Bits 2011: The Year Ahead

The good side: refresh-rates of monitors go up (due to 3D) wich is a good thing, even when not using 3D.

Actually in the 90s, we had exactly the same 3D technology (with the first GeForce's, and the first Half-Life as a decent game)
...(alas) it hasn't gotten any better since then.

If you haven't heared of it...that's just how successfull it was.

 

-More 3D...okay, if I don't have to pay extra, they should also supply at least 2 pairs of glasses, after all, I want to show off to my friends don't I? However I'm still waiting for Star Wars style holograms(or even Iron man style mono displays, it'd be great for 3D modelling/Solidworks/etc)

-Nvidia take over in 2011. Yeah, at least for the first 1/2. I expect when the 560 is released we will see a nice round of price cuts, which may well decide who rules the mid range(how low can they go?). I wouldn't put it past AMD to copy Nvidia's trick with the transistors in order to bring out a more competitive 6975 card though, I expect that's something which may become common practice with high end cards in the future(like dual GPU).

-Tablets, not mature enough and MS aren't doing enough to get a hold in the market. Ipad 2 will be a massive success, possibly iphone 5 will be a few months after/before ipad launch to allow applephiles to scrape money together again. Android will dominate lower/mid range. AMD based tablets will arrive.

At the moment I'm looking forward to Sandy bridge(not that I'll upgrade, just benchmarks) and Duke Nukem. I'll also be likely to pick up a new £150 range GPU unless the AMD 78XX series is announced for either 2011 or early 2012.

 

Somehow, IF the Duke really arrives, it'l make me sad.
Duke-Vapourware has turned into nigh the only certainty in this world...

 

Tell that to the Sega Gamegear. I grew up with devices like that and you learned to deal with it. Like I said, my phone can go all day without a charge so I have truly mobile covered already, and when I'm at home I have my PC anyway. What I would like is an in between device for sitting on the couch or in bed, and even 3 hours would be plenty for that. I've been tempted to just get a proper laptop, but I'd prefer a tablet. If the iPad could play DosBox and flash games, I would buy one.

I DO have an iphone 4. Why are you trying to troll me? You are a mod, you should be above that ****. I had an iPhone 3gs, and I upgraded to iPhone 4 almost immediately after it was released, so did my sister and brother, and all three of us hate our signals, so do both of my friends who have iPhone 4's too. So that's 5 of us. I can't even use my phone anywhere in my house, I have to stand outside to make calls.

Apple wouldn't have gone through the embarrassment and the expense of giving away free cases to everyone if it wasn't a real problem.

 

I will own a Snady Bridge CPU - or core i5/7 - insert stupid number here + random letter that isnt 'e' for extreme.

Apple will continue to suck (and produce fundamentally flawed goods circa I-phone 4.0), but be popular in the eyes of the iggnorant.

Final fantasy 15-16 and 17 wont be as bad as 14 but still wont touch 7 (can u just remake 7 already ffs)

Starcraft 2 will continue to delay my completion of other good games. (Dragon age - still not finished (began in june). Mass effect 2 - havnt started as want to finish DA:O before starting another game)

3D goods randomly explode all over the world from reasons unknown, causing a halt in all 3D goods production until someone can explain what the fuss is about .

People will learn that CoD is actually crap and that being a camping sniper online isnt fun.

Not a single PC FPS will be released as developers strugle to think of a new setting and in there deep thought forget that the PC exists.

Dragon age 2 will have a brown colour pallete because the first game had too much variaty (say what???? Bioware needs a new development team with that line of thinking)

Developers will learn that RTS's should never have a console version in the development plan. Gas Powered Games!!!!!! Im talking to you.

Developers will then learn that consiole gamers are mindless and no startegy titles are released for the system. However the influx of 3rd person shooters will grow exponentially with this decision.

Rumour will rise of the production of the Sony Playstation phone.......Again.

And Bit-Tech will remain supreme for all hardware reviews and benchmarks. (Upgraded to a GTX-460 from a 8600GT after reading the review, never been happier. And cant wait for sandy bridge to be released to upgrade from my stock q6600)

Keep up the good work!

 

I'm interested to see if Guild Wars 2 will have any form of impact whatsoever on the WoW takeover of the world or if it will just be quietly ushered into the corner like most other MMORPG's.

 

We learned to deal with EGA graphics. Didn't mean we weren't happier with SVGA graphics. Basically, most people who rely on mobile computers want them to last. I have a PC tablet and the standard battery lasts 3 hours. If I use handwriting recognition it dips to less than 2. Trust me: it's frustrating.

My bad, given your previous posts I assumed you didn't. No trolling intended. However my experience is still very different. I find that reception is actually slightly better than on my iPhone 3G and comparable to my Motorola Razr.

And Apple's free case offer was a response to public paranoia, not a response to an actual problem.

 

I was responding more to anti-3D attitudes I hear in general, not so much your post specifically. Sorry if I offended you.

I actually agree with most of what you said. I wear glasses too, and the monitors are of such low quality and resolution, that at this stage I wouldn't seriously consider 3D either. As far as the headache and 3D-blind people, there will always be technologies some people can't use, so as long as 3D remains optional I don't see it as a big problem. And early adopters will always be eventually left with obsolete, inferior equipment. Think of old "high-end" GFX cards or early LCD displays.

My problem is with those obnoxious, near-sighted people "who hope 3D dies". This seems to be bit-tech's stance as they complain and moan about more 3D-compatible games even existing, as if it actually hurts them somehow. As if they're forced to use it. See my above posts.

If 3D "dies" like so many people wish, it will NEVER be replaced with high-quality, glasses-free 3D. Never. Because to mature a technology, generally you have to go through the awkward, inferior early stages first. So all these people who hate 3D and want to stop developing it are standing in the way of eventual progress. And just for the childish and selfish reason they if they PERSONALLY don't like something, it shouldn't even exist.

The first cars sucked hard, but without them, no one would ever have just invented a (insert favorite modern sports car here) out of the blue. If people then had said "i hope cars die they're just a gimmick" (and at that point, they were kind of a gimmick), and all development had halted right away, it would never have gotten to where it is today.

It baffles me how people are so seemingly incapable of seeing that.

 

I just read about the new 27" 3D monitor and the 56" 3D glasses'less TV screen.

I might have to revise my thoughts on the year ahead! It's all arriving earlier than expected

Roll on 2011 for all of us, let's hope for a tech-tastic new year!

 

http://provideocoalition.com/index....-on_with_the_panasonic_ag-3da1_s3d_camcorder/
much content CANNOT be made 3D compatible.

Read, especially, the gotchas re 3D, like having something in 1 eye's screen but not in the other ( and how a scene with ocean waves to the edge of the screen produces this gotcha )...
as for 3D being in pathetic resolution... what planet are you from?
HD's about all ya need: anyone seeing a 4k screen immediately walks right up to it, to see the granularity, as they can't intrinsically tell from viewing-distance. It's temporal resolution that's the problem ( with that migraine inducing 24p sh*t )... if we went up to Edison's 48p, I'd not complain, but 24p's gotta die ( they dropped 48p because it was technically infeasible, not because lower resolution was somehow better )

I predict that someone, not necessarily Bit-Tech, will benchmark this controller-family
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr2700.htm
due to its multiple controllers & point-to-point from controller to PCIe lanes unbottlenecking parallel bandwidth ( for MUCH less than an http://www.Areca.com.tw SAS3 controller )...

I predict that people are going to start using these things:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/mobilerack/CSE-M14.cfm
to cram moar SSDs in their rigs, or for backups.
( eSATA is guaranteed hot-plug compatibility,
though the drivers aren't necessarily capable of that.
SATA isn't guaranteed hot-plug, and has closer electrical tolerances re line-loss, etc )

I predict that with the combination of these things, with their 3-core Turbo mode:
http://products.amd.com/pages/deskt...=False&f12=True&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

these things, with their hardware virtualization enabled:
http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=kPGmtxee5RsQVsXG
( ALL Asus 890FX boards, apparently! other makers disallow it, it seems ),

AND Asus's enabling of ECC RAM on their AMD-based boards,
that many more people will try Xen virtualization & server management,
and knock down the barrier to sysadmin competence with virtualized OSs.

( that Crosshair Formula should do well with cores #0, #2 & #4 running openSUSE & #1, #3 & #5 running Windows, Xen PCIe-passthrough giving your GTX card to Windows & an EyeFinity card for the many linux logins: a full SET of systems in one box ... the strange staggering of cores is specifically to spread out the thermal stress on the die, to make cooling easier )

I predict that rights & privacy will continue to be eradicated for the next 2 years in a steady way by authority-over-others, and after that ( 2013 ) in a more brutal & deep way ( tipping point crossed, where bludgeons & bullets become the methods of enforcing obedience & conformity & stomping out diversity ), and that NO country will be human rights friendly against authoritarianism ( authority is a drug apparently no one can resist? ).

I predict that belligerent ignorance will more & more rule the world, as dumbing down everyone to make it easier to leverage authority over them produces its inevitable results, and logic like Rush Limbaugh's argument "all you need to know about 'net neutrality' is that Al Gore supports it" will rule the world more.

A Learned population costs up front, but an ignorant one costs forever.