As I See Tech

Goodbye 2010! Hello 2011! Enjoy, have fun and celebrate! A good year has ended and a better year is starting. May you have a Happy and a Prosperous New Year!!!

2010 has been a great year for technology in general affecting various sectors and cultural groups around the world. Here is As I See Tech's rundown of the best technologies for cars, SUVs and hybrids that made remarkable achievements in 2010...

2010 has been a great year for technology in general affecting various sectors and cultural groups around the world. Here is As I See Tech's rundown of the best mobile technologies in general that made remarkable achievements in 2010...

2010 has been a great year for technology in general affecting various sectors and cultural groups around the world. Here is As I See Tech's rundown of the best technologies for cameras and photography in general that made remarkable achievements in 2010...

2010 has been a great year for technology in general affecting various sectors and cultural groups around the world. Here is As I See Tech's rundown of the best technologies for home and mobile entertainment that made remarkable achievements in 2010...

2010 has been a great year for technology in general affecting various sectors and cultural groups around the world. Here is As I See Tech's rundown of the best technologies for gamers that made remarkable achievements in 2010...

2010 has been a great year for technology in general affecting various sectors and cultural groups around the world. Here is As I See Tech's rundown of the best technologies for mobiles phones, particularly smartphones, that made remarkable achievements in 2010...

2010 has been a great year for technology in general affecting various sectors and cultural groups around the world. Here is As I See Tech's rundown of the best technologies for desktop and mobile computers that made remarkable achievements in 2010...

As I See Tech's 2010 year-ender report is here! 2010 has been a great year for technology in general affecting various sectors and cultural groups around the world. Here is As I See Tech's rundown of the best technologies that made remarkable achievements in 2010... Desktop and Mobile Computers Smartphones and, wait for it... Super Smartphones Gamers Gaming Games TVs, Players and Portable Entertainment Digital Cameras and Photography e-Readers and Other Must Have Portable Devices Cars, SUVs and Hybrids Links to these articles get activated as they become available. You may bookmark this post so you can quickly link to them! Or, just check back regularly as the list gets completed before the New Year. If you are on Facebook, find As I See Tech on Facebook , get updates in real time and  keep the discussion going ...

Allow my interruption of our usual tech-talk for a moment to greet everyone a merry, merry, merry Christmas! My gift to you after the break...

First things first: this post is not about the website  http://www.lastminutechristmas.com . And hopefully, this post would not be in any legal battle for using a registered trademark whatchamacallit. At the last minute, I just decided to make a compilation of places to hunt for deals this Christmas... regardless if you've been naughty or nice this year 2010.

Microsoft finally has an official statement on how much Windows Phone 7 units have been pushed to retailers: 1.5 million in 6 weeks. Meanwhile, their Marketplace have grown from 1,000 apps since launch to 4,000 apps worldwide. The reactions are mixed but, as Microsoft puts it, the progress is as expected .

Computers, OSes and applications have evolved over the years adjusting and changing to user habits, trends and what have you. Most of the time, the changes are subtle. Sometimes, they are drastic. But over time, the changes can get all mixed-up so that many users could get confused about how to use them... and how not to use them.

One day, you decided to re-organized your inbox with folders and rules. Next thing you know, you missed important e-mails and notes. It's not necessarily because the technology was not working for you. Most of the time, it was because you didn't know how to use the technology well. When that happens, simply go back and make changes until everything really works for you.

Yes, I'm diggin'... :-)

If you've seen the 2002 movie Minority Report , you know exactly what the "Minority Report interface" is. In that popular scene, detective John Anderton (played by Tom Cruise) and his team, in a race against time, worked on a transparent glass widescreen to browse and search through a collection of the precogs' digitized prophecies, supposedly containing visual clues that could lead to a crime that would happen at a specific time in the future. The plot seemed far fetched enough, but what really placed the audience in awe was the way Anderton was literally gesturing his commands to the computer. It was enough to tickle a lot of fancies and imagination. It was the ultimate inspiration for how we should be interacting with our computers in the future.

Natural User Interfaces (NUI) got a big boost from different companies in the first decade of the the 21st century. Companies like Microsoft, Apple, Sony and Nintendo have released devices that exemplify the practical applications of NUI through multi-touch screens, spatial gestures and speech.

Once upon a time, there was the notebook. Then it merged with tablets to create the tablet hybrids. Then there were netbooks, which are basically small notebooks. And now, a whole new category of mobile computer is coming out for real and it's appropriately called the touchbook .

There is a need for better processors targeting mobile devices. The engineering capabilities of today have made it possible to shrink the size of computers, taking them out of the appliance category into something as mobile as we are. Intel seems to recognize this trend and plans more products focusing on the mobile device market.

HTML5 is the next major iteration of the HTML standard. HTML5 includes built-in support for rich content presentation and enhanced user experiences. It has built-in support to enhance on-line and off-line application capabilities. It also has a new set of APIs that greatly eases the development of advanced web applications without the need for third-party plug-ins. For web developers, HTML5 is generally an important upgrade for the web since Web 2.0 became mainstream.

Computers are getting smaller and more powerful every year. Regardless of whether we call them PCs, laptops, notebooks, netbooks, tablets, slates, smart phone, game consoles, etc., they are all computers at the core. As our lifestyles continue to get attached to the computer, we take the computer out of the appliance category and make them as mobile as we are.

The world needs a new OS . It doesn't have to be as commercialized as Windows, iOS or Android. It doesn't have to be as glamorous as Mac OS. And it doesn't have to be as big as Unix. The new OS just has to exist in order to revolutionize the future of computing in a way far beyond how we know it today.

A recent controversial topic in the news is WikiLeakS.org . Well, from the very beginning, WikiLeakS has always been controversial. The very purpose and reason of its existence is by itself controversial. If you think about it, security-conscious entities, including the government, should have taken WikiLeakS seriously since it launched in 2006 -- as early as possible before it becomes anything close to uncontrollable.

The Kindle is the best selling e-reader around. Its e-Ink screen is the most eye-friendly to look at for long reading hours. The Kindle 3 design is sleek, simple and sized just right. So looking at the other e-readers available, rich with extra features and functionalities, what makes Kindle tick?

The Philippines was the original texting capital of the world. When SMS was introduced to the public in 1995, it was used as a promotional gimmick for the hearing impaired. It was in fact originally offered as a value-added service available for free to subscribers. Not surprisingly, Filipinos started getting cellphones for the purpose of texting only so that they could communicate instantly for free. The telecoms caught on to this trend and started charging PHP1.00 per text message. For some good reason, that price did not change since...

I was finally able to try out Kinect last weekend. I played the Kinect Adventures and the Kinect MotionSports games. It was fun and very, very, very tiring. Good thing our good host served food that night. Otherwise, I would have given up after the first game!

Products with a specific targeted market can always spell success. Sometimes, capturing a niche in the market is always the best way to compete. If the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab target the general consumers; and the HP Slate 500 and RIM Blackberry Playbook target the business users; then the Kno , a new product entry in the tablet market, targets the students.

Now here's something interesting. You can imagine two competing products to have the same user-base if plotting both in a graph draws a symmetrical pattern: where the rise of one is the fall of the other. Digg and Reddit offer social news services. Digg got in to a lot of trouble in 2010 since they released version 4, criticized by Reddit's Alexis Ohanian to be a victim of VC meddling that departed Digg from its core.

Black Friday is one of the craziest national sales event I've seen! Regardless of the cold or inclement weather, people would actually fall in line to door-buster events from different stores like Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Sears and what have you. Now usually, these door-buster events start early in the morning so queues can actually build up as early as the night before -- more likely, immediately after the Thanksgiving dinner. It is not uncommon to see people starting a line even 1 - 2 days before, camping out complete with tents and all!

Here is a compilation of interesting articles rounding up deals for the Thanksgiving sale. This is like a roundup of roundups. Have fun! Check out the Black Friday list from Engadget. Visit also CNet's Black Friday Deals page with links to reviews and discussions. See how Bing's Black Friday shopping page can help you decide. Yahoo! has a Black Friday Buyer's Guide for you, too!  Forbes Magazine presents deals in pictures . Check out also As I See Tech's Holiday List .  Here's a survival guide you might want to read while you're at it. Meanwhile, don't forget to also check out the Store . Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Manufacturers know that they cannot release a new product without assessing how ready the market is to embrace something new. One limiting factor is the MSRP on launch. If a reasonable price cannot be met, the product just has to stay in the lab.

XBox 360's Kinect is a darling. What makes it more exciting is the fact that many people are actually developing a lot of "hacks" around it. Not that they're doing anything that's entirely bad for Microsoft. These smart people are actually inventing more ways to use the technology at hand. It's marketed for games, yes, but it holds a lot of promise to redefining the "user interface".

LED backlit LCD TVs, or LED TVs, are the latest fad in the flat-screen TV genre. LED technology allows manufacturers to create thinner and more power-efficient televisions. LED TVs are basically LCD TVs that use LED instead of the traditional CCFL.

Here's a round up of As I See Tech's holiday lists for 2010. Leave a comment if you want to get more holiday lists. Holiday List: Everyday Mobile Products Holiday List: Digital Cameras Holiday List: TVs Holiday List: Desktop and Mobile Computers Holiday List: All Into Games, Games and Games!!! Find deals and more on-line so don't forget to check out the Store !

In preparation for the holiday season, there are people shortlisting a selection of game consoles and games to buy or upgrade to. Here's a rundown of some of the popular items to choose from.

In preparation for the holiday season, there are people shortlisting a selection of computers to buy or upgrade to. The list may include desktop, laptop and tablet/slate computers. Here's a rundown of some of the popular items to choose from.

In preparation for the holiday season, there are people shortlisting a selection of televisions to buy or upgrade to. The list may include 2D, 3D and Internet TVs. Here's a rundown of some of the popular items to choose from.

Here's the plan for the Holiday List this week: TVs; Desktop and Mobile Computers; Games, Games and Games!!! I'll be adding more categories along the way. Meanwhile, read the recent holiday lists: Everyday Mobile Products and Digital Cameras . Remember, there may be cheap deals on-line so don't forget to check out the Store .

In preparation for the holiday season, there are people shortlisting a selection of digital cameras to buy or upgrade to. The list may include point-and-shoots, compact systems and d-SLRs. Here's a rundown of some of the popular items to choose from.

In preparation for the holiday season, there are people shortlisting a selection of mobile products to buy or upgrade to. These mobile products may include phones, portable media players and e-readers. Here's a rundown of some of the popular items to choose from.

In the early years, software research and developments focused much on making the most out of the limited computing resources available. In a way, we could say that the programs and applications back then were engineered to efficiently maximize the limits of the machine it would run on. There was no surplus of computing power. The software that would run on the computer should be able to accomplish its task without requiring so much from the hardware. In fact, the software couldn't require anything from the hardware. It was the hardware that had the power to dictate its limits and the software adjusted accordingly.

I just have to say it. I am using Lotus Notes 8.5 in the office, and, to tell you the truth, it's just got to be downright the worst e-mail and collaboration client I have ever been forced to use! It just totally sucks big time!! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!!!

Windows Phone 7 reaches US stores today, November 8, 2010, around 2 weeks after they were released to Europe, Asia and Australia last October 21, 2010.

If there's one thing that's truly exciting in the gaming world this year, it's got to be Microsoft's Kinect for the XBox 360 which launched this month to stores in the US.

In the US, Windows Phone 7 will be released to stores on November 8, 2010. Microsoft is betting on Windows Phone 7 to be big. It's a new entry from a company who's been playing it safe in the mobile industry -- far, too, safe that they actually lost relevance.

When I saw Microsoft's "Really?" ads for Windows Phone 7, it made me think about what technology can do to many of us. There are a lot of reasons to be enamored by the new things that we can experience from a technology that we can take with us anywhere we go. However, if those reasons could mean missing out on life, then I suppose we should reflect and start to re-think our priorities.

Web logs, or blogs, started out as an on-line journal that allowed people to post articles about their respective interests. Blogs could cover any topics capable of capturing an audience that share the same interests as the blogger. What was really great about the blogging tools that came out was that, in addition to being available for free, it allowed many people to setup their own web site without the need to be technically savvy!

Did you ever wish your notebook is thinner, lighter, powerful AND cheaper? Then the Macbook Air is for you! Actually, to say that an Apple product is "cheaper" comes in as a surprise. Compared to a netbook, the MacBook Air is actually more expensive. However, with specs that could match a notebook, the 2010 release of MacBook Air becomes an attractive and competitive piece starting at $999. This price is rare for a product that can truly claim to be the slimmest, yet powerful, laptop.

Do you notice it? The hybrid hype is slowing down! There are no more new major models being announced. It seems like everyone's just waiting for the sales and numbers to come out. Everyone's playing safe!

Computers as we used to know it may be reduced to just a touchscreen monitor. It's not sci-fi. It can be real. Let's look at the trend shall we...

Google TV is being blocked to access content by some TV network and broadcaster owned web sites. The motivation is greed. Perhaps just stupid. But when almost a hundred million dollars are at stake, you can't just sit down and wait for things to happen only to realize the favor's going for Google alone... yeah, right!

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 features a unique experience called the Metro UI . This design philosophy drives the content-centric designs initially implemented to Windows Media Center and Zune. By bringing the Metro UI to Windows Phone, Microsoft is able to fully differentiate themselves in the mobile phone business.

The Playstation Move is Sony's answer to Nintendo's Wiimote and Microsoft's Kinect . I've tried playing PS3 Move with one of its flagship game called the Sports Champions . The technology and the game are amazing, fun and simply (highpitch) awesome!

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 hits the stores this October in Europe and Asia releasing with some of the most beautiful devices for the new mobile OS like the HTC 7 Mozart, Samsung Omnia 7 and LG Optimus 7. Unfortunately, these models won't be available in the US when Windows Phone 7 gets released this November.

I just read a transcript of Steve Job's recent speech delivered while celebrating Apple's recent $20 billion quarter news. There were some truths to his statements, but mostly, they were direct attacks to Apple's competitors. It's not unusual for a company to make compelling statements about its competitors. However, it should never be taken lightly -- specially when it could potentially affect the confidence of your customers, partners and stakeholders. I personally call this "acid marketing". A company drops an "acid". It could corrupt everything it touches as it spreads, unless someone would do something to neutralize the acid. By the time all of the acid has been neutralized, it is possible that the damages already done by the acid are irreversible.

If you look at the big picture, software solutions go through a cycle of its own as we evolve to adopting the software and what it can deliver, allowing us to use them like as if they are parts everything that we do everyday.

Part 1: Can Technology Really Make Our Life Simpler? Part 2: Can Technology Really Make Our Life Simpler? Part 3: Can Technology Really Make Our Life Simpler? As the population of smart phone owners continue to grow, the smart phone designs and models continue to grow in numbers as well. The smart phone is fast becoming like a computer, but in a small form factor. It's still primarily a phone, but even that would soon change...

Part 1: Can Technology Really Make Our Life Simpler? Part 2: Can Technology Really Make Our Life Simpler?  The cellphone, as the cellular phone was later called, spread like news! Everyone was willing to pay the extra dollars for the convenience of making calls as desired... and the inconvenience of getting calls when and where not desired. There were calls on the street. There were calls in the train. There were calls in the bus. There were calls in the meeting. There were calls in the theater. There were calls in the restroom...

Part 1: Can Technology Really Make Our Life Simpler? The cordless phone proved to be a hit! There's no need to rush to the phone anymore. You could reach for a phone as soon as it rang. You could reach for a phone almost the same instant you felt like calling someone. You could reach for the phone while cleaning the car in the garage. Your friends could wake you up at 2 AM for a late night party invite simply by calling your phone in the bedroom. It was convenient. It was like your world just got smaller. Or did you get bigger? Well, the living room was not getting bigger after all. With four cordless phones in the house, the house showed its true size... it was actually smaller than you thought. Now that the phone is within reach wherever you are in the house, or even outside in the garden or in the backyard, you came to a realization that would humble you forever: there were just too many phones in the house. Meanwhile, you could hear all four phones ringing at the same time....

Once upon a time, there was a phone. Although it enabled instant communication, there was one major drawback: the  phone stayed where you placed it. So, when you were away from the phone, and you came up with a brilliant idea that you wanted to share to your best friend who's living in another part of the town, there was no way to make a call immediately where and when you needed or wanted to. All the news and all the excitement would have to be held until you've driven through the traffic, parked your car in the garage and rushed to the shining black analog phone at the far corner of your living room -- which suddenly seemed bigger than how you remembered it earlier that morning. As soon as you reached the phone, you immediately lifted the handset, (literally) dialed the number and waited for the other line to answer. One ring... two rings... three rings. For a moment, in the middle of the third ring, your heart skipped a beat as soon as you heard that the phone on the oth...

Microsoft lost the mobile industry -- defeated pound per pound by Nokia, RIM Blackberry, Apple iPhone and Google Android. Microsoft had it coming... it was their fault. For a multi-billion dollar company, it is surprising to even figure that Microsoft can be schooled by a young player in the mobile business . The approach of Apple to aggressively penetrate the mobile market with iPhone paid well to surprise even the leaders at that time such as Motorola, Nokia, RIM and Palm to name a few. Further pushing Microsoft's Windows Mobile efforts down and out of the game. On the 11th day of October year 2010, Microsoft announces its second take to building a name in the mobile industry.

I use Opera 's web browser. Before Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), Mozilla Foundation Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari ever came out with tabbed browsers, Opera was already doing it since 2000. This is not the only "first" from Opera that some other web browser makers are claiming to be theirs.

Do you know what should hold you from getting a new smart phone this year? The answer comes in 2 alpha-numeric characters: 4G.

Here's a quick run down of some exciting new products to save up for the holidays. Mobile Apple iPhone 4 , Blackberry Torch , Samsung Galaxy S , HTC phones w/ Windows Phone 7 Tablet Apple iPad , Samsung Galaxy Tab , HP Slate w/ WebOS or Windows 7 TV Sony Bravia XDR HX909 Series 3D , Samsung Class 9000 Series 3D LED HDTV , Vizio TruLED LCD HDTV , Sony Google TV Camera Canon PowerShot SX30 IS , Canon EOS 60D , Nikon COOLPIX P100 , Nikon D7000 eReader Amazon Kindle , Barnes & Noble Nook Personally, I still have Modu , Hasselblad or Leica in my "forever" wish list. What's in your list?

Have you tried YouTube Leanback ? It's like YouTube on steroids! You visit the page, let it load and then you can just lean back as streams of videos are played automatically one after the other.

While writing this article, http://downrightnow.com/facebook reports a likely service disruption from Facebook. You might be tempted to check out http://blog.facebook.com but because Facebook is down, what do you expect? Meanwhile, people post their status through Twitter (or on other social networking accounts) about Facebook being down.

In my recent article , I focused on setting up an Internet TV with a basic TV, a PC and an Internet connection. The requirement of course is to dedicate at least one PC at home as the family's entertainment hub. If you have an XBox 360 already, you can hook that up as an extender so that you can still use the PC while the kids watch on the TV.

Here's a quick roundup of what's happening worldwide with some of the popular technologies we use everyday. There are some surprising trends building up here...

Windows Live Spaces is migrating to WordPress . I was able to migrate my Windows Live Space to WordPress with just a few clicks. The migration is a breeze! If you are a Windows Live Space user, check out your space and you should be prompted to migrate your account to WordPress. When you're done, your old "spaces.live" URL will automatically redirect to your new "wordpress.com" page.

When I recently visited Best Buy , I was so amazed by one of the displays: a 55" ultra-slim Samsung 240Hz 3D LED HD Internet TV . It features a touchscreen remote control and a unique wall mount design. Simply put, the beast is beautiful!

Humanoid robot designs had been man's fascination some millenniums before Leonardo Da Vinci even came up with his design in the 1400s. It took around 500 years later for the term "robot" to be invented by Karel Kapek, a play author. It was then followed shortly by the term "robotics" coined by Isaac Asimov , a science fiction author, to refer to the science and study of robots. I believe that something is important if it has a name. If you think about it, 500 years to give it a name demonstrates how slow the development of robots had been. To date, more than 50 years later, we are nowhere close to The Bicentennial Man .

RIM 's Blackberry has always been about enabling business. Now, RIM announces the Playbook , a touchscreen tablet, also targeting the business user market.

If you look at Microsoft's upcoming Windows Phone 7 , its features and the planned business model for it, you should notice how much Microsoft copied from Apple's iPhone.

The future of personal computing will be like this: The " cloud " is the OS. Devices are merely interfaces to the cloud. Users login to the cloud. Applications and software are accessed through the cloud. Data, content and information are accessed through the cloud. 

Have you heard of Modu ? It's one of the best idea ever made to modularizing our digital life. Modu is a versatile lightweight device which can be inserted in to "casings" that can present itself as a personal oriented, business oriented or media oriented device. The beauty if Modu is the fact that you can re-define it without the extra cost of purchasing an entire new device.

I am interested in getting a hybrid car (HEV). A plug-in hybrid car in fact (PHEV). As of this writing, (P)HEV's are more expensive than the non-hybrid counterpart. That fact alone makes my friend ask the question: in 3 or 5 years of owning that (P)HEV, is it going to be worth the savings to pay for that extra price? A good question actually. A very intelligent question as a matter of fact! Which brought me to researching...

We tend to complicate simple things only to realize later that we need to simplify them back. But once that happens, we know that maturity is in the horizon. Microsoft released the Internet Explorer 9 Beta this week with many positive reviews. Not surprisingly, the browser has been reduced to a simple window for tabbed documents. Although the minimalist design was pioneered by Google via Chrome, Internet Explorer 9's implementation may attract converts back to Microsoft's browser that's specially designed with special features when used on Windows 7 .

Amateur photography was brought to mass commercial boom with the popularity of digital cameras . Nowadays, it is not surprising to meet people walking around with a dSLR hanging around their necks -- pitiful how they spent all their money on the camera that they can't afford a decent SLR bag . Although photography was originally considered to be one of the most expensive hobbies to have, it is no longer the case today. As more and more variants of the digital camera gets introduced, it allowed itself to extend its own market to various customer needs and preferences.

What I really want is a single mobile device with the following: Full featured mobile smart phone Full featured mobile camera and audio / video recorder Full featured mobile media player (photos, audios and videos) Full featured mobile gaming console Full featured mobile e-book reader  Full featured GPS device And everything nice...  Is it really hard to make one?

Electric vehicles are here! They come as full plug-in electric, plug-in hybrid and hybrid . As more and more companies and governments get interested in the viability of electric powered vehicles, the infrastructure won't be far away to being 100% ready worldwide.