6 Trends in the Gadget World
Technology is advancing at an alarming rate. It seems like someone thinks up something new every day, but even though that device serves a different purpose, the features remain the same.
Here are a few of the latest trends in the gadget world.
Bluetooth Everywhere
Image via Flickr by husin.sani
Bluetooth, originally used as a hands-free way to talk on your cell phone, is showing up in everything from cell phones to refrigerators. It has multiple purposes, ranging from file transfers to music streaming. It’s being used in many innovative ways, as well. For example, the crowd-funded Pebble recently launched, allowing you to customize your watch. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth and sends notifications of messages or emails, allowing you to change the music you’re listening to and more. It also accesses the GPS function of your phone, allowing you to run or cycle while the phone records the distance.
Internet Everywhere
We rely on the Internet. Two decades ago, the Internet was a barely affordable technology, allowing you to connect and access a virtual world through a dial-up modem. Now, it’s in everything, from our phone to the locks on our front door. Always being connected isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. For example, if your camera and printer both have Internet connectivity, you can print pictures from anywhere in the world. If you have a security camera that’s connected to the Internet via a secure connection, you can monitor that feed directly as long as you have an Internet Connection. Some devices, such as light timers and security systems, can be accessed with an Internet connection. If you’re on-the-go, you can control them with your laptop. Or if you’re just feeling a little lazy, you can control them from your tablet. If you don’t have either device, you should check out Lenovo convertible laptops and get the best of both worlds.
Touchscreens
Over the past five years or so, touchscreens have dominated our life. They initially made their mainstream debut with Nintendo’s DS system. The system, which featured a small touchscreen, has sold more than 150 million units worldwide since its debut nearly a decade ago, and it continues to climb each day. Since then, tablets have taken over. The touchscreen craze has spread to PCs and smartphones. The Playstation Vita features touchable front and rear screens. Touchscreens are part of our daily life.
The Cloud
Over the past two or three years, there has been a huge push to store data in the cloud. The cloud refers to data that’s stored on the Internet on a remote server. If something happens to a user’s device, they don’t have to worry, the data is stored remotely and is retrievable. This is a great way to create a backup of everything that you need before purchasing a new smartphone or computer. There’s also cloud computing, which essentially outsources all the computing to other computers. This allows a program to run on multiple computers at the same time.
Social Networks
It seems like everyone is on Facebook or Twitter these days. We’re all too willing to share every personal detail of our life. Whether we’re updating friends on our life, confessing a personal secret, or just sharing a picture of the food we made, we’re addicted to social networking. For those of you that are into a specific thing, there’s probably a social network dedicated to it. The number of social networks increases each day, as does the number of devices we can access them from.
Continuity
With all the devices in our lives, it’s frustrating to try to keep them all up to date. Companies are trying to make the user experience seamless by utilizing cloud storage so everything can be the same, no matter what device you connect from. This is especially useful in a business setting. You no longer have to worry about losing files in the confusion of things. Simply upload a file to a cloud server and re-download it on another device to continue working. Some companies are utilizing management software to keep the user experience the same across the board.
The goal in the technology world is to create a unique, creative experience for the user that’s simple and frustration-free. With many in the past complaining about the difficulty of using technology, it’s no wonder that there’s a push toward touchscreen technology. These trends show how a bunch of different devices can integrate the same technology to create a similar experience for the user. Have you noticed any popular trends lately?
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