According to a recent ad, Hewlett-Packard’s new TouchSmart IQ770 PC, priced at about $1,700, is designed for the kitchen of the future, where people turn on the computer along with the coffeepot, and then check the screen for the weather, ball scores and the family calendar as they breakfast, call up recipes when it comes to preparing dinner and log into an online casino in order to get away from it all.

The calendar on the TouchSmart is easy to use and can be used by all members of the family as the “communal family calendar”. Entries can be written on the touch-sensitive screen with a finger or stylus or entered on a keyboard, so that everyone knows what’s ahead during the day, from the dentist at 9 a.m. to the PTA at 7 p.m. The computer also operates a TV, a DVD player and a 19-inch screen that moves up and down as well as tilting, so that people having a snack at the counter or a nearby table can watch their favorite show or video or roulette table in the online casino.

“Forty-seven percent of all American adults have a broadband connection at home as of early 2007,” said Mary Madden, a senior research specialist at the Pew Internet and American Life Project. That connection has prompted people to do more and more on the computer, from video-watching to discarding phone books and cookbooks in favor of online research. And what about online gambling, despite the US government’s attempts to drive it out of America completely? “Once people get that always-on connection,” she said, “they do more of everything online.”

So it seems that the future of the home computer will not be in the study of the American home after all, but in shared living spaces and particularly the kitchen, she said. Seventy-four percent of teenagers who use the Internet at home, for instance, do so in a shared space. Part of the reasoning for this is that parents do not want their children closeted with the computer where there is no adult supervision on their activities. Who is supervising the parents and their online gambling activities?

Posted on: September 11, 2007

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