January 1, 2014

High Tech Predictions for 2014

Filed under: Main — Tags: — admin @ 12:01 am

As the sun dawns upon a new year, it’s time for me to don my festive swami turban and look into the future. What fortune paves the high tech roads in the year 2014?

Apple TV

Is Apple missing the boat on this one or what? I’m sure CEO Tim Cook reads my blog every week. For the past three years I’ve predicted the Apple TV and he’s blown it every single time.

The key isn’t figuring out a box to deliver apps. I mean, seriously: Who really uses iTunes to listen to music from their computer on their TV? And even my cheap-o Blu-Ray player features a Netflix app. No, I’m talking about what Apple does best: The interface.

Dear Apple: We need a way to communicate with our high-tech, Internet-ready televisions. We need something you do best: An interface. Cough it up.

Well, I predict you’ll cough it up. This is a prediction post, not a rant.

Bigger Tablets

I bet Samsung comes out with a Galaxy Tab Mega this year. Perhaps it will be 11 inches, but I want a 14-inch tablet. It’s coming. Just the other day I read a rumor that a 12.2-inch iPad is coming, although Apple is generally slow to market so I won’t actually predict it for next year.

Regardless, I see a parallel between tablet and historical computer monitor sizes.

For a long time, computer monitors were 14-inches or 15-inches diagonal. (And they were all in the 4:3 ratio, not this widescreen stuff.) Then came the 17-inch monitors. They were huge! Then 19-inches, then 21-inches, which was about as big as you wanted a glass CRT monitor. (They were too heavy and expensive.)

I predict tablets will parallel the early monitor size increases. A 21-inch tablet? I’m not predicting one, but I might in a few years.

Bigger iPhone

This one is almost a gimme: Apple is eyeing the phablet market, the one that Samsung now owns with the Galaxy Note III and that HTC is eager to grab with the HTC One Max.

Super Huge Samsung Galaxy Universe Phone

Just like the bigger tablets, I bet Samsung foists an 8-inch phone on mankind. I placing this prediction down on the list because it’s probably more whacky than the others, but who knows?

Personally, a phone I can’t easily slip into or out of my front pants pocket will never be on my wish list. The Galaxy Note is big enough. Something bigger? I’ll pass.

Windows and Office Something

I believe Microsoft will toss out a new version of Windows next year. This is another “out there” prediction, but it could happen. Windows 8 is just so awful that I believe a Windows 9 or a “Windows Will You Forgive Us” version is already in the oven at Microsoft’s binary kitchen. This new version of Windows will be more traditional and focus on speed as opposed to a new interface.

Yes, I’ll probably be wrong on this point. Regardless:

I also see a new Office release. That one frightens me. Office is pretty stable and I really don’t want to see Microsoft either go with a full online version of Office or turn it into a mobile app. Either one will be met with cries of anguish from an already displeased group of Office users.

As usual, I have a year to prove myself right or wrong.

6 Comments

  1. “Windows 8 is just so awful that I believe a Windows 9 or a “Windows Will You Forgive Us” version is already in the oven at Microsoft’s binary kitchen.”
    I dunno, the rumour mill says that they’re bringing the Start Menu back in 8.2.

    “Office is pretty stable and I really don’t want to see Microsoft either go with a full online version of Office or turn it into a mobile app.”
    This one I’m less sure of but I think they’re doing that too – turning Office into a set of apps that run on the Windows Runtime, ie, mobile Metro apps. I heard that around the beginning of 2013 or so and haven’t heard anything on it since so I’m ruling that one as just a rumor for now.

    Comment by linuxlove — January 1, 2014 @ 7:46 am

  2. On the upside, I’ve seen some very clever Start menu replacement apps on various Windows 8 machines. Once again, Microsoft’s foolishness is generating income for other companies. I should write about the early Task Manager programs you could get for Windows 3.1 . . . Microsoft’s ineptness has made money for lots of folks.

    I can’t see Office becoming a web-based app. That would kill it for me. They may end up with a hybrid subscription model ala the latest Adobe stuff. That’s kind of web-based, but you can still run the programs without a connection.

    Comment by admin — January 1, 2014 @ 10:33 am

  3. I think the largest size of phone that are already in common use is 5″, I believe these are referred to as phablets. My eyes are going bad, and so if they ever make a cheap prepaid 5″ phone then I might get one. There are 7″ tablets with cel connectivity, but that is only so you can use the internet from anywhere instead of having to be near wifi.

    Comment by BradC — January 1, 2014 @ 10:50 am

  4. I remember when I first got the Galaxy Tab 7, the original one. It had a cellular connection, but wasn’t a phone. I joked around with it, holding it up to my head like a phone. It would have worked. Apparently lots of people want it to work that way. I don’t. I’m happy with a smaller format phone, but some people want huge phones.

    Comment by admin — January 1, 2014 @ 10:55 am

  5. Hmmm,
    I have to admit I was slow on the Android phone uptake, I had Blackberry and that was fine until Blackberry shutdown their email system [off topic when I needed it to email a boarding pass to get on a flight in Italy (I don’t speak Italian!). After that the first chance I got I changed to Android (Galaxy SIII)!] The whole Apps on the go (Office Online, why?) I don’t get, the whole thing of everything connected is fine until it isn’t connected (by some means, weather is the main one) it looking like fairly soon you will have to be online just to start your PC. I have an old Android Tablet I mostly use for reading PDF’s & the odd kindle book. I dislike laptops as the size messes with my typing, I am down to one finger hunt a peck on a tablet. I like a phone to be a phone a tablet to be a paper book replacment and my work PC to be a desktop/tower PC!
    Glenn (here endth the rant!)

    Comment by glennp — January 2, 2014 @ 6:15 am

  6. Fairly soon you will have to be online just to start your PC

    It’s the old argument Microsoft gave when they put their Windows manual online.

    “Hello? I’m having trouble starting Word.”

    “Check the help inside Word for information…”

    Comment by admin — January 2, 2014 @ 9:01 am

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