Everything Is an iPod In The Future: Difference between revisions

[[File:everything-is-an-ipod-in-the-future wall-e 1649.jpg|link=WALL-E|frame|Mac OS background may or may not be included.]]

 

 

Right now, being cutting-edge is all about plain black and white (maybe pastel colours if you're lucky), translucent plastic, smoothed edges, screens that slide and flip out, touch screens, unobtrusive buttons, minimalist advertising and displays, [[Design Student's Orgasm|lights that come out of nowhere]] and catchy little chimes when the devices start up. And of course, it's all small and convenient. For current evidence, look no further than the success of the iPod range and the [[Mac|iMac]] style it was based on, its [[Follow the Leader|imitators]] and other things that have adopted the style, such as pretty much the entire range of the latest game consoles.

[[Everything Is Online]], and physical data storage either consists of an equivalent of a USB thumbdrive or doesn't exist at all, considering that computers are so small and compact you can carry them anywhere and transfer data wirelessly. Interfaces are designed to be soothing, easy to use and colourful, and if intelligent they'll probably be [[Stop Helping Me!|annoyingly helpful]].

 

 

Contrast [[Raygun Gothic]], which is its opposite in a number of ways. See also [[Holographic Terminal]] and [[Ascetic Aesthetic]].

{{examples}}

== Anime & Manga ==

* [[Doomed Upgrade|Zero]] from the first ''[[Patlabor]]'' movie has some of this look about him. Which is quite impressive, considering Yutaka Izubuchi designed him in the late '80s.

* The eponymous robot from ''[[Heroman]]''.

 

* EVE in ''[[WALL-E]]'' is basically a floating sentient iPod space probe that appears to be made mostly of curves, folds up neatly, and is packed with numerous features. Makes sense, since her character design was done by Jonathan Ive, who designed... wait for it... the iPod.

* ''[[Despicable Me]]'' uses this to contrast Gru's classic [[Mad Scientist]] style villainy with the upstart, next-gen villain, Vector. Gru's base looks like something out of a [[James Bond]] film, Vector's looks like if Steve Jobs had designed an iFortress.

 

* The 2009 ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'' reboot has a [[Product Placement|Nokia system]] built into a vintage [[Cool Car]]. The new Enterprise itself is a mix of [[Zeerust|stylistic throwbacks]] but the general design seems a lot smoother than remembered. It helps that the plain white and minimalism of the old series adapts fairly well.

** Nokia was enlisted to help design the communicators as well.

* ''[[Tron]]'', a film that takes place inside of a computer, uses this aesthetic, partly because of the limited CG technology of the time, but mostly because everything is supposed to look sleek and virtual. The video game sequel, ''[[Tron 2.0]]'', modernizes it slightly. The film sequel, ''[[Tron: Legacy]]'', is actually an interesting subversion—when you consider that the OS that everyone uses was made by a hacker, it makes sense that all the computer use a Command Line Interface, making for something of a Linux future.

* The control room for the Arena in ''[[The Hunger Games (film)|The Hunger Games]]'' [[The Film of the Book|adaptation]] has an Apple-like aesthetic.

 

== Literature ==

* In the ''[[Time Scout]]'' series, the tech is mostly normal. The incredibly expensive technology used by the time scouts is basically a battered tin/plastic case. Their satchels are regular battered leather satchels. In other words, averted.

* The Chee in ''[[Animorphs]]'' are like this under their holograms-sleek ivory and steel androids that vaguely resemble two legged dogs. The Pemalite ship that powers them has a similiar look.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* The spaceship appearing in the music video for [[Michael Jackson|Michael and Janet Jackson's]] "Scream".

* The [[Robosexual|lesbian robots]] in [[Bjork]]'s "All Is Full of Love" video.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Traveller]]'' fits this to a T with illustrations of computers looking almost exactly like twenty-first century ones. Justifiable in that after you have miniaturized past a certain level user friendliness, fashion and aesthetics will become a premium. Maybe you can someday put several terrabytes into a datadisk the size of a dime but a human still needs to interface with it comfortably, so it is hard to picture computers designed to communicate directly with a human instead of just another computer being smaller then a palmtop without being inconvenient. Wristwatch-sized computers, "datacloths" which seem to be flexible paper-thin screens, and perhaps myriads of other arrangements are available. However one of the most popular arrangements in Traveller from pictures and discriptions seems to be something that looks rather like an Amazon Kindle.

* ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'' has this, because any object not physically implanted or worn has to be usable by everything from ordinary humans to uplifted squid. As a result, everything is palm-sized, made of smooth cream-coloured plastic, lacks corners or sharp edges, and more than likely doesn't even have buttons, since you can operate most things mentally.

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Putt-Putt]] Travels Through Time'' predicted the future would take place on [[Floating Continent]]s, with teleportation being possible, having food makers for all living creatures, libraries where you could print your own stories, museums where calculators are ancient mathematics artifacts, and [[Artistic License Economics|there is no such thing as money.]]

* The Parasites from [[Gratuitous Space Battles]]. Their ships consist entirely of white metal hulls with brightly colored, transparent accents, and sleek weapons.

 

== Web Comics ==

* In ''[[A Mad Tea Party]]'', 200 years in the future, there are ipad-like things for breaking into cars and checking medical files on the internet.

* [[Domain Tnemrot]] Tempest has a computer that looks and acts like an iPad. This is explained in the [[Word of God|notes]] as most tech in the future being touch screen.

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[Ilivais X]]'' follows this design, with cities being futuristic bubbles held above the land, and the [[Humongous Mecha]] typically being very sleek and advanced. The Avespias are the only units to even have any kind face, as the Ilivais prototypes have curved wedges with a sensor web, and the Espadas are piloted from within a shoulder-mounted sphere.

 

== Western Animation ==

* [[Lampshaded]] in an episode of ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' where everything is chrome. They even have guys who drive around in vans spraypainting everything that's not already chrome.

 

== Real Life ==

* Most design aesthetic today leans toward this. Generally, most people like their technology to be sleek, clean, and minimalist. [http://www.teslamotors.com/models Tesla's Model S], which is due for production in mid-2012 is designed around the popular iPod sentiment; it even has pulsing LEDs to indicate charging state and a 17" touchscreen console explicitly based on the iPhone's interface.

** The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOueYfrrSjw Nissan Cube] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c68V3z2tSjw Kia Soul] also seem to be deliberately invoking this in their design.

* The [http://www.westfield.com/ Westfield] chain of gigantic shopping malls, in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, to the point that rather than standing out for their design, the Apple stores in them completely blend in to their waves-of-curved-sheet-glass aesthetic.

* Discovery thinks this trope [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-px4MAKREs here]. Its a three parter about 2057, guess when this was made.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:We Will Use An Index In The Future]]