Some days ago I drowned my smartphone in the rain and was without a smartphone for a couple of days. Once you lack something, you realize how much you have been depending on it. The smartphone is not so much a phone, it at least for me an additional set of senses kinda like sense of balance or hearing. Maybe one of the most prominent features missing was the navigation, my artificial GPS sense has allowed me to find my way on my own in many occasions. Without it, I started staring intently at maps and guessing my position. Also, the lack of instant mail notifications made me hard to reach and the lack of music in my headphones made for some very boring walks. I admit, getting a smartphone was a breakthrough, my friends joked that my hand has joined with the phone in the first couple of months.

Now why? I had most of that already available: a laptop, a mobile gaming console, a music player, a cellphone. The difference was that with a smartphone I always had everything with me, no more thinking about what I might need. And the internet was always just a screen-unlock away, no boot or resume required.

Since I started using computers, there was a number of, might just as well call it paradigm shifts: getting internet in the first place with a 28.8k modem on a pay-per-minute basis, getting a ADSL 1500MB/month “flat rate” and eventually a real flat rate with constant internet access. And then with the smartphone, convenient all-time access to the internet. This sorta turns into a tale of human augmentation, Deus Ex-style.

So the next step is more ubiquitous computing. Wearable computing like the LilyPad is one thing, but what about displaying information. This is where Project Glass enters. For now, it is basically just a camera and somewhat non-remarkable, but it demonstrates quite well what the future could look like. Convenience is a big part in making a technology accessible in our lives. Sure, satellite phones have existed a log time, but cellphones made the technology accessible, camereas were everywhere, but cellphones with cameras have made taking photos of usual, daily things a commodity.

I don’t think Glass itself is that useful and won’t get mainstream usage, just like the Apple Newton didn’t, but consider it a precursor of things to come. As such, Glass is a logical next step from smartphones.