself while you can. LTE is about to be a thing of past as we usher in 5G networks, and residential internet speeds are about to be faster than ever. So, if you’re still rocking that iPhone 5s, we suggest you take the time to upgrade. Because more so than ever, 2020 and beyond will bring us technology like we’ve never seen before.
