What can we expect from technology in 2012, beyond tablets and smartphones? We searched the Net for the coolest tech trends to look forward to. Here are our favorite five trends to watch for:
1. Robot Technology
We are getting close to a household assistant like the beloved Rosey from The Jetsons. Robots are progressively becoming easier and more efficient for personal use on a mass scale. From the robo vacuum in your house to Siri on the iPhone 4S in your pocket, technology has been advancing to make robotic assistance for humans on a daily basis more manageable and relatable. Yes, relatable. Technology is allowing us to actually program this artificial intelligence in order to predict our needs and respond properly.
Currently, robots are used for tasks ranging from defusing bombs, prostate surgery, detecting survivors in disaster rubble, and parallel parking our cars. In the future, we can expect to see the use of professional service robots rise and the performance become surprisingly reliable. But don’t worry just yet about losing your job to a machine or like in iRobot, having to fight an army or rogue robots, that is still the stuff of Hollywood.
2. Twitter Up-Rise
Twitter is nothing new, we know, but the way that the world is using the instant communication service has grown into an actual reliable source to track social perspective and opinion. A great example of this was Tuesday’s Iowa Caucus. The American population was vigorously Tweeting about their thoughts on the opponents, who they support and who they dislike the day before, and day of, the big event with hashtags. Social media monitoring and analyst company Globalpoint tracks all social media use on certain topics and reports findings so you can track perspectives and positive/negative sentiment online.
The use of hashtags has also ramped up to the point that people are learning about world-changing events from a tweet. The media landscape is being rewritten; social networks are no longer just for social purposes but have become the lifeline for many people to not only get news, but to actually connect with the news they are receiving.
3. Payments via Mobile
Although you may already have your PayPal account app set up on your phone or do mobile banking, 2012 will be the year that you can actually pay for products and services or collect money from others right from your phone. There are already devices that connect to your smartphone or tablet to accept payment like the start-up Square, and Google Wallet for Sprint which allows you to make purchases at the register with a tap of your phone. But in 2012, we will see payment solutions like these increase in popularity and availability, drastically reducing our time at the register or submitting invoices for payment release. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have also launched a mobile payments initiative called Isis which is expected to launch sometime this year.
4. Rise of the Apps
We all use them to track our finances with our bank, subscribe to magazines, play games with friends, and alter our photos to look much, much cooler. But 2012 will bring many more apps for various needs. Apps are becoming less fun-oriented and more productivity-driven to help users through daily life. What ever did we do in 1999 to remember our grocery list or that we were supposed to meet Tim at the gym at 6pm? Smartphone users will be able to access many more apps for useful purposes and even to track New Year’s resolutions. The majority of apps are free, but splurging $.99 on a very useful one will be well worth it in 2012.
5. TVs
With the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicking off next week, we are sure to see a huge burst in smart TVs that will allow you to watch 3D movies in the comfort of your own home, view pictures that are in far better resolution than what we have today and direct connection to the Internet through WiFi or a cable. This would surely blow the minds of 1950s families centered around a box the size of a modern day dormitory refrigerator. Thinner, lighter, more powerful and stock full of cool and cutting edge features, this is not the TV we have all grown up with.
Welcome to the age of technology, the age of innovation. Hold on tight, this is going to be a fast and furious year in the technological world!
We want to know: What new or innovative technology are you most excited to use or apprehensive about giving in to?
Great post! It’s kind of ironic that “people are learning about world-changing events from a tweet” but it’s true. I am really mystified about twitter’s growing importance in every day communication. When it first came out I dismissed it as another “time waster” but now I’m finding many different ways that people are using it to communicate for many different purposes (some of them are actually really useful :) and there will probably be many more to come in the future.