The most anticipated technologies of 2010

With the beginning of a new decade, we can expect a lot from the world of Information Technology. There are many ideas and projects ready to undermine our worldviews this year. Some of them will be completely new, and some will be hatched for a long time and their time is about to come. Of the ten technologies that we will now consider, more than half are mobile. But today's web is hard to imagine without them.

1. Tablet

The most anticipated product of this year. The mythical “pill”, on which everyone seems to work. Wonderful instances for Android were presented , many different concepts and of course the Apple iSlate tablet (or whatever ) . And if Steve Jobs is not working on this “pill”, then it's time to take it, because everything else will be a big disappointment. In fact, it is not clear why we need another gadget between a laptop and an iPhone, but this is only until the moment it comes out. Indeed, at a time when all applications and data are moving to the web, this gadget becomes your best guide. He also remains an excellent “reader”, player, “typewriter”, etc.

2. Geolocation

The combination of GPS in mobile phones, social networks and innovative mobile applications turns geolocation into the most promising fitcha of any gadgets and applications. And this applies not only to entertainment, such as Foursquare or Gowalla. The introduction of GeoAPI in services such as twitter, simplegeo and facebook turns this toy into a useful tool with information layers and positioning. Just recently, Twitter launched its own API and acquired Mixer Labs, the company that created GeoAPI .

3. Real time search

After issuing permissions for broadcasting streams in real time on Twitter, Facebook and myspace, Google and Bing quickly began to prepare their services. But so far this search is being finalized and is not displayed on the main page. I hope for 2010 the search engines will sort out the issue. In addition to the main players in this market, there are startups such as Collecta, OneRiot and Topsy, which can compete and bring new ideas. Also, real-time search can become the basis for navigating the web, especially with twitter and facebook. By combining the request with other filters, users will be able to receive not only the latest, but also the most relevant information on their request.

4. Chrome OS

In November, Google provided its own operating system, expected only this year. This is the most powerful Google attack against windows. All web applications are built into the operating system itself, which allows you to run them and work with them much faster than with browser counterparts. According to rumors, Google is already working on its own netbook , which will show what this WebOS is capable of . It seems that this OS will be ideal for the already mentioned TabletPC. Chrome is a risky bet, but still has enormous potential.

5. HTML5

The web is based on HTML, the next version of which will be HTML5 . Many browsers already include support for new elements, and as soon as the new standard gains popularity, we will no longer need to use plug-ins like flash or silverlight to watch videos, animation on the site, drag-n-drop, data storage or desktop application features. All this will be based on web standards. According to my forecasts, many sites will begin to implement HTML5 features during 2010.

6. Mobile video

With camcorders built into the latest iPhone models and similar devices, real-time video broadcasting applications are becoming increasingly attractive. Moreover, broadcasting in both directions. With the gradual transition of cellular networks to 3G (somewhere already on 4G), mobile video expects even greater success.

7. Augmented Reality

One of the best ways to use your cellular camera is to use augmented reality applications . They add a new information layer to the existing reality with tweets, blog posts, social media info, photos, etc. Currently, representatives of augmented reality are Sekai Camera , Layar , GraffitiGeo and even Yelp .

8. Mobile commerce

Slowly, mobile phones are overgrown with the functionality of ordinary PCs and commercial operations become possible. One of the prospects for 2010 is the introduction of payments and transfers via cellular. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey launched Square's project to turn an iPhone into a credit card reader. Verifone has a competing product created with Mophie . The idea is that the cell could become a point of sale associated with all the necessary payment systems.

9. Android

Last year, nearly two dozen Android phones were released, including the Verizone Droid. In the next couple of days, the Google Nexus One should be released, which should become the first android phone with the ability to unlock from any medium (launched with the participation of T-Mobile) . Android is Google’s response to the iPhone, and as the number of phones based on it grows, it becomes more attractive to developers. Already, there are more than 10,000 applications, and next year their number will grow.

10. Social interaction and clients

We all saw the rise of twitter and facebook as tools for social interaction. This year, these tools should go deeper towards the corporate sector. Saleforce.com is preparing to launch Chatter , which will be a network of corporate data that can be presented on Twitter and Facebook, as well as other applications. Startups like Yammer or Bantam Live also make businesses more socially oriented.

PS First translation. For any comments I will be very grateful