This year will not be boring. 3D printing, electronic payments, iTV, smart TVs in every home, social gaming, touch ID. No, we didn't get the witch's crystal ball.
When Jack Dorsey, who became the 5th richest (according to Forbes) person on the planet after Twitter's IPO, spends his time at a startup that deals with electronic payments, that says something. When Mark Cerny, who is preparing the PS4, makes a switch to AMD processors, when you have the first speaker whose entire parts are made with 3D printing, you have to expect developments. And when you can find a 40-dollar Smart TV without spending a fortune, you can easily predict which technologies will fascinate us in 2014.
3D-printing
We have seen several commercial applications of this technology in recent years. But their development is rapid and this will be a critical year. An example: The construction of a speaker with all plastic and metal parts manufactured by a printer was recently announced. This means that China is losing the advantage of low production costs since it is now possible to manufacture cheaply anywhere in the world without, in fact, transportation costs. A device for the Greek market can be manufactured in Greece.
Bluetooth 4.0
2014 will be a very crucial year for Bluetooth communications. The low power version offers exciting possibilities from new communication systems on smartphones to the creation of small local networks where there is no signal or wifi. For example, in a shopping mall it can facilitate payments and product advertising. One application is Coin, which aspires to replace credit cards and is already on the market.
Electronic payments
With or without Bluetooth 4.0, a new generation of peripherals is slowly making its appearance. 2014 will definitely be the year of PayPal Here (it counted 4 billion electronic payments two years ago and is expected to reach $20 billion this year) and Square. In line are VeriFone SAIL, Swiff, PhoneSwipe, Groupon Payments, Pay Anywhere, IZettle, Payleven and of course Coin. Facilitating payments and creating networks of merchants and customers is the next big bet in Silicon Valley.
Touch ID
The camera on the iPhone 5S seems to be the beginning. Scanning fingerprints is the best way to lock the phone and secure personal data, but with it come the well-known concerns. When, for example, along with the name, credit card number, email and friends, a biometric data is also registered. In 2014 it will become clear whether this trend will prevail and whether the other manufacturers, who are currently taking a wait-and-see attitude, will move in the same direction.
Social gaming
Gaming has always been as social as the medium allows. A lot on PC and very little on portable consoles. This will change with the new Xbox and PS4 will bring social features such as account creation, automatic performance postings, friends, networks, comments while the distinction between PC and console is abolished at least on PS4 which is shifting towards PC architecture and AMD processors. This changes things quite a bit in the living room since PC and console become one while Smart TVs claim a large part of the same functions.
Smart assistants
Technology has come a long way, and personal assistants are not just a menu of commands with voice recognition. This is the year, however, when Siri and Google Now should take the big step towards passive information search, that is, information that will come to use automatically. Another development is the search using natural language, which is expected to change the traditional search with keywords quite a bit.
Smart TVs
It is very difficult for a TV purchased in 2014 not to be “smart”. On the one hand, you see, 3D TVs have passed and are no longer around. On the other hand, there is the trend of everything being smart, from watches to activity trackers. Prices have dropped considerably in 2013, now the cheapest from a well-known manufacturer is 236 euros (22 inches) while you can find a 40-inch smart TV for 400 euros. That is why this year Smart TVs will become standard in every living room.
iTV
It's the announcement everyone's been waiting for in 2014. Apparently iTV is in an advanced stage of development in Apple's labs and the announcement will be made within the year. What everyone is waiting for is something radically new from how you change channels to what exactly you do with your TV, a new ecosystem for TV applications, perhaps the famous app-up of computers (since a smart TV is a computer), perhaps a very sleek content purchase platform.
Source: oneman.gr
We warmly thank SecTeam member @Bitus128.
