Get ready for these game-changing technologies

Promises, promises. When a new mobile phone appears on the market or a new wireless standard emerges, the pundits and prognosticators chime in about all the game-changing possibilities.

WiMax will change the world! Apple's iPhone is the second coming of portable gadgets!

Yet, in the daily grind of computing, we just need to get our jobs done. We'll believe the promise of a new technology if it really does solve a nagging problem.

Consider this the companion piece to my earlier article, "10 broken technology ideas -- and how to fix them": Six promising technologies and how they can actually deliver on the promise.

1. Light-as-air laptops
I mentioned in the broken-technology writeup how ultramobile PCs and mobile internet devices aren't nearly as useful as a good smartphone.

Stepping up a bit in size to notebook PCs, we've come a long way from models like the massive Toshiba Protege from a few years ago -- the one with a 17-in. display. (It was touted as a "desktop replacement," which even sounds heavy.)

And even the popular Dell Latitude models from not so long ago were heavy enough -- at about five or six pounds -- that they weren't exceptionally mobile.

But smaller, more recent offerings such as the ultraportable Asus EEE aren't getting it right either. Sure, it's light, but it's not packed with many of the features we've come to expect on our portable computers.

But the new MacBook Air and the ThinkPad X300 really are game-changing, even though many reviews of the MacBook Air haven't been all that positive.

A 3-pound laptop with a big screen is really the ultimate goal, and both Apple and Lenovo achieved it. (I also like the Sony Vaio SZ, even though it weighs 4 lb. and the "profile" measures 1 in.) So, what's so promising? As laptops get lighter, you'll be more likely to grab one and go -- at home, at work, and anywhere.

Soon, more light-as-a-feather laptops packed with features will finally get it completely right, which means they won't stay on the desktop for very long -- and the desktop PC might not exist for long, either.

2. Mobile broadband in laptops
I had an interesting conversation with a Verizon spokesperson about three years ago. The marketing rep told me that I had it wrong: Mobile broadband was not intended as a Wi-Fi competitor. Oh no, it's merely another option for the mobile user.

Yet, as WWAN (wireless wide-area network) capability is more widely available as a standard on notebooks, the connection speed approaches or exceeds 2Mbps, and the data signal becomes ubiquitous even in rural areas, WWAN will encroach into and possibly take over the 802.11 market. That's a good thing, especially if you have tried to connect to a hot spot in a crowded airport, from a parking lot in a shopping mall, or in a small town where they think a hot spot is a popular hangout.