Hot! 2007 Preview - Most Popular Hi-Tech Tendency in 2007

 

The Christmas period saw the release of the Play station 3 and with that console wars began again. It is inevitable that every generation of consoles have to compete fiercely with each other to control the market, Sony have been the victors with the PS3's predecessors and were quietly confident that they would dominate again. However they may have bitten off more than they can chew with their new machine and so far things have not gone well. Initially plagued by shortages of consoles due to problems in their manufacture, even with the reduced availability the expected rush to buy all the available consoles in America just didn't happen and eBay prices which had started at $2000 dollars before the launch  had fallen to just $700 1 week before Christmas. Clearly people aren't as addicted to the PS3 as Sony would have hoped, so what has changed?

 

The Xbox 360 was released over a year ago now but it has had time to establish itself more firmly than the original Xbox did and thanks to some of the awesome games available on it sold more than twice what the PS3 did over the Christmas period alone. Things are looking good in the future too with a steady stream of high quality games including the highly anticipated Halo 3. If the previous games are anything to go by then this will be the must have game for 2007.

 

The Wii is Nintendo's latest attempt at console since the poorly received Gamecube and arrived on the American Market a few weeks before the PS3. Reports are good so far, the console is very innovative and if reports are true it is one of the first consoles to actually have grandparents wanting to play them (something I didn't expect to happen till I was a grandparent myself). It has outsold the PS3 in America & Japan so far and with classic games like Mario, Zelda, Metroid all receiving the remake treatment and it's innovative and fun controller design we can expect it to continue to do well. However the Gamecube was largely ignored outside of Japan and Nintendo will be hoping this doesn't happen again.

 

So which console is the most likely to be king of the hill when all the dust settles? It's hard to say at the moment, the PS3 is bound to do well but with the cost of the Wii and the Xbox 360 combined being lower than Sony's new console people might not be as loyal as Sony hope. Sony are the only console manufacturer to not have produced a lame duck yet and it might be prudent to wait to see how it does in the coming months before being one of the first to own one.

 

 

The iPod, in all it's guises, will no doubt continue to dominate the MP3 & MP4 players market for the foreseeable future but Microsoft have just entered the fray and with the long running rivalry between these two companies you can be sure that they've done their homework before trying to take the iPod's crown.

 

The Zune boasts all the features of the current generation of iPods but all has several improvements, the most notable of these are it's Wi-Fi capabilities, the ability to share files with other users and also larger screen. Until Apple release the next generation of iPod the Zune boasts many features that may sway first time buyers or disenchanted iPod owners so it may be worth looking into if you need a new mp3 player.

 

Apple aren't sitting on their hands this year however, they've recently announced the Apple iPhone which if what they say is true will do for mobile phones what the iPod did for mp3 players. With a touch screen front instead of the usual buttons found on every other phone the iPhone immediately establishes that Apple have maintained their slick design abilities, but what else does it do? The various models boast either 4Gb or 8Gb storage for music and movie files while it also has a 2 mega pixel camera phone and Internet access. It won't be released in America till June, Europe till October and Asia till 2008 so you've got plenty of time to start saving your pennies.

 

 

With the current success of the Xbox 360 and the recent release of the Zune it looks like Microsoft are destined to rule the world. However while they have started to be strong contenders in other fields they are in danger of loosing two no one thought they ever could loose, namely Internet and office software markets.

 

If there are two words that are sure to turn Bill Gates and his minions into raving lunatics they are "open source", an Internet revolution that is slowly eating away at the Microsoft pie. Open source has been around for a while now but it has only been in the last couple of years that it has started to really become popular because of 2 key features; the software evolves incredibly quickly to meet demand and fix problems and more importantly they're free, that's right completely free.

 

Firefox is an open source Internet browser that boasts many features Internet Explorer doesn't boast. Until recently it was unique in having tabbed Internet browsing so only one window had to be open but in reality many Internet pages were open. Microsoft provided this feature in their most recent update of Internet Explorer but Firefox is still the most advanced web browser available due to the way open source allows you to customize the program to suit you, over a thousand add-ons are available to download for the Firefox browser and whether you're confused by a new word, want to know what the weather is like, want recommendations for similar websites or even want to compare on-line shopping prices there is an add-on suitable for you.

 

This in itself isn't really a problem for Microsoft as IE has always been free anyway but the company that owns Firefox (Mozilla) also offer email software similar to Microsoft's Outlook. The problem doesn't stop there either, at the end of last year "Open Office" released the latest update to it's open source office suite. In terms of functions there is little difference between Microsoft Office and Open Office but the fact that Open office is free and Microsoft Office isn't is will make Open Office very popular as word of mouth spreads. The successful sale of each new version of Office is a big cash earner for Microsoft so they can't like that Open Office is getting more recognition especially with Office 2007 coming out in it's finished version this year, while it is sure to be an improvement over the 2003 edition people might save their money if they know they can get a free version that will surely boast any new features Microsoft have introduced with time.

 

Microsoft aren't counting their chickens yet but with Windows Vista receiving such luke-warm reviews so far you have to wonder what would happen to them as company if Linux were to become a more prominent operating system.

 

 

You'd struggle to find a person on this planet who hasn't at least heard of YouTube. From its humble beginnings in early 2005 to Google's $1.6 billion purchase of the company last year it's popularity has grown and grown. The sight's main attraction is that it offers users the chance to upload, view, rate and criticize videos. This is all very easy to accomplish and the growing community means that the site is unlikely to lose popularity anytime soon.

 

The key to YouTube is "Social Networking" and it seems to be the driving force behind the whole web 2.0 phenomenon. The idea behind "Social Networking" websites is that users provide the  majority of the content and by doing so the sites evolve much faster than they could under the hands of the web designers alone.

 

MySpace is almost assuredly going to continue gaining popularity this year and don't be surprised if everyone you know has setup their own space along the accompanying with blogs, pictures  and videos by the end of the year. The site was bought by Rupert Murdoch in 2005 for $580 million and many people thought Rupert had not learnt from his previous over the top Internet investments and was about to flush more money down the drain, however as of this moment the site is believed to be the busiest site in the world and with 100 million users it certainly looks like it's going to continue to be, of course YouTube and MySpace aren't the only websites making up the Web 2.0 phenomenon and some of them are taking on some well established sites.

 

For a long time now Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has been the king of the Movie information websites but if Flixster has anything to do with it that won't be true for long. Flixster takes a leaf out of IMDB's book a provides you with all the important information about the films you're looking for but then does what IMDB fails to do and makes it interesting to look at. The site is almost completely customised by the users and allows you to rate and review movies according to your tastes and then see how close your movie tastes are to your friends. With your own page to show your favourite movies, clips, reviews etc. Flixster looks set to turn into a MySpace for movie lovers and that can't be a bad thing.

 

Flickr is somewhat of an oddity, the site simply offers you a place to store and view your pictures but the innovative thing they have done is to allow you to tag your pictures so other people can search for them, it doesn't sound that interesting initially but providing you aren't looking for anything indecent then you can find pictures of pretty much anything and its surprising how much time you can spend looking at other peoples photos whether it's to  relive that perfect holiday or just look at pictures of fat cats you'll find something to keep you entertained. Whilst users can't generate income from their pictures like they can on Getty images they can at least read feedback from people who liked their pictures and if they want money they can always upload them there as well.

 

One problem that people often have with the Internet is that if you've not heard of a website before how are you going to find it until someone tells you about it? Search engines are  fine providing you know what you're looking for but if you are looking for something new it's not uncommon to find yourself sat at the computer waiting for inspiration. Luckily some clever people have worked out a way to do the hard part for you. Del.icio.us, Yoono and StumbleUpon all work on the same principle that when you go to a website that you like they suggest other sites that you might like too. It's called Social bookmarking and it will, as many programs have claimed before, revolutionise the way you search the web. It is a rather arrogant thing to say but in this case it may be true, sites are recommended by other users so if a site is hot you'll know about it and if it isn't then it won't get mentioned. The obvious downfall of this system is that new sites will find it hard to get a mention but hopefully this will be factored in somehow in the future.

 

As well as people being able to recommend which sites to go to on the web now they can tell you which news articles to read as well. Digg does exactly that, news articles are linked onto the website and users decide whether or not they "Digg It". Its a good idea that should have been thought of before and whatever it is you're interested in you can find it here. Clearly the way we view the Internet is set for some interesting changes this year and they can only be to our benefit.

 

So those are the big things to look out for as this year rolls ever closer to 2008. Of course you can't expected to buy a PS3, an Xbox 360, a Wii, a Zune, an iPod and an iPhone but we hope we've weighed up the pros and cons of each of them enough that you can pick the ones you think will be the winners this year. It's likely that with all these must have gadgets coming out your wallets and purses are going to be quite light this year so maybe it is the year for open source software to start breaking further into the mainstream. Anyway keep we'll keep a finger on the pulse for you and if anything else big is going to happen this year then we'll be sure to let you know.