Convergence at its most basic form is the coming together of two or more things. It is the movement of these 'things' towards a common ground. In the case of technology, it involves the movement of different technological objects and systems towards providing similar uses and abilities.

definition reference: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=convergence

Now let's look at a few examples of convergent technology.



The photocopier is a commonly used and often unnoticed piece of converged technology. No office is complete with out one, the photocopier combines a telephone, fax machine, printer, photocopier and more.




The laptop computer combines the portability of mobile devices, a PC with memory for storage, a word processor, built in speakers, c.d and d.v.d players, c.d burners, a strong communication device with wireless connection to the world wide web for such tasks as instant messaging.












The retro-style Radio Toaster is a very simple and perhaps unnecessary convergence of technology. Though it doesn't allow the user to communicate, it does receive transmissions and pick up the radio signals, thus receiving communication. This allows for convenience when toasting and wishing to hear the radio.



The mobile phone is a telecommunications device of great versatility, which combines telecommunication with internet and web communication, the ability to pick up radio signals, store and play mp3s and videos, transfer information through wireless blue tooth and much more. The convergence of mobile phones has only increased in recent years, as displayed by the extremely common and useful apple iPhone.







This is an edited version of the radio toaster image for lols. The before picture can be seen above.













Here is a link to an interesting website regarding the history of the fax machine:
http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/fax_machine.htm

And this is a link to yet another interesting website, this one regarding the many functions of the world wide web:
http://www.mit.edu/~rei/wwwintro.html

That concludes this blog.