2012: thoughts on the top new tech coming our way

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 31 December 2011 00:03

Your IT - Home IT

With just hours to go before 2012 arrives on Australian shores, it's time for a little look into the tech we know is soon coming, while we wonder what unexpected new tech hits will surely come!

2012 promises a plethora of technology releases, whether through expected upgrades to existing technologies, alongside whatever breakthrough new products arrive to surprise and delight tech-lovers worldwide.

Obvious contenders for a lot of liquid crystal pixel space include Apple's upcoming iPad 3 and Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 for tablets, desktops and notebooks, let alone any touchscreen Macs or MacPad Air hybrids that Apple may or may not decide to release in 2012.

Ultrabooks are also due to launch in abundance at CES according to pre-CES reports online. Perhaps we'll see tablet/ultrabook hybrids with touch screens that turn into a tablet the way old-school Windows tablets do - by having the screen spin around and fold flat over the keyboard.

Or, make the screen and keyboard detachable, but rather than docking into a keyboard the way Acer's current tablet does, make them dock in a way that lets it close like an ultrabook, and open up like one if desired, while being fully detachable. Pre-iPads, I always wanted Windows tablets to be like this, but while the tech was technically there, the end result was always far more expensive than a US $499 iPad.

Asus' Android tablet with clip-on keyboard is getting there, but with Windows 8 set to finally deliver a 'true' tablet experience for the first time, despite decades of Windows pen and years of finger touch capabilities across various versions of Windows and as screen technologies improved, I hope some ultrabook tablet hybrids will launch at CES 2012 amongst all the 'regular' ultrabooks.

If they really take off in conjunction with a Windows 8 that actually delivers the true multi-touch goods, CES 2013 will be swamped in them, something that would surely make Bill Gates very happy.

There's also Google's promise of a killer tablet 'in six months', a statement that seems to damn all the existing Honeycomb and upcoming Android 4.0 tablets somewhat, while Apple has been able to generate tons of publicity for its as-yet unavailable iPad 3, while still selling millions upon millions of iPad 2 models this year.

Indeed, 2011 was the year of the iPad 2, and even if Microsoft has an amazing Windows 8 launch with a cornucopia of Windows 8 tablets, 2012 will still likely be the year of the iPad again as Apple gets ready to wow us with the rumoured 'retina screen' class display for the iPad 3, better cameras, a faster processor and better graphics, Siri integration and whatever other surprises Apple has in store for us.

Continued on page two, please read on!