All-in-One's - Really!

I was contemplating on phasing out my old desktop and was searching for good replacements. That's when I stuck upon the new fad in desktop computing - all in one's. The official definition for an all-in-one desktop from the wiki says that its a combination of a monitor and CPU. Just googling for all-in-ones gave me tons of pages and products from well known PC manufacturers like Sony, Lenovo, HP, Gateway, Acer, Apple (iMac), Asus, etc.

The Youtube videos link gives you an insight into what kind of features each one has and a comparison is also given. Now, I came to know that the PC also works as a TV (no TV tuner card required?). Also acts like a home theater, including some stunning graphics, audio and so on.

Also, the Lenovo ideacentre A600 features a 4-in-1 remote which can act as a VoIP phone handset, motion drive game controller or as an air mouse.

Next thing we have is the all-in-one printers. These have been around for some time now and the functionalities of these include printing, scanning, copying and faxing as well.

What next can we expect, hmm let me think, how about all-in-one PC including all-in-one printer in one box. Did anyone think about that already. Not sure!

The remote could not only double up as a VoIP phone but could also include functionalities like - working as a watch, calculator, your mobile phone, your key to the house, your gadget to control home devices (this idea is not mine but from a friend of mine) like Refrigerator, Microwave. Also, Kitchen utilities like Mixer, Grinder, Gas Stoves probably using protocols and/or technologies like UPnP, WiFi, Bluetooth and using 3GPP standards like FemtoCells, or Piconets.

The functionalities can be extended to include opening your gate to your home (in case of gated communities), opening your car garage, working as a key for your car, bike, etc.

There is no limit to our imagination. One thing the real all-in-ones could bring about is decreasing our carbon footprint and also make things hassle-free? (Rather contentious issue may be, also do we need more than one of these for all the family members - hmm, in that case, we may also need to add priority to the all-in-ones. The head of the family having the highest priority and so on and so forth).

If you have more ideas or comments to add to the list, kindly post them on the comments page. I would definitely want to hear some comments from everyday users instead of the geeks :-)

Cheers to the all-in-ones!!!