The world of gaming saw the creation of the motion-controlled Nintendo Wii, X-box 360 and hardware powerhouse PlayStation 3. Everyone was “bowling” with the Wiimote and fighting with light sabers until Microsoft came out with the Kinect for X-box 360 and the game changed. As graphics and sound developed far beyond those of the ’90s, televisions have kept up with them. You can now watch movies and play video games on 3D high-definition televisions and even see them in realistic 3D on the big screen.

This could easily be considered the decade of the smartphone. Perhaps, no other medium has come so far so fast. Blackberry started it all by syncing e-mail and calendar with my computer, and then Apple revolutionized smartphones by adding real Internet browsing and hundreds of thousands of apps for everything from shopping and maps to games and sexy women in bikinis. Just when you thought Apple was going to corner the smartphone market, Android came in, and while it hasn’t overtaken the iPhone yet, it’s gaining a following.

This decade put the final nail on the paperback coffin, with millions of e-readers being sold. Kindle and the like can download books directly to the reader, as well as get the daily New York Times. Entire bookshelves can be downsized to a single tablet reader.

If there is any gadget this year that has the opportunity to revolutionize the future of electronics, it’s the tablet pads that have taken the world by storm. Reminiscent of something from “Star Trek,” the iPad and others are quickly making the main purpose of a cell phone talking… again. With larger screens, more memory and new ones with amazing features being developed, these machines will likely lead the gadget revolution of 2011 and beyond.

Gadgets have become not only an important part of our lives, but also an integral part. Our everyday lives are filled with gadgets of every size and shape, and as technology develops, that will only continue. Enjoy the New Year, everyone. It’s going to be filled with the most amazing gadgets ever seen.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/ejk/2024478414

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Sadly, not every teen gets the same deal, and many die in tragic car crashes because of reckless driving. Ford’s new upgrade to the MyKey technology gives parents the option to set the maximum speed limit for the car to between 60 and 80 miles per hour.

So, if your child spends all his time on the highway, then you can set the max speed of the 60 miles per hour, and if they are heading on the freeway, then you can set it for 65. This is some major parental control technology that will inevitably save lives and, at the same time, cause serious teenage tantrums. I can just hear it now: “You’re ruining my life!”

As the parent of three boys, one of which will probably try cliff jumping by the time he’s 10, I am fairly scared about the day they earn their licenses. If they are anything like me, then they will try to do many reckless and crazy things that I will never know about.

I can guarantee you that the day my oldest gets his license, I hope and pray this technology is available on the car we are driving. If I had my way, then I would probably set it for like 25 miles per hour.

The MyKey upgrade also allows parents to limit the satellite radio channels their children can listen to. Satellite radio has several channels that have explicit lyrics, and teens love to have the f-word thumping as they go down the street.

They can still have the windows rattling, but at least it will bleep out all the bad words. I am sure that by the time my kids get to that age, explicit lyrics will likely be on the regular radio. I guess I am just going to have to take the stereo out so he can belt out lyrics from the window. That will be hilarious to see. After all, isn’t it the right of all parents to publicly humiliate their children?

Maybe by the time my kids are driving, they will have cars made out Nerf material so they can never get hurt. I know, even I couldn’t let my children drive around in a Nerf car… or could I?

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/wendypiersall/3202049022

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I have never been much of a smoker I have seen too many of my family members suffer from the addiction and the health issues that came from it. Many of the people who smoke try to quit the habit at some point in their lives, often several times, and they can’t seem to break free from the addiction.

There has been nicotine gum, the nicotine patch, medication and now the electronic cigarette. I did a little research, and there are many brands and a starter pack of a cigarette, charger and nicotine vapor cartridges, all costing between $60 and $100, which is a substantial initial investment. The cartridges last about the equivalent of two packs of standard cigarettes, and over time, you apparently make it up in savings because the cartridges are less expensive.

Proponents say the e-cig is a safer alternative to smoking, because you get the nicotine, as in the gum and patch, without the other poisons that are present in standard cigarettes. They also say that the act of smoking is just as much a part of the smoking experience as the nicotine, and the electronic cigarette helps by giving people that as well.

There have been reports of the possibility of inhaling solvents as well as the nicotine in some brands and that this is less of a stop-smoking aid and more of a substitute. You end up becoming addicted to the e-cig just as much as the regular ones. In defense of the electronic cigarette, there are varying amounts of nicotine in the cartridges, so you can choose to purchase those with less nicotine and slowly wean yourself off.

I have seen a few people use these out on the street, but I don’t think it has gained a wide range of use yet. It may be bigger in the more urban areas, but in middle America, you’re more likely to see a pack of Marlboros than an electronic cigarette.

I would love to hear from other people out there who have tried these and what kind of results they have had. As far as gadgets go, these are truly unique, and I wonder if they actually work to help stop smoking or if you just end up substituting cigarettes for electronic cigarettes.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/fred_dela/2233912349

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Do you remember the days before 3G coverage when we were forced to use tiny screens and actually push buttons and all we could really surf was out e-mail and a few sites designed for mobile Internet browsing. You remember those days? That’s when we actually used the phone to call people.

When 3G hit and phones were able to actually surf the web in its entirety, the game changed and we grew to not only love our new freedoms but also to covet and expect them. Soon, you could watch videos and television shows on the phone all while waiting in line for your groceries.

The major networks spent billions and billions of dollars to upgrade their infrastructure all the while offering unlimited data plans at a relatively cheap price. They made their networks better so we could watch Netflix from our phones and then seemingly paid the bill. Uh, yeah. Not so much.

The data usage on smartphones has doubled since last year mostly because of video and its causing the networks to constantly upgrade their infrastructure. They have spent more than 50 billion on upgrades and that’s going to continue as we continue to want faster and more reliable service.

Here’s the bad part, we’re going to have to start paying for it. The days of all-you-can-download rates are going the way of the payphone. AT&T has already begun charging extra for going over 2 gigabytes of data each month. That translates to about 6-12 hours of video each month.

That may sound like a lot of time, but you will surprised how fast those 5 minute YouTube videos can add up not to mention watching last night’s 30 Rock while on the way to work in the morning. Sprint is charging an extra $10 for 4G and things are only going to get worse from here.

As people start using tablets for watching videos and more, they are going to have to once again upgrade and then you’ll see prices really start to soar. It’s all fine if you have WiFi, but watch out if you are a fan of using your 3G network.

My guess is it will just become another part of living in the digital age. Now if you don’t mind, I need to catch up on some Dr. Who on my iPad.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/asthmahelper/5184522211

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When the e-reader first debuted a few years ago, I thought it was a concept that just wouldn’t take off. Anyone who has tried to read a book on a computer and felt the headache afterward may understand my feelings.

When a friend bought one and I finally got to see how it looked and worked, I have to admit, I was impressed. He had the New York Times downloaded to his e-reader every day and had several books already on it.

It was at this point when I realized that reading both newspapers and books was going to be changed forever because of this little tablet. Amazon.com recently sent out a press release explaining how its Kindle had surpassed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as its highest-selling product in the history of the company.

Tablets like the Galaxy and iPad are sure to have Kindle or other apps in the future, and the technology will only get more advanced. Soon, bookshelves of text will be converted into digital formats that will all be housed on a single server.

Libraries, bookstores and newspapers will become a thing of the past, just like phone booths are today. You can usually still find a phone booth every once in a while, but it seems so out of place. Students will download textbooks onto their e-readers, and people will be able to read, check their e-mail and blog, all while reading the newest book by bestselling author Brock Cooper. (What? It could happen…)

Madonna once sang about a material world, but that doesn’t really apply anymore. We are no longer living in a material world, but instead, a digital one. Material objects are giving way to tiny little bits of code that run every part of our lives. E-readers are simply the next natural extension, and I am looking forward to how the new world is going to shape up.

As the year comes to a close, I can only wonder what the end of 2020 will be like.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/ivyfield/3510266058

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As I got a little older, I began become more sneaky in my gift guessing. I would come down at night and sneak a peek in a corner of the wrapping paper, then I would lift the tape and finally, I ended up just unwrapping the present and rewrapping it.

The first year I dared to unwrap the present was the year I had begged and pleaded to get Sega Genesis for Christmas. This was Sega’s foray into the 16-bit gaming genre and came with the game Altered Beast, which was my favorite above all others in the arcade.

Halfway through December, I had already taken up the corner and realized that the Genesis was mine, but I just couldn’t stop. I was so excited to get it that one night I ended up unwrapping the present so I could see the whole box and read all about the system and the games.

It came time to wrap the present up again and I reveled in how clever I was. I had seen my present and no one was the wiser. Sadly, I did not realize how complicated it would be to wrap up a present when I was 7-year-old. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to look right. It was bad. Finally, I ended up shoving all the paper under the box so that the top looked flat and well wrapped, but the bottom was a mess. I just prayed that no one would move the box before Christmas.

The days passed, and it appeared that my little ruse had succeeded. On Christmas morning, I was so excited to open up my Genesis. They made me open it up last, of course, and I assumed it was because it was the most expensive and largest gift. I was wrong.

I ripped the paper off and saw the box that I had gazed at several days before. I took of the lid ready see my Genesis and found… a log. Yes, a log. My ruse had not worked, and they realized I had been sneaking into my present.

They had replaced my gaming system with the log to teach me a lesson about snooping after presents. Everybody was in on it, and it was caught all on video. It had become a story that regularly at my mother’s house around the holidays.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! And remember… no snooping.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/ciroduran/3090301774

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Yesterday morning, Skype wasn’t working. When I could log on, it couldn’t find the other friends on my list. I couldn’t chat, and all my meetings ended up getting canceled. The outage lasted throughout the day and wasn’t resolved until I got online this morning.

This was a universal outage that affected everybody, and for an intrepid writer like me, it put a cramp in my style. The problem was a software issue that hit their supernodes. The supernodes are what the program uses to recognize who of your friends is online.

The problem was mostly mixed by this morning, and more than 10 million people were already signed in, but it may still take a little while for some people to be able to get online. The company didn’t say how long it would take for the program to be 100 percent operational, but given the number of complaints, they it won’t likely be long.

The outage forced me to use that most archaic of human devices, a phone, to talk to people yesterday. I am writer, so typing away on a Skype message is much easier for me than having an actual phone conversation. (I know you can use Skype for a phone, but I don’t use it like that.)

The only time I ever use the phone anymore is to order food from the places that don’t have online ordering and to talk to my mother, who refuses to try anything electronic. She still has me use the remote control for the television when I go home so that she doesn’t have to.

Skype’s back up and running for me, so no more phone, and I can once again thrive in my bubble of social awkwardness. You would think that after all these years I would get over such trivial issues as nervousness talking to people, but the smooth wordsmith is gone once you get him away from a keyboard. I’m still dead sexy though. (Just sayin’.)

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It would have been much easier if I had a tape recorder; I could have used it and just went back over the tape later in the office. I understand the need for the unobtrusive nature of justice, and neither the defense nor the prosecution wants to have some stupid reason for a mistrial.

Things have suddenly gotten a little easier for reporters in Wales and England after an official proclamation that they can tweet court reporting live using silent portable devices. Reporters must first formally request the ability to use Twitter in every court case and then only if the device is silent and will not disrupt proceedings.

This is a major coup for reporters who would otherwise have to leave the courtroom periodically to live blog or tweet something outside and potentially miss important proceedings. The law is still rather new, and only time will tell how it will be used and abused. We reporters are fond of breaking or bending the rules as far as we can.

In the U.S., cell phones are not even allowed into courtrooms, at least in the ones I frequented as a reporter, so tweeting and messaging a court case is impossible. It will take sweeping changes in the sensibilities of the U.S. court system to allow such a law here in the states.

U.S. reporters are far more aggressive than U.K. reporters, though. It would be only a matter of time before someone messaged instead of tweeted and then someone will use Bluetooth to actually write the story and some brazen reporter will try to make a phone call during a tense or dramatic moment so they can scoop everyone else.

Yes, being a former reporter has made me cynical, and I believe that if you give someone an inch, then they will take a yard.

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When Google came along, it became a battle between the two sites for supremacy, and after a few years, Yahoo! settled itself into second place and seemed content. Google came out with all their extras like documents, maps, etc., and Yahoo! tweaked its site, adding music videos and other extras, but it never could overtake Google.

Recently, Yahoo! felt the pinch of the tight economy and released 4 percent of its workforce in addition to dropping Buzz, Delicious and AltaVista. Buzz I can completely understand, because it never did take off and become what the developers wanted it to be. AltaVista, who even remembers AltaVista? The surprising cut was the social bookmarking site Delicious.

Delicious was created in 2003 as its own entity, but was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. While still a favorite among bookmarkers, its traffic has seen a steady decline since 2005, as a number of social bookmarking sites began sprouting up, and the thrill of bookmarking began to wear off.

What do these layoffs and program cuts mean for Yahoo!? Could this be the beginning of a death knell for one of the first major search engines on the Internet? Yahoo! has weathered much over the years, from bad economies to dot-com catastrophes, and I don’t expect this little hiccup to bring it down completely.

Yahoo! has many options left, including Chapter 11 bankruptcy and further cuts, and there is always the hope that it might be planning to roll out new services down the line. How awesome would it be for Google to eventually be toppled by Yahoo! Yeah, I know it’s a pipedream, but Google needs to be taken down a few pegs.

My guess is that they are restructuring to better manage the assets that are working well. I am still a fan of Yahoo! and use it regularly. I still use my yahoo.com e-mail account that I have had since college, even though now it’s mostly for spammy stuff that I don’t really want to read, anyway. It may not have the popularity that it once did, but I don’t see Yahoo! going anywhere for a long time.

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Almost 30 years later, a much-anticipated follow-up movie premieres today, and the video game Tron: Evolution is already in stories. It got me thinking about when “Tron” first came out and the arcade game that was developed to follow the movie. I frequented a lot of arcades back then, and that game got me hooked far more than Donkey Kong or Pac Man.

Perhaps the most fun about it was that it was four games in one. It wasn’t just the same game over and over again with maybe a new terrain or faster enemies; there were four completely different games. While that may pale in comparison to the Mario Party and Carnival Games of today, back then, it was unheard of.

Everybody had their favorite game, and the one that they couldn’t stand but played anyway because it was the only way to beat the game. The arcade game featured black lights and fluorescent lights, and it just looked amazing on the arcade floor.

You have to remember that arcades of the ’80s were nothing like the arcades of today. They were loud and dark and filled to the brim with people. For teens and younger, the arcade was the only place to go and play for cheap. All you needed was a few dollars in quarters.

Tron was a far departure from other video games of that time, but it soon became something of a revolutionary for mini games. Developers finally realized that people wanted more than just the same gameplay over and over again, and this led to many of the characteristics of today’s games.

Imagine how games would be different if they didn’t incorporate the changes that “Tron” started. Imagine no games within a game, or no bonus rounds, and how boring things would be. I am not putting “Tron” up on a gaming pedestal or saying that is was single-handedly responsible for the changes, but it did have a major impact.

I doubt the new “Tron” will have the impact of the old one, but it will be nice to get in the light cycles again.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/revgeorge/26149731

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