Tricky question really, cause sometimes you don’t know what you need until the need is met. “How did we live before….” is a sentence you can fill with hundreds of things that we were perfectly content with before they came out and then became crucial.

That said, there’s one thing that’s missing across the board in wireless devices: a truly vocal operating system. Sure some cell phones can recognize names that you painstakingly teach them, but come on, we can do better, and not only voice command, but vocal response as well.

This requires a LOT more AI and processing power than mobile devices have, but hey maybe we could have a device that interfaces with our other mobile devices rather than have every single device with AI and voice command.

Rather than having to search through your mp3 database on a tiny screen (even the ipod’s screen is small compared to a desktop) is not as convenient as saying, “Play something by Metallica” and having your mp3 player randomly select a song with “Metallica” in the author field. This would make personal organizers and cell phones far superior as well. Just tell your PDA, “I have a meeting in 2 hours, remind me 5 minutes before” or “Phone Number Look up, John Smith, first three digits 524 then call”

Of course to be useful, they’d have to talk back, which is the difference between voice command and a true VOS.