Harry McCracken Rounds Up the Year In Tech

Velcroman1 writes "Windows got less annoying. Smartphones became smarter. The Internet continued to change entertainment for the better. All in all, it was a good year for technology and the folks who use it. Harry McCracken, the brains behind Technologizer and the former editor-in-chief of PC World, reveals his picks and pans for the most interesting tech stories of the year."

Comments

Not big stories.

[Darkness404]

While obviously Snow Leopard and Windows 7 were big deals, there are a lot more game changers and important things out there. The ION platform is a big thing, its already used in a few HTPC setups and I expect it to grow even more in 2010. The cheap full laptops are also going to be big things. Its hard to beat a laptop with a 15 inch screen, a 2.2 ghz CPU and 2 gigs DDR2 and a decent sized HDD for $300 or less. A cheap netbook is good for a geek, kids or the businessman. However, for the elderly, those unemployed and looking for a good laptop, and students, these cheap laptops are going to help change the market.

Re:Not big stories.

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Given that Intel is rapidly giving Atoms without on-die graphics the nerve pinch, ION's long-term prospects look grim(ok, VIA might get around to shipping something, 18 months from now). If they want to offer anything for the Pine Trail Atoms, it will need to hang off the PCIe bus(and, given that the Pine Trails have an on-die memory controller, and relatively anemic off-chip I/O, quite possibly dedicated video RAM) That'll raise the cost significantly.

For strict low-end HTPC use, I'd expect that most people will just suck it up and pair the new Atom with a dedicated video accelerator like Broadcom's offering. That will be near useless for 3D graphics; but it'll get you full h246 acceleration for absolute peanuts.

At price(and power draw, though that matters less for something on AC power) points just above that, you run into the combination of a low-end Athlon and an integrated Radeon. Better CPU performance than anything Atom, some GPU capability, and full video acceleration.

Above that, you get into the land of normal desktop processors and, if desired, discrete video cards. Unless Nvidia can somehow get an interconnect licence out of Intel, or get VIA up to speed, and soon, ION is doomed. Which is a pity, Intel's graphics offerings in the area are pitiful, and their tactics could hardly be described as fair; but that doesn't help Nvidia much.

Re:some boring/predictable stuff in that list

[DesScorp]

Boring and Predictable is what IT is now. We're in a mature period, where very little is actually revolutionary. "Game Changer" depends on public viewpoint and impact, and in that regard, I'd say the last real game changer was the iPhone, and that was years ago.