Imagine have a phone app that would basically take over your life for you – at least when you’re going on a trip.

The people at zdnet.com quote an airline tech guy as saying, “if you are getting out of your car at the airport, the app that has the details of your flight realizes you have not checked in and lights up and asks you whether you want to check-in.” That has always been my spouse’s job, but I think he’d give it up.

Want more? The article says such an app could “detect when a traveler misses their connection after an incoming flight has been delayed, and then automatically books a seat on the next onward flight”.

They say this could be a reality in another 12 to 18 months. Could be.

Well, that’s good enough for me. Heck, I don’t even have an iPhone, but I’d get this app.

At first I thought this timesonline.com article was brought to you by our friends at the Onion, but apparently, it’s the real deal, so without further ado…

It seems a “flying car” is not that far away – brought to you by the Massachusetts-based Terrafugia company (note: their website seems to be temporarily down – no doubt crashed by sci-fi fans). Supposedly, we’ll see this two-seater car that can transform itself into a plane in 15-seconds, in showrooms sometime next year.

Questions: Can it take you where you want to go? Well, it can fly about 500 miles on a tank of gas – at about 115 mph. Cost to you? About $200,000. Where to find car/plane runways? Well, planes can legally take off from roadways in Alaska, but elsewhere – who knows…

Happy New Year!

Here’s hoping 2009 will be your best year yet!

From your friends at FareCompare.com

Back in the 60’s, Disneyland had a cool, house-of-the future you could poke around in.

How cool? Well, according to an AP report in USA Today, it was “pod-shaped” and loaded with all the gizmos: “oddities included hands-free phones, wall-sized televisions and electric razors.” Electric razors!

Now, they’re doing it again. The new “future house” will open in May. Want to know what’s inside this one? This is good, keep reading.

They’re calling this new futuristic Disney house a “smart” house. If you turn on the TV, for example, the lights will dim, music will shut off, popcorn will be made…well, that last bit, I made that up.

What else? Well, when you put your groceries on the countertop, some sort of software deal will “identify” your cans of Spam and Oreos and whatnot and produce recipes. For your sake, I hope you bought more than Spam and Oreos.

In the bedroom, closets and mirrors will somehow look at your clothes and suggest matching outfits. Fine. I know plenty of guys that might find this useful.

But, here’s the bad news: on the outside, this house is going to look like…a ranch-style house. A ranch house! No pod. No personal heliport. No Jetson stuff. No aliens hanging around, waiting to take over the world.

Is this what we want? Fie, I say. I’m going to start building my own futuristic place in the backyard right now. But first, I’m off to Petco (alien costume for the dog).