When verb [ICT] asked me to write a weekly column about trends, I thought it would be important to establish a few things up front:

• I like gadgets
• I like the interwebs
• I am into clothes
• I like to make things
• I’m obsessed with well-designed anything

So to kick off 2010 properly, here’s what I think is cool for the whole damn year: The Future. For the first time in 21st century, I feel like we finally have some futuristic shit to enjoy. Sure, we don’t have teleportation or flying cars, we can’t push a button on the wall and have food instantly appear, and I don’t have an astrodroid (R2D2 style) or a lightsaber. However…

I get to watch live streaming games of my team, the Los Angeles Lakers, on my phone – anywhere. Electric cars are a reality and we’ll be able to buy them soon. Boeing had a successful test of a plane mounted laser device for shooting down missles, so at least in theory, we’re close to laser warfare (also a long way from lightsabers… thank god.) But the really exciting thing for me about 2010 is the impending transition of traditional media to web-based or digital media.

I’m not talking about blogs, Twitter, etc. I’m talking about the Apple tablet (and the subsequent copycats from Microsoft and Google) and how it will impact print media and television media over the next couple years. In the same way music went digital a few years ago with the iPod and iTunes, we’re about to witness a wholesale change in the way we consume media. Which is all that much cooler and more futurey because of the new touch-based devices like the iPhone and Apple tablet.

As a member of Generation X, I’m the last of the vinyl LP generation. I’m the last generation to remember owning a TV with knobs. I was one of the last groups of teenagers to get through high school without a cellphone. I owned a Palm Pilot that had a black/green screen, no backlight, and required a pen to do anything. It wasn’t much except a calendar and contact book. And now I carry around a phone that has better graphics than my first four video game consoles, has faster internet than my first four laptops, and also has most of my current music collection, favorite movies and some cool tv shows. And did I mention I can watch the Lakers play on it… live.

As a child of the seventies and eighties, I am so excited for 2010 to finally get closer to the future I was promised as a child watching 80’s sci-fi and Jetsons cartoons. Mister Spacely won’t be yelling at me from my wall this year (though he probably will this decade), but there is a high likelihood that he will from my digital magazine/newspaper/TV/internet/iChat device by June.

Hello future. Happy new year.

Related posts:

1. [hack] Why the Apple Tablet?
2. [shop] Holiday Gift Guide: Electronics
3. [wear] What’s Cool Now: Leather