My top five tech tips for this year

Here are my personal top five tech tips of this year. The five fields I can see really coming into their own, and changing everything...again...

Internet Streaming;

This year I can see this completely going to the next level. Last year we saw things like BBC iPlayer take off completely, coming to multiable devices, such as Blu-Ray players, PS3 and BT Vision. Sky Player too has come on leaps and bounds, no longer restricted to stuffy old Beige Windows Boxes, and hitting things like Xbox 360. 

This year I expect more. More OnDemand. More of what I want, when I want it, and Im not talking about stupid YouTube! Sky is again leading the way, (with an idea pinched from BT Vision) in updating its Anytime to Anytime+. More programs available, and all downloaded through your broadband. The killer part of this being its free also.

Im going to stick my neck out as well, and say this year I expect Netflix to actually come to the UK. LoveFilm has started streaming movies, but they are mostly shite. Time for it to be done properly.

3D TV;

Last year saw 3D TV take off big time…Im not really sure why, but it did. I mean, who actually wants to sit in front of the TV wearing stupid glasses, and my god, the cost! But I expect this year to be all about glasses free 3D TV. The tech is already out there. Next week the Nintendo 3DS comes out. LG and Samsung have HUGE 3D TV's coming out which are glasses free, so I can see this taking off. Shame no one can be bothered to invent something that makes normal HDTV's 3D though, kinda a cheap option, but it would help get 3D TV into main stream houses, instead of the rich…or plain stupid…

Cloud Computing;

Its coming! In many ways its already here.What with MobileMe, DropBox, and all the cloud goodness Google provide, its hear to stay, and it can only get better! Admittedly upload speeds need to get better, and they are starting too. But with the amount of information that we currently carry around with us, on phones, laptops, office PC, home PC, etc, we do need somewhere to store everything we need, on everything we use! 

Rumour has it that MobileMe is about to become free, which if that is true, will be HUGE news. Automatically sync'ing contacts, photo's, videos. calendars etc, all in the background. Yes I know Google already do this, and yes it is free, but have always found MobileMe a better experience. Also the next version of OS X, (Lion) is supposed to have some kind of cloud based Storage Safe for important docs. I can really see cloud computing coming of age this year.

Smart Phones;

Ever since the launch of the Apple iPhone, smart phones have become big business. Nearly everyone I know has one now, and they are getting better and better each time a new one is released. The new Galaxy S 2 from samsung looks amazing, as does the Motorola Atrix 4G, which when put into a dock actually becomes a laptop!! I think that this year is probably the 'Dumb' phones last.

Tablet Computing;

Last year we saw the best, (iPad), and the worse, (Im looking at you stupid ePad of a billion models) but this year the rest of the big boys hit the market. HP with a webOS tablet, which looks divine, Blackberry with its Playbook, LG with a 3D Android offering, and no doubt a million cheap chinese pads, running Windows 7 Starter that just doesn't work with a touch screen.

The days of a Beige box in the corner of the room are truly gone. From now on I see laptops, and slates, with gamers turning to consoles to get their kicks.

Some of the Slates I have seen really look like they can take on the iPad, but, Apple are about to announce the new one, so this year has to be the year of the Slate.