Suburbia... the future... or today?

06.00am

Elizabeth’s peaceful sleep is broken by the gentle ringtone of a mobile phone “wake up” alarm. Groaning, she picks up the phone, and says “Stop Alarm”. The voice activated command silences the phone, before it wakes up her whole house.

06.35am

We see Elizabeth jogging along the beach, listening to her favourite tracks downloaded from Telstra Bigpond Music, playing on her NextG mobile. Mid song, the phone vibrates, alerting her to an incoming text message. Music pauses, and Elizabeth reads her message - the Aussie dollar has broken $US1.05!

Taking the opportunity to catch her breath, Elizabeth resends this message to her management team, adding a comment “Review of forward contracts now essential. Let’s meet at 9am to discuss”.

07.30am

Back home, her husband is cooking breakfast. Showered and dressed after her jog, Elizabeth picks up her laptop and takes a seat on the patio. Wirelessly attaching to Bigpond broadband, she checks the latest news headlines online, then selects Business, to get the background on the dollar’s overnight trading. Another click of her mouse and a graph showing the past seven day’s performance appears on her screen.

08.15am

In her car, in traffic, and low on petrol – the perfect start to any day... Pulling over the side of the road, Elizabeth parks her car, and activates the in built GPS service on her mobile. Whereis automatically picks up her location, and, with a few keystrokes, is being directed to the nearest petrol station, which has the lowest priced fuel in her area.

Pulling back into the flow of traffic, Elizabeth follows the voice prompts on her phone and is on her way to fill up her car. Once there, she is pleased to see that this petrol station is equipped to accept payment via her mobile phone account. Car filled, a bottle of water purchased in the shop, and payment made via her mobile – what could be easier?

08.45am

Back in her car, Elizabeth issues a voice command to her phone: “Call Office”. Immediately her assistant answers the call – and takes a few notes from Elizabeth in preparation for the 9am meeting. Realising she will be late, Elizabeth asks her assistant to put the conference call to her car so she does not keep her team waiting. Once the call is completed, Elizabeth returns to listening to her favourite music being streamed via Bluetooth though her car’s sound system.

09:08am

Finally at her workstation, she takes her laptop out of her bag, and picks up the office wireless network. Instantly her PC takes on its work profile – hiding all non-work related files in the background. Her mobile phone also assumes its work identity – acting as a fixed line phone within the building.

The conference call commenced in her car continues inside – without a single drop out!

10.30am

Conference call completed – and the figures discussed have been sent to all relevant staff. Elizabeth’s MD is in Europe this week, but that does not stop him receiving the update instantaneously on his Blackberry.

Elizabeth knows that as soon as she presses the Send key, the countdown to her boss calling will begin. Sure enough... within three minutes, her phone rings inviting her to a video call with the MD.

10.41am

Time for a coffee. Picking up her PDA, Elizabeth heads downstairs to the grab a drink. The PDA vibrates – indicating an incoming message. It’s a picture of a new born baby girl – with a message – Hi Liz, please say hello to our new daughter. Love you, Phil and Paula.  She smiles, and sends back a quick message – “she’s beautiful – congratulations to you both”, and then looks up the number of the florist, orders a bunch of flowers, and has them sent to hospital – all before the coffee is served.

12.45pm

Elizabeth is heading to a meeting across town, and stops at her favourite sandwich bar for lunch. After ordering, she takes a seat by the window, and opens her laptop. Using one of the WiFi Hotspots, she logs into her home account, scans the emails, and then opens her Foxtel Online directory. Tonight is the final episode of a six part series and she doesn’t want to miss it. She sends a remote record request to her set top box at home, confident that now she will definitely see the show.

Whilst online, Elizabeth looks up the number of the local mobile store – to arrange a new phone for her son’s birthday. A quick call, a few details, and the phone is ordered and ready to pick up on the way home.

3.03pm

Back from her meeting, Elizabeth receives an SMS from her son asking if it is ok to play at a friend’s house after school. Elizabeth replies yes, and arranges to pick him up on the way home.

4:42pm

Elizabeth’s daughter sends two images – asking which outfit she likes better for the party on Saturday night. They agree on one, and Elizabeth logs into her home banking and transfers the money to her daughter’s account. Her daughter in turn pays for the dress with her EFTPOS card.

6.18pm

Finishing her last meeting of the day, Elizabeth realises its her turn to cook tonight!. “Forget it – tonight we’re ordering Thai!” she says. Using her Blackberry, she locates the nearest Thai restaurant to home, looks through the menu, orders and pays for it with the details secured in her PDA. It will be ready at 7:10pm – just when she will be driving past. Calling her husband, she lets him know what planned for the night.

6.50pm

Picking up a message on her phone – Elizabeth realises the agency has put the wrong music on the ad campaign. She calls them and advises them of the error.

7.31pm

Home at last – armed with the take away.
Her daughter says hi and immediately relieves her of the laptop. Her son walks in behind her, already playing a game on Elizabeth’s phone. The agency emails her Blackberry to say the audio is fixed.

All that remains now is to enjoy the family, dinner and relax.