The Year in Review: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Barry Gerber talks about key events in a busy year for technology enthusiasts. He covers HDTV, Windows Vista, exploding batteries, the need for mobile phone standardization, spam, CPUs and portable music and video players.

Those are some darn good expectations. I have been waiting for someone to blow the market away by "integrating," at least in a rought sense, a cell phone and a mp3 player. Verizon and Cingular have tried to do this with the Chocolate and Rokr, respectively, but failed because the phone came first and the mp3 functionality was pathetic. What I woudl expect to see, in the next 3 years, is a VoIP company joint venture with Intel (or a cell phone company) and hardware manufacterer. If skype could get such a product to market utilising WiMax (or EV network of Verizon, EDGE network of Cingular), they could make a killing. I would buy such a device in an instant, provided it did its job well. I have an iPod for music, Shure E3C headphones to match, a LG VX8500, a bluetooth headset for that, and usually my PDA.... it is ridiculous.

I have been waiting for wireless headphones since Bluetooth was announced. I realize the battery life might be compromised, but there is so much to gain from the elimination of such annoying wires. If you can make a bluetooth headset as clear as the Discovery 655, but headphones for an iPod (or equivilant), I would be willing to accept less than perfect audio quality.

I just couldn't help it but say that I too share the same enthusiasm for technology as Berry Gerber does. Reading the article really helped me out to understand the feeling!

I justa had to tell yo bro,

It really rocks!

And I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who share the same opinion.

I've been reading Tom's hardware since the very very beginning and can say that this is THE site for technology enthusiasts. Well done!

Having an HDTV monitor with a stand alone tuner is allows you to upgrade the tuner as better technology (eg anti aliasing) comes along without also investing in a new display.

Sometimes i don't quite understand Mr. Gerber, the author of this and other articles. If i remember correctly, there was this heated debate in the forums about Mr. Gerber article on the Sony UX180P some time ago. And again for god sake, you can't expect every piece of technology is going to be upgraded to your likes. The UX180 sacrifices upgradability in the name of a small sized device , compreende ?

Now, should i complain about my nforce2 chipset not supporting PCIe or DDR2 DIMM's ? ... Probably not. But i bet Mr. Gerber complains his 286sx is still waiting for a VESA-LB daughterboard ... Try reading about Rock's Law and the way technology evolves. Readers will thank you for a well informed argumentation, rather than subjective likes and dislikes.

Anyway, the article is rather confusing, it mixes many concepts, making too often apples vs oranges comparisons. No conclusion as well .... hmmmm, we all know technology evolves, but i have the feeling the author is not able to root itself at some determinate time, and draw a pro vs con summary. Weird , why so many writers can do so ....

edit:typo's