Human Personal Electronics

The advent of the slate form factor in smart phones on Earth in 2007 marked the beginning of the end for the desktop PC in all of its forms, helped by the introduction of the smart tablet in 2010. High speed wireless data connections and expanding capacity for cloud storage continued the trend, and cloud computing introduced even before the year 2020 began to spell doom for dedicated video game consoles. 
The rise of wearable technology to split the duties of the devices one carried made their use far more convenient, with smart watches, smart glasses, and truly wireless headsets pushed the handheld devices towards a media consumption and creation role. 
== Manufacturer Ecosystems ==
The most widespread scheme in the personal electronics world is to create a customer base that is loyal due to percieved innovation, percieved value, and exclusive services and devices that work only with devices within the manufacturer's catalog. 
Range-L's smartphones, for instance, work only with other Range-L devices. Speakers, headphones, smart home devices, and more. 
== Handheld Devices ==
Smartphones and tablets have evolved into devices with 24-bit color vector displays covering the entire face of the device. They also feature RAM in excess of 64 gigabytes and extremely fast network connections. The flash storage sizes available stopped increasing in favor of widespread cloud storage usage near the year 2025, with most consumer grade devices featuring between 512 gigabytes and 1 terabyte of storage.
In addition, most processing on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablet computers, is done remotely and streamed to the device making the request via their network connections, and exchanged for a monthly fee based on the Martian calendar still in use for business across human space, usually between 10 and 500 units depending on the number of services users desire, and the quality of those services. Most devices support offline processing via traditional semiconductor-based processing units as opposed to off-site quantum processing. 
A smartphone, for the purpose of short-range communication, is still a radio communications device utilizing traditional cellular signals. Interplanetary communications is achieved via the entangled transmitters on each system's gate by sending requests to FTL communications buoys orbiting each colony, where they are released as radio signals near the planet that hosts the relevant information if it cannot be found locally. 
Tablets have become alternatives to laptop computers that are made much thinner and lighter, and thus easier to store and transport as they lack the lower section that would normally house a physical keyboard and track pad. They can be attached via magnetic connectors or wirelessly for full laptop functionality, which has killed the dedicated-laptop industry on most well-developed human colonies, but the lower cost and overall better battery life has made them more popular in areas without Charge-Anywhere networks. 
Both device families are compatible with the Charge-Anywhere network, which allows them to remain charging while in use via wireless transmitters embedded in streets, buildings, and satellites. Otherwise, all data input and output is done wirelessly, and devices are charged using charging pads or magnetically secured chargers.
== Wearable Devices ==
The smart watch, smart glasses, and wireless headsets largely replaced the communication functions of mobile devices, such as calling, texting, and playing music. Many of these functions do not require a phone to use any longer. It can be easier to coordinate contacts and playlists on a device with a sizable display, in addition to mail and note-taking applications, and many individuals prefer the tactile input of the handheld device over voice control.
== Desktop/Laptop Computers ==
The desktop has survived into the modern day after their birth in the late 1970s by way of the Commodore PET 2001, the Apple II, and the Tandy/Radio Shack 80 in 1977, and the solidification of what a personal computer was with the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer, Model 5150. Its processor architecture and some of its port standards would remain on "PC Compatibles" for decades to come. 
In the modern day, the average non-enthusiast owner of desktop computers will likely own a Core and one or two expansion modules for a personal modular desktop.
The most popular of designs come from megacorporations such as Range-L and Syntek producing simple stacking modules that automatically connect and power on when docked together with a Core module on top. Expansions include, but are not limited to...
* Memory Expansion
* Graphics Processing
* CPU Mirroring
* Storage Expansion
* Airflow Booster
Laptops have became far less popular as time and technology progressed. The market polarized into light and semi-portable desktops, such as the Range-L PMD, or tablet computers, such as the Range-L 26E, 32P, and 37P. The market they cater to now is that of the authiik, who appreciate their greater utility and durability, as well as the generally superior keyboards and battery life. 
This plays into their sensibilities, favoring low failure rates and modest performance over something more potent, but prone to failure. 
Category:Human Technology