Top Christmas tech 2011

What is your favourite bit of tech from 2011 that will be making its way onto your Christmas list? That is if you don’t already have it!

This year has been a really busy one for the tech industry, it would seem that every year, the technology industry gains more pace and steams on ahead. For a great example of this look at cloud computing, this is an industry that has been around and major for less than 5 years, yet it is also an industry that has exploded.

Out of this industry, new firms like SugarSync and Rackspace have emerged, proving to be very profitable. In addition to this, existing firms like Google and Amazon have widened their inventory with the likes of the Chromebook and Amazon’s Web Services.

So, back to the topic in hand…

This year has seen the launch of the iPhone 4 and later the iPhone 4S, LG’s and Panasonic’s new HD and 3D TV sets, the iPad 2, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Chromebooks, Nintendo’s 3DS, the 6th generation of the iPod Nano, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the HTC Sensation 4G, and many many more bits of cool tech.

Google Chromebook, Amazon Kindle Fire, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Apple iPhone 4, Nintendo 3DSThe thing is which is the best? Which tops your Christmas list?

Given the chance I would love to at least try all of the above, but that’s not going to happen for one simple reason: money. The value of all the new bits of tech released this year mentioned above, is probably around the £5,000 mark, meaning that the average Joe is not going to be able to afford them all. This leads me onto another question, which is best value for money?

I have heard a lot of praise for the Kindle, as being very good value for money, whilst a lot of bad PR surrounding the 3D TV’s mentioned.

So, the questions. What’s your favourite, and why? Which do you think best value for money and do you want any for Christmas?

Hopefully next year with a bit of growth, we will be able to have a competition to win some/all of the above! Stick with it 😉

Will an Apple Television ever happen?

Since the release of the Apple TV set top box there have always been rumours that apple will try and break into one of the few corners of the entertainment world they are yet to conquer: the television market.

With the Apple TV set top box offering features such as streaming from iTunes to your television as well a streaming YouTube videos its a handy little device. However that functionality is in most television sets now a days, so what’s stopping apple joining the already quite competitive market?

Well for a start competition is already well established in the TV market with companies like LG, Sony and Samsung all offering so called smart TV’s. This means that apple would have to would have to do something very different to create a unique selling point. The features and the GUI of the Apple TV are already there, meaning that surely they already have the building blocks they need.

LG's LogoIf they were to add the Siri (their intelligent voice assistant) surely this would make a very effective home entertainment system. This is something similar to what Microsoft is already doing with the home entertainment system on the Xbox but it’s not quite as intelligent as Siri! The Xbox service can only follow commands and is not able to interpret them.

Rumours about an Apple TV are on the up again due to the pending release of Steve Jobs official autobiography. In an excerpt from a Washington times post Jobs has been quoted as saying to the author that:

“He very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant,”

Walter Isaacson wrote.

Isaacson continued:

“‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’”

Apple hasn’t announced any TV based products in its line up and the blogosphere doesn’t appear to be covering it that much, however I personally wouldn’t be surprised if Apple decided to make the Apple TV into less of a hobby and more of a competitive product for the television market.

If they did they would probably do it with the same drive, determination and overall design quality that they have carried along with the Mac computer range, iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Get your hands on a Chrome laptop!

If you are a Googlite you probably got a bit excited about a year ago (I think) when Google announced that they were going to release an operating system.

Well in the last few days, Google has announced that it plans to bring out it’s own Chrome powered laptop in June this year!

What is the Google laptop going to be called?

I thought you might ask that 😉 Well, Google have decided that as the devices are going to be powered by Chrome, and because they are suppose to boot up in less than 10 seconds, they would be called Chromebooks.


Chrome is after the browser interface that they are based on and books as they boot up almost instantly, as you would expect a book to. You open it, and… it’s… there!

Who will make Chromebooks?

So far, Google have secured deals with Acer and Samsung to produce the laptops.

Where and for how much will Chromebooks be sold?

Initially you will be able to buy them for around $300-500 in the USA, and a similar equivalent price in 5 European countries.

A new kind of laptop

The laptops will be different from current laptops, as not only will they be much faster, but they will also be highly cloud dependant. This means that they are not ‘bogged down’ with loads of programs, and services, as they all run from the cloud. To make full use of the laptops, I imagine you will need a pretty good internet connection!

Chromebook Supported Apps

Apps that Google say you will be able to run on a Chromebook

The devices aren’t really as functional as your standard laptop, they will have much fewer features, but that does mean that they are faster.

How does Google describe them?

Like this!

Chromebooks are built and optimised for the web, where you already spend most of your computing time. So, you get a faster, simpler and more secure experience without all the headaches of ordinary computers.

Oh… and like this

Interested?

15th of June 2011…

Peoples of the UK click here to find out more about Chromebook, my pals over in the US of A take a look at google.com/chromebook/ instead, pour nos amis Français visite google.fr/chromebook/ et cetera.