Technology in 2012 - What lies ahead

Looking back at 2011, one cannot help but notice that the year was full of contrasts, lots of hits and misses. While some managed to sell like hot cakes, there were some others who failed to live up to the hype. But, all things taken; one thing's for sure, it has left us all hopeful for the new year. We, at Tech2 have listed down the products, or trend that we would like to see happen in 2012.

Next generation Apple products
This year, we saw the Apple iPad 2 garner an overwhelming response with its slim form factor, camera, faster processor, etc. However, when it came to the iPhone, Apple was supposed to launch a device that had a completely different design. Instead, they unveiled the iPhone 4S, which, virtually had the same looks, although the internal hardware was beefed up to quite an extent. We expect the next-gen iPad to retain its slim form factor, but feature a high resolution display akin to the iPhone’s Retina Display. Apart from this the battery, it is believed that Apple is bumping up the battery to 14,000mAh, which is double the size of the battery found on the present iPad. There are rumours floating around that an iPad mini could also be in the work to battle against the popular Kindle Fire.

Will they go beyond a 3.5-inch screen? Image Source

With the iPhone 5, we expect it to feature an aluminum unibody design similar to that of the iPod Touch and the iPad. We had seen covers leaked in the past from a reputed manufacturer, which confirms this speculation. Apart from this, Apple may add a larger Home button or may do away with it, altogether. The screen size is also expected to be increased to 4 inches and the handset will come in nano-chromatic colours, the same found on Apple’s iPod Nano PMPs. As with most things Apple launches, the excitement levels are certainly going to be high and who knows, maybe Apple may throw in the iTV as well, next year.

Multi-core mobile computing to be all the rage
Blame it on competition, blame it on technology scaling or simply blame it on poor optimization, quad core technology is going to rule the roost in 2012. Dual core phones were supposed to set a new benchmark in 2011, and they did. But, in 2012, dual core will merely be a standard most manufacturers will have to take for, as a given. 2012 will feature quad core phones and tablets, alike and the Transformer Prime is a living example of that.

When two cores just wont do

What does this mean for consumers? Simply put it, a faster (if it wasn’t quick enough, already!) experience on your phone at speeds which could be comparable to your current desktop PC. Extra horsepower means games can render more graphics, your phone can support heavy apps (Photoshop, anyone?) and more processes will be able to run simultaneously on your smartphone. What this also indicates is that battery life will stutter greatly, unless they get more powerful batteries onto the market. Whatever the scene may be, one thing is for sure, quad core will be the marketed keyword on every manufacturer’s phone and tablet in 2012.

Hooplas on internet censorship and free speech
Towards the end of this year, we had two big events, one global and one local, that would affect the way we consumed content and expressed ourselves on the internet.

Censorship blues

One was SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is still in debtate in the United States. The other is Kapil Sibal's request to the social networks to prescreen content before it is put up on the social network. While bigger companies like Facebook and Twitter will not prescreen content, they most likely could set up a stricter method of punishment for offensive content. Currently, in India, a common form of punishment for posting offensive content is lodging an FIR, but if Facebook develops their own punishment system, the Indian judiciary can focus on bigger problems.

Mobile Commerce
NFC made its way to many phones, but it can be argued that it will become mainstream once it hits the iPhone. However, even though the next iPhone can only be expected late next year, we can expect more development in NFC on a global scale.

Payments made easy

Currently there are apps for banking using NFC where mobile users can transfer money to and from accounts, as well as make certain deposits into their accounts. NFC, at least, on a global level and not just in India is expected to grow and mobile users will be able to carry out more types of transactions like making bill payments as well as transfering information from one phone to another.