TechRoundup
Tech 2008, at its best
Today is December 26. Five days from now we will be bidding farewell to 2008 and welcoming 2009 with open arms. This year the world saw Barack Obama being elected as the first African-American President of the United States. We saw a series of dreadful terrorist and bomb attacks throughout the world with the most recent one taking place in India injuring and killing hundreds. The much-awaited and much-talked-about 2008 Summer Olympics took place in Beijing. Bhutan held its first ever general elections while Bangladesh is looking forward to holding the 9th parliamentary elections. Also our newspaper, The Daily Star, has given its website a brand new look making it more interactive and informative. Throughout the year, different incidents in various walks of life evoked different kinds of emotion within us. But it is the discoveries in one particular sector that has always made us smile and be happy and proud. That is the world of technology- which once again has created wonders and magic. Lets have a quick run down the memory lane and see what this year had to offer for all the tech addicts. I assure you none of us ever expected that fitness and fun would ever go hand in hand. But in 2008, Nintendo surprised us by presenting Wii Fit. This is a highly interactive training programme through which weight loss becomes almost effortless. This device is built-in with different kinds of hardcore and gruelling exercises. Does that scare you? Well, I guess it shouldn't, since all of the activities have been designed in such a manner that you will definitely enjoy working out with Wii Fit. Its sleek and elegant balance board peripheral measures the distribution of your weight and pressure. It allows you to shed a tonnes of kilos and pounds and that too at only $90 approximately without even going to the gym. Up next we have peek, which has been referred as this year's "Gotta-have gadget!" It's been designed for everyone, literally, especially people who have a constant job of sitting upright and sending and replying to e-mails 24/7. Peek is only a mobile phone dedicated solely to e-mail. By spending only $100 on the phone itself along with a low monthly fee of $20, you can have access to your e-mail day and night through peek. Each year Apple Macintosh has something up it's sleeves. And this year it was no different. This year Apple brought you the new, amazingly thin and stylish Macbook Air. It's regarded as the tinniest notebook (12.8 x 0.16-0.76 inch) that exists in the world. This notebook has got immense storage capacity and the graphics are simply breathtaking. The gadget is built-in with a bigger and better multi-touch technology and built-in with an iSight camera that is hardly noticeable making your life simpler, ensuring a completely wireless lifestyle. This device is simply beyond imagination. It has almost everything that you desire. And it can be all yours from $1,799 to $2,499. Following the Macbook Air notebook we have got the Livescibe Pulse Smartpen, a device developed to help everyone especially students not miss a single thing while taking notes. The Livescribe Pulse smartpen uses an integrated microphone and a radical method to record and retrieve audio. All you do is write down your notes on a custom microdot notebook and simply tap on the handwritten notes to get the pen to play the appropriate audio. It's that simple. This device is different and it will change the way of taking notes and will definitely make a difference in everyone's life at only $149 approx. If you have a flair for taking pictures and travelling all around, then the next device will definitely grab your attention. We are talking about the Eye-Fi Explore SD Card. This is a 2GB card with a built Wi-Fi allowing you to upload pictures you take using your camera to any of your preferred online photo service, anytime and anyplace. Also this allows you to transfer pictures to your personal computer without the hassle of any wires. One special attribute about the Eye-Fi card is that it allows you to geographically tag the snap clicked by you so that you can go back over the time when you actually had taken the picture. Doesn't retracing your memories sound really exciting? So if you are a kind of person who just takes picture and forgets to share, then you better get the Eye-Fi Explore SD card for only $130 now, before people start haunting you for making lame excuses. Intel is always trying something different so that they can take the entire computer system to another level. And this year they have come up with the Intel Atom Processor. The Intel Atom processor is the smallest chip built using the world's smallest transistor (47 million transistors on a single 26 x 26 mm chip). Tech addicts were amazed at the processor, which was based on an entirely new design, built for low power (ranging from below 1 watt to 2.5 watts) and designed specifically for a new wave of Mobile Internet Devices and simple, low-cost personal computers. Regardless of its size, the Intel Atom Processor has the capacity of reducing the power levels of computers to highly portable devices creating wonders. The past few years has been partially dedicated to smartphones. And how could this year not follow the same trend. T-Mobile brings you T-Mobile G1- the first smartphone using Google's Android operating system. The speciality of the phone is it allows you to experience the web at its best, wherever you go, in conjunction with all the different kinds of applications and features of the phone. The features of the "Google Phone" are endless and it can be yours to enjoy at only $180 approx with the additional monthly service fees. Next in line is a solid state drive. This is a data storage device that stores data and information using a solid state memory. Because this gadget follows the interface of typical hard disk drives, replacing them is a piece of cake for a solid state drive. Solid state drive has the ability to change the entire computing frontier as the possibilities revolving around this device are endless. Passionate drivers will no longer need to have an eagle's eye to drive. And I guarantee you, without a doubt they will love what Nissan has brought to them this year. It's the world's ever first Around View Monitor. The gadget offers a bird's eye view of the vehicle and its surroundings in real time. The system has been designed in such a way that it is easy to see, use and understand. Using 4 separate cameras, the monitor displays an image of the vehicle from above. This gadget will come handy for people who struggle while parking as using the monitor you can precisely and easily park the car making driving enjoyable and less stressful. Another latest gadget, which is being the talk of the town, is the Amazon Kindle launched by Amazon.com. This is a compact electronic book with instant wireless access to 115,000 books sold by Amazon, an audiobook player, and a wireless Web browser. Amazon Kindle is all about reading and if you are a person who adores reading then what are you waiting for. Own a Kindle at $395 and have a pocket full of books and enjoy to the max. 2008 has been a rocking and superb year for the world's technological advancement. The tech of 2008 was catered for all genres of people- both tech addicts and tech amateurs. Time has come to bid adieu to 2008 with a big smile on our face and hope that 2009 is no less. So lets welcome 2009 and look forward to a year with the hope that technological development and enhancement will be creating a lot of buzz taking the world a few steps closer to an era of digitalisation.
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