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This is all just a reply to the fanciful first paragraph of this article (I won't bother replying to the article itself; it's mostly correct, save for the fact that, no matter how online our permanent storage is, we still need caches.)

I shouldn't have to unlock my garage; it should identify my car by the same way my car identifies my keys as soon as it gets within range, and open automatically.

The TV should only turn on if "watching TV" is what's on my web-published calendar for the rest of the night; otherwise, it's just a distraction that might suck me in while I'm trying to do something else. If my calendar says "create presentation," though, by all means fire up Keynote just in time for it to be ready and waiting to receive my input.

My favorite songs can already follow me from my living room to my kitchen--I have very loud speakers. I want them to follow me from my car. Either by a pair of cooperating satellite radio devices, a pair of 4G devices streaming from my online music library account, or more likely just an MP3 player that, upon being unplugged, scans for wifi audio speakers to start streaming to (with the possible optimization that if it finds the computer it syncs with, it can just command it to start playing the track where it left off, then shut itself off.)

The phone should have already told me what it needed to tell me when it was in my pocket; however, now that I take my cell into my home, I should be able to answer the line of my cellphone's number on my home phone lines (without an additional plan, and perhaps cheaper because it doesn't have to connect to a cell tower but can instead ride my coax). My phone's (both cell and land, and perhaps work as well) e-mail inbox should be my computer's e-mail inbox. I should be able to use my cellphone as an extra screen, speaker, and microphone for any and all of my computers, both over Bluetooth and securely connected remotely.

My computers themselves should be able to intelligently know where I am, locking themselves when I'm not sitting at them, and unlocking when I sit down (unless they detect someone on the blacklist is also in the room with me--then I'll need to use a password.) They should wake up when they detect my voice (even from a different room, depending on what is said), just as if I'd moved the mouse or pressed a key.

I should be able to use my cellphone to send hand gestures to devices from anywhere, as if it was a Wiimote.

And the fridge really should have messaged me about the milk when I was in the store; that's why I carry the GPS locator, after all. It's too late now. Maybe it could message one of my friends who is planning to come over that they could do me a favor and pick it up if they're close.

I shouldn't have to unlock my garage; it should identify my car by the same way my car identifies my keys as soon as it gets within range, and open automatically.

Think about this for a few more minutes and you will figure out the failure modes. Here's one for free: You can no longer drive past your house without the door opening, at which point you will have to press a button to close the door.

I guess you could have the door close itself when it senses that you've gone out of range. But: what if you own two cars, and the other one is parked in the driveway? Consumers are not going to want to have to solve a logic puzzle to figure out if their garage door is going to be open or closed.

Right thats the point to some degree. The technology won't be mind reading perfection, some effort on the part of the user will still be required. Without an affirmative user interaction, devices won't do anything be a ridiculous amount of pre-configured scripts which will become more cumbersome to manage than helpful.

The article could have been about how in the future everyone will live in floating bubbles which will wireless control everything in the world, but that is simply extrapolating on the on a trend that humans will physically interact less. This analysis takes into account what might actually happen on the horizon and what technologies are likely to make that happen.

It would be nice if the fridge had told the guy before he got home though.

The door closes when the pressure coils (a.k.a. the ones that ring the bells at gas stations, and the spaced out ones used for speed detection) on the floor detect the vehicle has been parked. If it detects that you are no longer moving toward it, it will also close. The garage will learn which cars you park inside and which you leave outside it, so it might open at the wrong times the first few times, but once you've trained its filter, it'll do fine. You'll obviously be able to open it manually (that is, with a key fob) as well, in order to train it. If you want to let your friends park in your garage, just put "my friends are coming over by car" on your calendar.

And none of this will happen, of course, if your garage is full.

Ah, now see -- this is the kind of creativity the article was lacking.
Am I the only person still paranoid about having my operating system and all my data stored on the Internet?

I'm sure there will be advances in how we store data and run applications over the next five years. However, I still can't imagine moving all the data and applications currently stored on my private home network to the cloud. That seems to be a huge leap of faith in both the reliability of my net connection and the security measures of my chosen data caretaker(s).

Nope, you're not alone. The only way I'll ever do this is if I run my own server and am fully responsible for _my_ information. That way any loss / snoops are entirely my own fault.

As far as the O/S transitioning to the web in 5 years, it's simply not going to happen, so I wouldn't worry about it =).

Oh, and desktop PCs are not on the way out, this "laptop taking over the desktop" claim has been around for as long as I can remember. Desktops will continue to get smaller and more efficient, but they'll never lose their price to performance edge over laptops.

I'm keen on physical media failing, personally I thought bluray/HDDVD was a step in the wrong direction. Stream good 720p content with digital audio and I'll be happy.
What your future really looks like -- reality edition:

After the dollar collapses, the major effects of Peak Oil kick in, the Oceans die, the eternal War intensifies, global food shortages cause . . .

. . . you will enjoy streaming telepresence in every nook and cranny of your techno-dreamhouse, and some of these electronic gizmos just might be SOLAR-powered!

If our future actually looks like the one described in the article, it is only at the expense of the planet and most of the other people on it. We need more compassion, conservation, and mindfulness. Not more of other techie-crap.