One thing I've noticed recently is a complete lack of vision when it comes to technology in the future. This is really obvious when you read those "What the world will be like in 2000" articles from 1950.
One common theme is simply making things bigger or smaller.. Bigger when it comes to machines, buildings, airplanes. Smaller when it comes to computers and other gadgets.
I remember one that talked about a revolutionary mail/news delivery system.. something like pneumatic tubes. What I've noticed is that when people have tried to predict the future, they tend to come up with new ways for using existing technology, but not new technology. Another example: every future prediction story from 100 years ago always talks about flying cars, but never something like teleportation. A flying car is something we might see in the future, but to me, that is not futuristic. A system that delivers a newspaper to your door using pneumatic tubes might have been cool in 1950, but today I read the news from around the world on my cell phone.
Instead of thinking of new ways to solve the same problems(delivering a physical newspaper to someone) we should be taking one more step back and thinking of new problems to solve. The problem shouldn't be "How to deliver a newspaper to someones door", it should be "How to deliver the news to someone". If you think about it, this is also the same problem the recording industry ran into. Too much time spent thinking about ways to sell people shiny disks, not enough time spent thinking about how to sell people music.
Not to pick on Russel Coker, but I think he falls into the same trap:
In 2020 a device the size of an iPaQ H39xx with USB (for keyboard and mouse) and the new DisplayPort [5] digital display interface (that is used in recent Lenovo laptops [6]) would make a great PDA/desktop
While I think such a device would be cool, I hope that in 2020 we are not still using keyboards and mice and hardwired displays.
Here are some ideas for future portable computers(if such things even exist, we may just wirelessly tap into a global grid.. who knows)
There have been a lot of attempts at voice input, and I don't think it will ever work. I can type a lot faster than I can talk, and I can think even faster. I think the future in input devices is going to involve some kind of biofeedback input.. at least to replace mice.
We are already starting to see the development of tiny embedded projectors. I think all portable devices are going to have them within a few years. Even more futuristic would be something like a wireless high resolution heads up display embedded in a contact lense. Actually, that isn't nearly futuristic enough.. I'm sure someone will invent a device that meshes directly with your brain so you do not even have to read a display.