Exit economic problems, enter technological revolution. Yes, revolution. You might not be aware of it, but these are once again exciting times!
The past decade was one with virtually no technological breakthroughs. Well, maybe that's not entirely fair. "Ajax" changed the Internets. Mobile phones became mini computers. But there weren't many paradigm shifting breakthroughs. Now, at the start of the second decade, we're starting to see the result of these mobile computers (which can also make phone calls! How convenient). The mobile web seems to be coming, fast. But not only that.
Augmented reality is going to be hot as well.
Besides mobile advancements, there's also this 3D video
Thing. However, I don't think that
Thing will pick up in 2010 just yet. It will, eventually. And eventually we'll use that
Thing everywhere, including mobile and console (gaming). But it's too fast.
Not even Nintendo will burn it's hands on that
Thing...
again... for now.
And in all that, Google and Apple seem to be racing each other for the lead. Was Google releasing its
Nexus One earlier this month. Two weeks later Apple released it's
iPad. And although Apple certainly seems to have won in terms of publicity,
both had to suffer a lot of critique to their revelations.
Of course, Google's was more to blame on bugs and customer care. Whereas Apple simply seems to suffer from design flaws and control freakishness. I believe there will be a new/third player that is going to scoop up the market of tablets. Maybe
Microsoft or Yahoo?
Microsoft seems to be sleeping in this regard. Their main problem is not pushing enough innovating updates. Sure, they'll push security patches. But when was the last time they pushed an update that actually contributed some new feature or improvement unrelated to security? This seems to be a problem across the board. Their browser, their main OS and even their
mobile OS. Microsoft only seems to be spiraling down, not being able to keep up with the new leaders. Maybe it's just waiting for a new leader. Although Mr. B. Gates is suddenly embracing the public, publicly.
Blogging and
twittering and everything. But only after he "left" the company. What's up with that...
And then there is Yahoo. They were actually on a good track in 2009. Then starting 2010, they seem to be leaving that path again,
shutting down services and
everything. They're
hooking up with Microsoft, basically admitting defeat, and they're nowhere to be seen on the hardware market.
You want to know what amuses me the most? My fiancée has no clue about all of this. Virtually everything that happens in the events described above might never ever reach her, except for when I mention it. Or when one of the kids in a class she teaches is abusing some kind of technology. I'd hate to be a teacher in this era of micro technology anyways...
And to be honest, I wonder what it will be like to raise kids now. Or in a year or five. I don't agree with the direction the (at least Dutch) school system is heading. Too much high level knowledge, too little low level. Kids know how to work a computer, but haven't got a clue how to do tail division without one. Let alone the effect of the Internets on them. I might be content with sitting behind a computer all day, but I can't help but wonder whether that's actually going to help kids growing up...
Anyways, all of this slips by the attention of my fiancée. And really, why not? Why should she care what Apple has released now? She'll find out eventually, when a kid in her class abuses one somehow. Or when the school starts to introduce a Kindle-type of approach (you can wait for it, it _will_ happen and I'm not sure whether it's a bad move either).
Sometimes I envy her. Ignorance sure is bliss. Then again, so is being able to program applications on every one of those platforms :D