Exciting Technology Times Ahead

It used to be said that the only things you can be sure of in life is death and taxes. I think we need to add one more item to that list - technology changes! The next few months are going to prove to be very exciting for technology watcher and users.

On Monday, Apple announces its new iPhone. Even though some of the iPhone's features have been revealed courtesy of the Apple engineer who left a prototype at the bar, Apple will still have a few surprise features. Of course, there will be the long-awaited multi-tasking feature as well as a better and front-facing camera. The new phone will have a smaller screen but a higher resolution. The two new features I'm looking forward to is the longer batter life and the wireless syncing. Critics of the new phone say that it will be very expensive and not well designed. Also, when the iPhone was first released, it was a unique product. Since then, they are some less expensive alternatives available. Critics had some harsh word when Apple announce the iPad. As a matter of fact, Apple's stock dropped just after the announcement. The critics and the drop in stock price have not deterred consumers as apple has sold  over 2 million iPad units to date.

The other big technology news is that Google will be releasing its Chrome operating system later this year. The operating system is based on the Chrome browser with most of the applications hosted in the clouds. Aimed at the laptop and netbook market, this latest Google product is in direct competition with Microsoft's Windows 7, which has seen some success since it's introduction late last year. The Chrome browser is already out pacing both FireFox and MS Explorer in new installations. I'm also leery of a new operating system. The OS is the basis of your computer's operations. If the OS fails, your computer will not be able to function. As a new OS system has not been consumer tested, I plan to wait and see how it functions before I commit to it. Even though cloud computing sound great, I do not trust it completely as I would like to be able to work on some of my applications even if I do not, or can not, have Internet access (i.e. on an airplane).

I have a philosophy about buying new technology. I like to wait until version 2.0 comes out. It is like the advise that tells us never to buy the first model year of a car. Version 1.0 buyers suffer the consequences of using a product that has not been fully tested. I feel that the the first release is the mass beta test. I'll wait until the bugs are worked out before I spend time and money. I prefer to be on the bleeding edge rather than the leading edge.