Here’s the list of technologies I want in my grubby paws by this time next year. My kingdom for a fab lab…

• iPod voice recorder →
  The new iPods already include pretty robust recording capabilities - there’s just no hardware solution to access them. I want this fixed.
• Programmable clothing →
  I want clothes that have some kind of thin, flexible display set in them which I can program. It’s like a new shirt every day!
• Actual IPTV →
  I want to watch TV on my laptop, whenever I want. My preference would be to receive the content as a download, but streaming would be okay too, so long as it isn’t tied to a time. And I don’t want to get it days after it’s on the tube - I want it available at pretty much the same time. I’m willing to pay for this service. The iTunes Everything Store is getting there, but TV downloads aren’t available in Canada (bad Apple!), and there’s nowhere near enough selection. I’m currently a subscriber to UEFA soccer through Real, and while streaming sucks and Real is pretty crummy, getting every Champions League game when I want it is worth the small fee and medium size bother. There’s a definite market for this - come on Hollywood and sports megalopolies! You like money, don’t you?
• ACK: an acknowledge button on e-mail →
  I get a lot of email were I know I ought to respond and let the sender know I read it, but I have nothing to add to the conversation, or I’m not ready to answer yet. So, I want another button on my email client marked ACK. It would send a stock reply, such as “Your message has been read”, and append ACK: to the front of the subject line, leaving something like: “ACK: RE: 2006 Budget Draft”. The sender then gets a reply that they don’t even have to open, letting them know I read the message and that I had to do something in order to send this response. I’m not ignoring them, I just have nothing to add.