Android to Power Everything??

Is the sci fi world that has always been predicted finally coming true? With Android being pumped into just about everything you can think of (from your tv to your fridge, and even from your watch to your car), it might well do. This really just leaves me one devastating apocalyptic conclusion, we’re probably going to have Android powered Terminators…

I’m kidding, obviously… I think… But until then anyway, lets make the most of it.

All in all, the one thing I am taking from this whole situation is just how divided the market is likely to become. On the surface everything looks peachy, doesn’t it? This next story is, for all intents and purposes, something of my own imagining.

Its 7am, time to get up to go to work, so my alarm goes off. I walk into my bathroom, my shower recognises me and has the temperature set for me. I go downstairs, my tv recognises me so turns on to the music channel, and my kettle starts boiling. My fridge hasn’t told me that my milk is out of date, so I put it in my drink and on my cereal, putting it back in the fridge when done. Later when I am on my way home from work my phone buzzes to tell me that I need more milk, and that there is a Tesco express round the corner. I buy the milk and drive home, but on the way, my car (which has again recognised me and set my radio preferences up) tells me that I need petrol, and where the cheapest station is locally. My oven recognises that I am now, given traffic conditions, only 25 minutes from home so puts my dinner on.

Its a nice scenario, having everything automated like that. It is something that I am genuinely excited about, and relies on some pretty awesome tech. For instance, I know I wrote it but, I can see the use of GPS, NFC, KFC… (no? well maybe I decided I wanted take out instead, I can do that, its MY story after all). It will also rely on a pretty good internet connection but 4G should hopefully make this much easier.

This doesn’t really address my concern though. Admittedly right now I can see some new problems, not least the initial cost, I guess that will decrease with time, and even the data costs. Who knows, maybe that new T Mobile Full Monty will sort that. As I said, my concern is market division. Looking at the way things are at the moment, things that work on different operating systems CAN work together using different methods, bluetooth, wifi or something else entirely, it does work, but not entirely smoothly.

Who’s to say that in 10 years, when this is all sorted, you won’t have a windows fridge, an iPhone and an Android car? Life might suddenly become more difficult. To work all these technologies together, you might need to buy everything windows, or everything Android. Maybe I am being overly pessimistic, but I don’t want to get home and find my milk is out of date, and I wasn’t warned when I was by Tesco, because my phone and my fridge weren’t communicating. Maybe I was stupid not to look at the date of the Milk myself? Yes. Ok. Silly situation, but given the increasing reliance on tech, not entirely unfathomable.

Maybe I should look at the brighter side of things. Using technology such as text messaging, twitter, email and the like, these problems can be overcome, to an extent. I just have this niggling feeling that, as with everything these days, in order to get the most out of things, you’re going to need an Android phone, an Android fridge, an Android kettle etc. I love Android but isn’t that a bit overkill?

As a side note, will we get custom mods for our fridges and our cars?