Is the next generation of portable computing already here?

It has been some time since new hardware or software developments excited me to an extent where I can forsee a sea change in the way we do computing. Some time back OLED technologies promised the coming of cheap and maleable screens. A couple of weeks ago I read about 60GB solid state memory now being produced making hard disk drives for portable computers almost a silly option. Much like the robustness of memory cards, these new huge solid state memory storage would promise to make portable computers even more portable in both weight and power usage.

The most interesting software development I just discovered this week was the company called PortableApps.com. This company champions portable computing in a manner that would cause an uproar with the portable computer manufacturers if it caught on. In short, the PortableApps software run applications from the ubiquitous Thumbdrive.

It even provides for free download its PortApps Suite that has an antivirus, web browser, instant messaging, Openoffice suite, Soduku puzzle game, and email client and it all runs comfortably on a 512MB thumb drive.

Just for a moment consider if we put all these technologies together - how would it look like to you? Well, it looks to me that the future computing looks interesting again - if only the mega manufacturers knew how to keep their costs low.