2010 Five technologies I found most useful
Every start of the year, for several years now, I reflect on the past year and list the technologies I found most useful. I then share this with my friends to encourage them to look at these technologies and see how hey can apply them to their daily lives.
Some of the technologies I have suggested in previous years included :
DVR (TIVO)- A digital video recorder allows you to stop, rewind and record any TV show allowing you to stop watching when one of your children calls you on the phone. Prior to DVR, these calls can be an annoyance, with DVR, you simply pause and chat with your children and after the call resume watching your show. (Today, there is not even any need to record your TV shows when you are away from home to watch them, you can access these shows either on your computer, or iPad or on demand)
GPS Navigation system- Makes driving to new locations easy and safe. Saves the aggravation of stopping and asking for directions and back seat driving from your nagging passengers. It also makes driving easy when passing thru freeway intersections as you are alerted to move to the right ( correct) lane for your route. It also helped me locate a chinese restaurant in the middle of nowhere in OK.
HDTV, LED, internet connected - Enjoying high definition LED TV with best pictures coupled to your home theater audio is the only way to watch your favorite TV or movies at home. I predicted 3D TV would be take off in 2010 but like Best Buy I was wrong. Maybe this year.
Digital Camera- in my case I went to Canon high end 5D2 and called this camera more of a computer with lenses than a dslr. Little did I know that I bought t a money pit as I “invested” and got 4 more lenses to feed input to this 21 megapixel Camera. Now more point and shoot type digital cameras are so high tech they can approximate the capabilities of the DSLR. Like Canon’s G12 or S95.
BlackBerry- for emails, and nice applications like Golfrange, poynt, pandora,FB, GPS,built-in camera etc. I am now on my 6th year on the RIM BB, and may move to iPhone once it becomes available with other than ATT carrier. Unless RIM comes up with new versions.
In 2010 I found the following technologies as a new must have and adapt:
iPad- I got the full 64 GB with ATT G3 IPad and have not let this notepad away from my side. I brought it to my travels, my grandchildren use it to keep busy with games, I can do simple post processing of new pictures downloaded from the camera. I use it for weather, maps, GPS. In August, on a trip to Boston, there was a long line at Hertz car rental for GPS equipped cars. I opted to get a non GPS car to jump the queue and relied on the ipad to guide me to the location I am visiting for the first time. To be sure I will look at the next crank of this technology and upgrade to take advantage of the upgraded features.
Netflix- I now watch movies on blueray dvd, or stream the movie on my iPad or into my LED HDTV. To stream to the TV I use either a Sony PS3 or a Nintendo Wii. This is the best bang for the buck. ( Note just fyi, I am not suggesting this for us here in the USA,there is another technology mostly used in the Philippines wherein whole movies or TV series like the whole Spartacus show are downloaded into a hard drive and then watched on your computer or in my case the computer capable LED HDTV- the caveat here is legal copyright infringement, so most tech savy balikbayans bring home not DVD but whole hard drives loaded with hundred of movie or shows).
Twitter- I signed up to twitter in February 2008, in 2010 I found this social medium as my primary source of updates and news. Information is pushed to you, no need to browse, it is given in short 144 characters with link to the full news if interested. Twitter will continue to grow and will face new competition like Quora, which has the advantage of one being able to follow topics rather than people as in Twitter.
follow me @tonyniev
Tumblr- This is so easy to use to blog, it feeds automatically to your twitter and Facebook accounts. I use this to update my large family on happenings and use their Photo posting utility to share photos. ( I would also add here photo sites like flickr and my own smugmug pro site as one I fully used in 2010. Others find instagram as another way of posting their pictures into Facebook)
http://tonyniev.smugmug.com
www.tonyniev.tumblr.com
Single cup coffee brewer- Christmas 2009, my youngest son gave me a Keurig brand coffee maker. I commented in my technology piece in January 2010, that I think this is one gift that would end up idle and not used and put into storage because of the high cost of the individually packed coffee. I cannot be more wrong, We bought a refillable cup and used for a while coffee from large cans, but later switched to the individual Keurig canisters. You get good brew on the type and taste of coffee you want. This is one gift we are using everyday.
There were other new found or rediscovered technologies I adapted in 2010, including migrating from using purely IBM PC with Windows to the Apple MacBookPro. I should have done this migration a few years ago. I have installed Aperture3 and Adobe CS5 and had barely touched the capabilities of these photographer’s tools.
Look at the above five technologies and see what will be useful in your lives.
! The program aired in 1964, so it was speculating about a time 36 years ahead as the "future". Granted that doesn't seem like that long of a time in "old farts thinking", but still, think of "1984" and "2001 Space Odyssey" -- we are living in "the future"!
.All talk and no photos unlike the Young photographers where they talk but they also post photos 
. The young lady in the pic is a young friend who wanted me to teach her more about photography and not just taking snapshots. I found it was as much fun teaching someone about photography as in doing it.
(now where did I put that guy??)
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,and maybe he lives in a neighborhood like mine where someone walking with a camera is a good way to get mugged or worst
