10 Biggest Tech Stories of the Year 2009
The hot, exciting and anticipated 2010 is finally here. Tech geeks all over the world rejoiced with the vast amounts of progress in science and technology, to make gadgets much faster, powerful, smaller and cheaper in the last year. 2009 was quite a mark in the last decade, with loads of new stuff coming out, faster than consumers can actually use. Before we give the final farewell to the past year, let’s have a look at the highlights of the year, what was good, what was bad and what made a mark.
1. Twitter Makes News – Livens up the Internet
Started as a micro blogging site, Twitter has progressed into a social networking site, which some people swear their lives by. Living without Twitter is absolutely impossible for some people, including extremely busy celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and now, even Bill Gates! When Michael Jackson passed away, most of us did not hear it on the news, rather, we heard it through Twitter. Twitter is quite clearly becoming the hotspot for top news to leak out and spread faster than a wild fire. It has also become a solid medium for social commentary on a massive undeniable scale. So, if you’ve not joined the Twitter bandwagon yet, it’s high time you did so… You don’t want to be a social outcast now, do you?
2. PS3 Loses Fat – The Slim PS3 Makes its Debut
The 11th commandment said: “Let there be a Gaming machine so lean and mean, it would boggle thy mind”. Sony made that quite true by introducing a revolutionary gaming machine a few years back aptly naming it the PlayStation 3. The PS3 finally made a transition from fat to slim cutting down nearly 35% in all departments from size to price to weight to power consumption. Sony made sure that they dominated this holiday season. The Xbox 360 also slimmed down its price (only!) in order to compete with Sony; but that retaliation did not stop the PS3 selling out more than 40,000 slims the first week itself.
3. Motion Sensors, Control-less Gaming, Virtual AI – E3 made a Definitive Mark
Geeks from all around the world watched agape as the two gaming giants, Microsoft and Sony, brought out their motion sensing technologies respectively. These two newly announced gaming beasts, deciphered our inept, without controllers flailing into the somewhat inept flailing of a new gaming avatar. Much hype has already been generated regarding these two machines and the entire world is waiting for it to be released.
4. iPhone, iPod & Touch – Apps Take Over the Internet!
Touching the 1 Billionth mark, Apple has proven yet again, that they’re the best in the business. With over 100s of allegedly named ‘iPhone-Killers’, the original iPhone STILL stands erect as a winner amongst all of the others, putting their money where their mouth is. The iPod touch was quite aptly renamed as an app-toting, gaming and an overall ‘fun’ device to use, while the competition still struggled to push their own app markets ahead.
5. Make Way for Google – The OS market will never be the same again
With biggies like Bill Gates stepping down from their thrones, the path is quite clear for the bad boys at Google to unleash their true fury, by entering into the most competitive and cut-throat market of all, the Operating System souk. Chrome OS, the definitive net book OS, will be changing the way we compute. Well, at least that’s what Google is planning to do. And as it clearly may seem, Google will obviously move on to premium closed source operating systems, to gain an edge on the only stepping stone left in its way. Let’s wait and watch what Google rolls out next.
6. 3D Technology – The Next Big Thing to come AT you (pun intended)
2009 clearly saw a definitive mark of the TVs and LCD monitors moving up a notch. With the advent of technology, 3D is slowly becoming a household object, making real life cinema even easier to achieve. With supportive formats like Blu-Ray, 3D will be immensely enjoyed by the masses, with the major players like Nvidia, Samsung and Sony leading the battlefronts with their latest HD-TVs supporting 3D technology. Gaming consoles have promised to acknowledge the 3D run and will adhere to it as well. The top story of 2010 will be the way 3D progresses.
7. Apple Rejoices – Steve Jobs Returns (and how!)
Steve Jobs, the one person we all know and love, for making some of the most appreciative things in this world (including the mighty mouse, iPhone, iMacs, and the list is endless) returned to Apple as the commander in chief just in time for the launch of yet another revolutionary product, the Apple iPad. His statement “I’m Vertical, back at Apple and loving every minute of it” made waves across tech-fans and supported his comeback with a warm and heartfelt welcome. Welcome back Steve, hope to see some insane new stuff real soon!
8. Cameras – Shake Up the Megapixel World
The wait you endure for decades, for a camera with a wee bit higher ISO to come out, and suddenly all the camera manufacturers go nuts and start churning out one crazy camera after the other. The bar of expectation for cameras has well gone beyond the reach of any new pioneer and things like 3D image capturing, Projectors, Dual Screens (remember the Samsung Vanity Camera?) and all sorts of micro four thirds mechanisms come to you all at once, making these whipper-snappers (oh yes, sounds nice doesn’t it?) worth it’s while and the most dynamic and exuberating product of the year 2009.
9. The Tech Industry Quaked – and Hard!
2009 accounted for one of the most hard-hitting years for the tech industry, accounting for over 150,000 jobs lost worldwide. According to a popular computers reporter, the worst affected companies included HP, Sony, NEC and Panasonic, who cut 25,000, 8,000, 20,000 and 15,000 jobs respectively. Some of the goodie bags at the various tech-launches also got affected, in terms of quality.
10. Spotify – Radio over the Internet, the hottest new trend
February 2009 saw something amazing on the Internet. Spotify made its first appearance back then and now has the capability of boasting over 2 million users (limited to the UK only), Out of which, 2% users pay for the premium service. The service didn’t stop there; it went ahead and made an iPhone specific app to stream music directly to your phone with the possibility of video content. Surely, the Internet is progressing rapidly; let’s hope it does so for the year 2010 as well.
Tags: 3d, apple, apple app store, cameras, google chrome, iphone, playstation 3, spotify, steve jobs, tech jobs, tech stories, twitter
