Guanajuato, Mexico
Greetings, and if you’re just returning from your holiday break, welcome back to the real world.
It’s a harsh wake-up call, I know. I sympathize.
But as we head full on into the year 2016, there’s lots to be thankful for, and lots to look forward to.
Me, I spent my holiday break largely disconnected down in Mexico, visiting an ancient silver mining town called “Guanajuato.”
I wrote in a previous post about how I *did* stay connected to the degree I wanted, using an iPod Touch that had largely been sitting around gathering dust once I went back to using an iPhone.
Guanajuato is situated between the arid north of the country and the lusher south, and is both city and state. The city is nestled in a small range of mountains, and as you can see from the picture, consists of gorgeous colorful buildings scattered across the city.
Guanajuato’s origin and growth centered on the discovery of minerals in the surrounding mountains, most notably, silver. My wife and I visited one of the most significant mines there, La Valenciana, which from the late 1700s to the early 1800s accounted for two-thirds of the world’s silver production.
The silver production continues to this day, but the Guanajuato economy has diversified some, depending on both tourism and a large university that now anchors the city.
There also seems to be emerging a thriving art gallery scene, likely a rollover impact from nearby San Miguel de Allende, a longtime and thriving U.S. expat scene (and a beautiful Spanish colonial city in and of its own right).
Though I was making valiant attempts to stay relatively disconnected, save for sharing a few pics on Facebook, I couldn’t help but notice how connected everyone was in Mexico. Just glancing around on the street, it was difficult not to notice that pretty much everyone had a mobile phone, many of them Androids, but quite a few iPhonesore likely they had a mobile device. On some of the tours we took, there were l as well.
Not surprisingly, the younger the individual, the mots of people taking pics using tablet devices.
Just out of curiosity, I looked up the purchasing power parity (PPP) for Mexico, and from 2010-2014 the country was at $16,110, compared to the U.S.’ $53,750.
It would seem the massive global volume of production of these mobile devices is clearly driving their costs way down and their affordability way up, in Mexico and beyond.
So what does this trend portend for 2015, and why am I bringing it up now?
I’ve been surveying many of the projections surrounding what we can likely expect from this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
“CES,” as it’s come to be known, is the annual gathering of the consumer electronics industry where many of the year’s novel devices are announced and revealed.
If prior years centered around the traditional mobile devices we’ve come to know and love — smartphones, tablets, phablets — this year’s theme seems to be about connecting everything.
We’ve already heard about the Apple Watch, expected sometime this quarter.
But from early CES coverage, I’ve already been hearing about smart rings (yes, like the ones you put on your finger), rings which can help you turn on the lights and the TV (I sense a major “Lord of the Rings” spoof in the works).
There’s apparently a smart toothbrush being offered — brush properly, children, and perhaps the Toothbrush Fairy will pay you a visit!
So, 2015 could very well prove the year we really do start to connect everything.
The Internet of Things becomes the Internet of Everything.
Me personally, I’m not too sure I want my toothbrush connected, especially if it’s going to send a full report to my dentist.
On the other hand — literally — the smart ring sounds quite helpful. Especially if it provides a switch that allows me to turn off all these other connected devices and allow me to turn the Internet of Everything to the Internet of Nothing on occasion.
All this connecting is already wearing me out.
The post 2015: The Year Of Connecting Everything? appeared first on Turbo Todd.