The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Prediction time. 2008 has suddenly showed up and instead of taking a look back at 2007, at the highlights and lowlights of the year that was, how about instead we take a look at 2008 and some of the trends that will change computing. One of the biggest changes coming up will be in low cost computing. As with the other trends on this list, this is not completely new to 2008, but this year will see it hit the mainstream. Probably started by Dell two years ago with the first sub-$1,000 laptops, companies are now hitting the market with machines like the Asus eee pc laptop that are selling for below $400. While these little machines are not for everyone (they do not have a CD drive and they only have a seven-inch screen and an eight-gab. hard drive), for someone looking for a machine simply for e-mail and web surfing, or a second machine for traveling, these units cannot be beat. More importantly, they are going to change computing. For a price like this, more manufacturers will have to follow as the early sales have been phenomenal. The second trend this year is going to be the coming together of the two sides of the gaming world. Gaming has matured. The industry now makes more money than Hollywood and soon women and men, younger people and older people, will be playing games in equal numbers. PC games like Bioshock have amazing graphics and are incredible adventures for players willing to put in the time. But games sold for consoles such as the still-white-hot Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation 3 account for 79 per cent of all software sold in the world. Bringing together the cutting edge PC gaming world with the more casual gaming console side has to be resolved. Whoever manages to work this out, bringing together intense graphics and stories with the ease of use and fun of console games for all platforms, will have an instant hit. IÕm holding out for Will WrightÕs Spore, which will be released sometime in mid-2008. The third trend emerging this year will be the increasing importance of social networks such as Facebook. IÕve slammed Facebook in the past and IÕm not certain that the company will survive long-term, but the model of bringing people together easily will certainly last for a long time. Website design does not need to be complex and filled with code. Personal online spaces can be designed quickly and easily for the purpose of bringing people together. Applications such as blogs, Twitter, Ning, and Voicethread are the first wave and the individual companies may not survive, but 2008 will be filled with people who are connecting with people around the world, at basically no cost. Networks for learning and for entertainment will thrive. Finally, the entire idea of Internet penetration will begin to reach higher points in the year ahead. The Internet isnÕt even a place that we Ògo toÓ anymore. It is a space that surrounds us, where many people are constantly connected. Cell phones, wireless laptops, RFID tags that are on the products that we buy, and the appliances in our homes are going online in growing numbers. We live with our computers, work with them, and have them with us wherever we go. We are not simply going to the Internet, we are relying on it. This will only become more true in the year ahead. ([email protected]) Tech Notes runs Mondays.
