Bits 2011: The Year Ahead

microsoft will give in (scratch that, they'll claim to support) the hacking community and release official usb driver support for their xbox 360's kinect.

 

What I want : My dad to walk into Comet and come out with an Asus desktop for just pottering about on the internet and a few documents that runs Ubuntu on a 2.5 gig ARM with 4 gig of ram for £300 and my sister to walk out with a netbook for the same use running Chrome OS on Bobcat for £250. But for me? To play episode 3 on a Zambezi core AM3+.

What I think will happen: Wintel Cheesecake!!!1 and me still not understanding valve time.

 

I think we'll see some good Windows based tablets that become quite popular. I saw one last year which was like a laptop and then you can pull the screen off and it becomes a tablet. That was pretty cool. I think there will be more and more and they'll be great, and they'll take some of the wind out of the iPad sails.

I think there will be an iPhone 5 which is basically the iPhone 4 but with more space, and a completely redesigned areal which will FINALLY give it a good signal strength (and wont be affected by holding it either).

Lastly I think Windows 8 will be a big talking point, and probably Googles OS too, and what I hope... is that Microsoft finally shock the world by pulling their fingers out and actually coming up with something genuinely revolutionary. Something so good that it will put pretty much all other OS's in their place.


p.s. I think we might also see a touch sensitive keyboard introduced. I saw a movie of this last year and it looked great.

 

Before or after the engine falls off?

 

Not happening. Tablet hardware needs another 5 years before it can run Windows smoothly and not drain the battery within three hours. We will never see a Windows Tablet. Windows Mobile, perhaps.

There is no aerial problem. But it will probably be moved to the Apple logo just to reassure customers.

I'm willing to be surprised (after all Windows Mobile 7 did) but I doubt that Windows 8 is going to be substantially more innovative than Windows 7. Prepare to be unimpressed...

 

I think you are right that iPhone5 will have a redesigned aerial ... however, it will be mostly cosmetic to make People feel better about the hype before.

A friend showed me his iPhone4 and I literally death-gripped it so hard that my knuckles turned white and still i couldn't get it to drop any more than 1 bar. When I think about my iPhone3G or 3GS they both always have great reception and I live in the middle of nowhere on a mixture of Vodafone and O2.

Edit: on the back of my experience checking out my friends iPhone4, I bought one for my missus, that's how worried I am about aerial issues.

 

What about PCIe 3.0? DirectX 12? and Plants VS Zombies 2?

LoL's @ "market is flooded with even more useless tablets"

 

i think you will see apple still be the most successful in smartphones and in tablets companies need to stop throwing the word ipad and iphone killer and make something that is new and not just the same thing with a new name and color.

 

Fundamentally, an OS is an OS. What do you want it to do? What don't the current generation do that you wish they did?

You can change things under the hood of an OS, tweak the UI, and move around where things are (Thanks, MS - NOT!) but fundamentally, they all do the same thing.

 

Nvidia is the dominant player for the first part of the year with their 560/570 vapour cooled fermis. However...

With the early (september) introduction of 28nm, AMD's SI architecture produces one of those "Oh, now I see what it is, now" moments while nVidia suffers a fermi Pt2 type launch.

 

Half Life Episode 3 will finally be announced. That's my prediction.

 

Battery doesn't bother me. I have a phone if I want to be mobile with something that lasts a while. A tablet would be great for just being away from my desk, which isn't very long, and could be plugged in nearby most of the time anyway. As for performance, netbooks do fine, so I think tablets will too.

No problem? You can't even hold the phone without a cover. But besides that, the signal is terrible.

 

More whining about 3D. If you don't like 3D, or the way it's currently implemented, do what I do - don't buy it! No one's forcing you. No one's putting a gun to your head. So get over it.

I am so tired of all this 3D-crybaby nonsense. The technology is in its formative stages. It's imperfect. But this is the stage we have to get through to achieve high-quality 3D. It's like if in the 90s everybody was up in arms about how you could see the polygons, so 3D-rendering was banned. And today we'd still be limited to basically SNES graphics but with a higher pixel density.

And I don't buy this bull about how adding 3D support inherently degrades the game. Of all the many, MANY factors that go into the quality of a game, somehow we're supposed to believe that Nvidia paying devs to take a little bit of time to make sure they don't break their 3D implementation is the be-all and end-all deal-breaker of quality game development. Everything wrong with the industry and game-design is somehow now blamable on the "3D" boogeyman. It's just the latest scapegoat, an excuse.

Again, no one is forcing anyone to early adopt. Get over it.

 

I'm with your concerns regarding 3D; whilst it does have it's moments at the cinema (thanks to ibuprofen) it's still a gimmick on PC and TV IMO.

 

And? And why is that cause for "concern"? Because having the OPTION to use 3D just offends your fragile little nerves so much that you have a mental collapse just at the idea?

Keep it civil. -- Nexxo

Come on. Nobody is being wronged or oppressed by there being a product available which they do not want, and are not forced in any way to buy.

3D is nowhere NEAR as bad as all these whiny anti-3D-fanboys with their horribly reasoned sob stories about how the mere existence of 3D killed their dog and raped their sister.

"oh good lord this hot dog shop has a bottle of ketchup available, as well as mustard! what the hell. I like mustard on my hot dog. I'm boycotting this lousy hot dog shop. thanks a lot ketchup, you've ruined hot dogs forever. can't we just ban ketchup so i don't have to have that nasty red bottle, sitting over there, taunting me with its hypothetical awfulness. and because they provided ketchup, CLEARLY they must have cheapened and ruined the hot dogs in exchange for the time and cost of setting out that horrible red bottle. my hot dog experience is a total loss. i will never let them live this down. alert the internets."

Really, that's how stupid it sounds.

 

Can you please make your points without insulting other forum members?

kthxbai

 

3d works great on my computer and I'm starting to use it all the time now I've stuck a 570 in it (waiting on the sli bridge to get the other card up and running)

dead rising 2 looks ace - like killing little toy zombies.

but each to their own.

 

It bothers a lot of people. A mobile device ceases to be mobile if you have to tether it to a charger every three hours. At work I find it bloody inconvenient.

Seeing as you don't even own an iPhone 4 and I do, and I have no problems with it whatsoever (never even bothered to get a free case), I will have to continue to disagree with you, sorry.

 

It is mainly about the GUI/applications. It would be nice if Windows 8 included a decent Outlook program and did not have to be hacked just to resurrect Windows Mail. Something that integrates mail, calendar, contacts, social networking, to-do and notes, makes it cloud based, syncs it to your mobile devices, and has an optional timeline display. Something like Kin for Desktop that unfortunately got canned.

Preferably with HUD-like information on your wallpaper in minimised mode.

File Explorer could benefit from some graphic reformatting to make it more overseeable. There should be a special, easy to manage folder for incoming attachments (not the mail program temp buffer). Windows Media Player should be "Zuned" and again automatically sync with mobile MP3 devices.

Gadgets are chaotic and lack elegance. But you could have a sidebar that looks like the screen of a Windows Mobile 7 device, with auto-updating tiles that you can smoothly scroll through vertically and click on to launch, well, everything. In fact, get rid of the taskbar and split the sidebar in three: top: active app tiles; middle: all tiles available fir launch; bottom: systray tiles.

 

Wow where did that rant come from? You're reading a hell of a lot into my comment which I was referring to the articles concerns, have you read it?

The option to have 3D doesn't offend me in any way I just think it's a gimmick in it's current form.

Here's why; you have to wear the 3D glasses which, as a wearer of prescription glasses, is a real pain. Looks stupid, uncomfortable and they keep sliding down.

The monitors available are all of very poor quality (last time I checked anyway). The picture is dull compared to non 3D due to the shaded glasses; it looks terrible in my opinion on the several occasions I've tried it. Oh and the fact it gives me a headache after more than 10 minutes of play, I know I'm not alone in this either.

Mustn't forget the, not insignificant, proportion of the population who can't view 3D. Not great pushing a tech that people can't even use.

I don't like it, think it's a gimmick and think it will be replaced leaving current users with obsolete equipment. I may be wrong but that's how I currently feel. And as for your nice little rant it didn't make you sound to clever did it.