TECHNOLOGY
Technology, especially during Covid, has become an important part of our lives. Whether it was entertainment, staying fit, working or studying, we have started to spend countless hours testing, tweaking, and playing with a number of gadgets and applications technology.
So here are some of the best products of 2021.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3
There’s no sacrificing on processing power or features: the Flip3 comes with an octa-core processor inside, plenty of RAM and a 120Hz display. Plus it’s waterproof. Folding the phone splits the display in two, so you can, for example, sit the phone on the table to watch videos. There’s also a small screen on the back so that you can see notifications when your phone is shut.
Sony HT-A9
Sony’s new speaker system is designed for those that want to get serious home cinema surround sound, without having to spend time and effort draping wires around your living room. The HT-A9 system is essentially a set of four wireless speakers that talk to a control box plugged directly into your TV. Each device has a tweeter, a sub and an upfiring speaker to power the full Dolby Atmos experience. Pair these with a Sony TV and the system will also use your TV’s speakers to add to the sound.
SRS-NB10 Wireless Neckband Speaker
What if putting on music didn’t have to mean shutting yourself off from the world? Sony’s new Neckband speaker gives your ears a rest and sits on your shoulders, firing your audio towards your ears in a focused beam. There’s a built-in microphone and Bluetooth connectivity, which means you can take calls or listen to music up to 30m away from your computer – no more excusing yourself from a meeting to make a cup of tea. You also needn’t worry about disturbing your partner or housemates, as Sony claims the upward angle of the full-range speaker optimises sound for your ears only! Weighing only 113g, the neckband is light and comfortable.
LG Signature OLED R
When you turn this TV off, the display just rolls itself up, and tucks into the small speaker cabinet below. Alternatively in ‘Line View’ mode, it shrinks down to about a fifth of its height to work as a display for the integrated sound bar. It’s an achingly cool party trick that’s made possible by OLED technology. This kind of display doesn’t require backlights – the OLED crystals generate their own light when a current is passed through them. This means they can, if manufactured in a certain way, be built into flexible screens. But manufacturing is still fairly expensive.
Meeting Owl Pro
As the world continues to work remotely and online meetings become a part of everyday life, the tech has stepped up to make the process more efficient and immersive, with the meeting owl pro being a great example of that. Fitted with a 360 degree camera, eight microphones, and a speaker, it aims to replicate an in-person meeting while separated from colleagues. With an 18-foot audio pickup radius and an automatic zoom that responds to who is speaking at the time, it’s a sophisticated bit of kit that integrates with Zoom, Slack, Google Hangouts and more.
Sony FX3
Sony’s FX3 is the smallest, cheapest cinema camera the company has ever made. It’s built for filmmakers, rather than photographers, so it can handle recording ultra HD video at 120fps for long periods. It comes bundled with a handle that’s ideal for shooting from low angles and it adds extra sockets for plugging in different audio inputs. There’s also in-body image stabilisation for when you’re “running and gunning”.
Samsung Smart Monitor M7 series
This new ultra-HD display from Samsung ticks every box. The M7 is essentially a hybrid between a monitor for a Mac or PC and a smart TV. By day it can connect to your laptop via a single USB-C cable, which will power it too; there’s no need to plug it into the wall. And by night, it can pull a stream from your smartphone via Wi-Fi or access your streaming service of choice via the built-in Smart Hub software. The M7 comes with a TV remote too and built-in speakers for some reasonable sound. All this means is that if you decide to invest in improving your home workspace, the monitor needn’t go back into the cupboard when it’s safe to go outside again.
Theragun Prime
Massage guns are taking the fitness gadget world by storm. These percussive therapy devices target sore muscles with rapid-fire pulses, aiming to provide the benefits of massage therapy from the comfort of your home. The Theragun Prime is part of the fourth generation of Theragun massage guns. It’s quieter, has five built-in speeds (from 1,750 rpm to 2,400 rpm) and comes with five closed-cell foam massage gun head attachments.
Twitter features
The company kicked things off with Birdwatch in January of this year, which allowed users to flag misleading tweets, write a note for context and even allowed users to rate the quality of the note. In February 2021, Twitter allowed users to send voice messages to anyone via direct messages. Twitter rolled out an option to upload 4K images on iOS and Android.
It also added an option that enabled users to hear a recording of their Spaces session. It has now rolled out larger preview images for tweets after the way it cropped images ran into criticism. Further, Twitter is now testing a Communities feature that allows people to band together in a group, where they can talk about topics that appeal to one another.
Ticketed Spaces allows creators to earn money by hosting live-audio sessions on Spaces. Creators can sell “tickets” for a Space they will host in the future, and interested listeners can reserve a spot in the discussion by buying a ticket.
AI smarts will be used to figure out if what you are about to tweet contains any strong language. If the AI detects any words that might potentially flare up an argument, it will ask you to reconsider. Moreover, Twitter will now clearly label tweets that are controversial or misleading by tagging them and providing context as to why the tweet could be misleading.
Last but not the least, you can now choose who gets to respond to a tweet that you are about to make, by limiting to people who follow you or you follow them or by only allowing people you mention in the tweet to respond.
Powerful services and software
Technology keeps reimagining life, society and the world; it was certainly critical in connecting us virtually so that we could collaborate, educate, entertain, socialise and encourage each other from afar. Netflix remained the top choice for TV and movie streaming in 2021 thanks to its ease of use, lack of commercials and original content while Disney Plus provided great value with thousands of Disney-owned TV shows and movies in a clean, easy-to-use app. Microsoft’s multiplatform game service has evolved to be a formidable rival for your Netflix dollars; Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is an all-you-can-play video game subscription service, which delivers something for everyone who plays games, and now encompasses console and PC game downloads, access to online multiplayer services, a deal with gaming giant EA and a cloud-based service that streams games to nearly any device. And once only found in business settings, Zoom’s video chat service became the way millions of people connected during the pandemic, inserting the question “Wanna Zoom?” into the popular lexicon.
Trends for 2022
Technology today is evolving at a rapid pace, enabling faster change and progress, causing an acceleration of the rate of change. What does this mean for you? It means staying current with emerging technologies and latest technology trends. And it means keeping your eyes on the future to know which skills you’ll need to know to secure a safe job tomorrow and even learn how to get there.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
AI is already known for its superiority in image and speech recognition, navigation apps, smartphone personal assistants, ride-sharing apps and so much more. Other than that AI will be used further to analyse interactions to determine underlying connections and insights, to help predict demand for services like hospitals enabling authorities to make better decisions about resource utilisation, and to detect the changing patterns of customer behaviour by analysing data in near real-time, driving revenues and enhancing personalized experiences. The AI market will grow to a $190 billion industry by 2025 with global spending on cognitive and AI systems reaching over $57 billion in 2022.
Edge Computing
Edge computing can be used to process time-sensitive data in remote locations with limited or no connectivity to a centralised location. In those situations, edge computing can act like mini datacenters. It will increase as use of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices increases. By 2022, the global edge computing market is expected to reach $6.72 billion. And this new technology trend is only meant to grow and nothing less, creating various jobs, primarily for software engineers.
Quantum Computing
Quantum computers are now a multitude times faster than regular computers and huge brands like Splunk, Honeywell, Microsoft, AWS, Google and many others are now making innovations in the field of Quantum Computing. This amazing technology trend is involved in preventing the spread of the coronavirus, and to develop potential vaccines, thanks to its ability to easily query, monitor, analyse and act on data, regardless of the source. Another field where quantum computing is finding applications is banking and finance, to manage credit risk, for high-frequency trading and fraud detection.
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)
VR immerses the user in a simulated environment while AR enhances their environment. AR and VR have enormous potential in training, entertainment, education, marketing, and even rehabilitation after an injury. Either could be used to train doctors to do surgery, offer museum goers a deeper experience, enhance theme parks, or even enhance marketing. The global AR and VR market is expected to grow to $209.2 billion by 2022, only creating more opportunities and welcoming more professionals ready for this game-changing field.
Touch gives us a deeper understanding of the things which cannot be fully experienced by sight or hearing. That is where Tactile Virtual Reality comes into play. It combines the use of several types of technologies including sensors, advanced optics, etc. bundled into a single device that provides the capability to overlay augmented digital content into your real-time space.
Cyber Security
With so many organisations undergoing huge digital transformations, awareness of the ongoing looming presence of cyberattacks continues to grow – not only for large organisations but also for small businesses. Now, Cybersecurity is nothing new but its trends definitely are!
Virtual Dispersive Network (VDN) is a unique approach to cybersecurity, wherein a signal is transmitted in short bursts or quantum packets, which can’t be covertly read without disrupting their content. Basically, no one can intercept data sent to you without introducing some noise in it.
Blockchain Cybersecurity is a more modular, responsive security approach by centralising orchestration and distributing enforcement. In the simplest of terms, blockchain can be described as data you can only add to, not take away from, or change. Hence the term “chain” because you’re making a chain of data. With blockchain, you don’t need a trusted third-party to oversee or validate transactions.
Big Data Analytics
New trends such as X-Analytics are being used to find solutions to challenges, including climate change, disease prevention and wildlife protection. Big Data also gives us interesting trends like Decision Intelligence which provides a framework to help data engineers to design, model, execute and monitor decision models and processes in the context of business outcomes and behaviour. Amazon, Netflix, Starbucks, Spotify, Google, and Adobe are just some of the companies investing in Big Data Analytics.
Compiled by SZ
