Portable information devices and electronic networking: Combining the computing power of the personal computer, the networking of the Internet, the images of the television, and the convenience of the telephone, these appliances will soon be used by a majority of the population of industrialized nations to make phone calls, send e-mail, and transmit documents and other data. Even now, homes, autos, and offices are being connected (via wires and wirelessly) into intelligent networks that interact with one another. This trend is being supported by the development of cloud computing, in which a person can tap into computing power elsewhere through a Web connection. The traditional standalone desktop computer may soon join the manual typewriter as a historical curiosity.