WHAT'S SMALL IS BIG AGAIN

While standing in line for a cab, I noticed that the pendulum of technological design advances has decidedly swung to its opposite end of the size spectrum. Gigantic head phones that would make Howard Cossel or any airport worker remark on, phone jacks that look like the princess phone handsets of old, phone cases with extra battery charges or even bunny ears making a more notable mass of what is meant to comfortably fit in your hand, all featured prominently among those awaiting their journey into New York City.

It was not all that long ago that Zoolander was mocking the "incredible shrinking cell phone." Ear buds disappeared into our ear canal, truly and stealthily sealing us away from the outside world, betrayed only by what became the ubiquitous white wires dangling from our lobes. The size of our devices dictated ever-shrinking carrying cases, possibly bringing on the advent of the much-reviled and, thankfully, still banished "fanny pack." And, we now take all of these items from our enormous SUVs to our tiny smart cars.

This dance along the size continuum is the direct function of us anxiously anticipating "how small they will go." The first transistor was the size of a small table lamp and now can be produced at a size invisible to the naked eye. But, as Zoolander proved, there is a point where too small does get to be too small.

It must be that our computers still have a few strides to go to "Nano-land". While we have seen the desktop shrink down to the laptop and now, tablet. And, while it is amusing to see someone hold up a tablet to take a picture or scan the newspaper while on line for a cab, tablets still are a long way away from the day's of 2010's Hal. I wonder if the tablet will be the last stop before we start seeing people dusting off there old raspberry-tinted Apples.

I am excited for the first time I spot the Motorola "brick phone" made famous in the Michael Douglas hit "Wall Street" as I am sure that its advent will signal the swing back to the small side of the size spectrum.