Predicting successful new technologies is a risky business - for every iPad or lightbulb, there's also a portable travel hammock or an Apple Newton. With that caveat in mind, we've collected together a list of the technologies that we think will make a splash next year, and even, in a few cases, change the way we live.
Solar panel phone screens
I've been predicting that these will be A Big Deal for over a year, and have partly included them because I just think they're really cool. But as with many new technologies, several sets of researchers are currently working to make transparent solar panels better and cheaper, which means that next year could be the year consumers finally get hold of them. Once on the market, they could invisibly collect solar power on phone and computer screens, and even on windows.
A robot to schedule your meetings
Artificial Intelligence still can't have a totally convincing chat with us, but it's now sophisticated enough to carry out online customer service, and, as it turns out, be your personal assistant. New app x.ailets you email "Amy" about a meeting you want to set up, and she liases with you and the other person to find a time that works.
Control your computer using gestures
Earlier this year, Apple patented a motion-sensor technology that would let you control your computer by just moving your hands in the air. The technology has been around for a while - HP's Leap Motion laptop was launched in 2012 - but as we spend more and more time in front of computers, it's growing ever more appealling. RIP RSI.
A hotel in space
Russian company Orbital Technologies reckons it'll be sending tourists into space as early as next year. Guests would zoom up to the Commercial Space Station on a rocket, then spend their time in one of the station's four cabins enjoying zero gravity and watching earth through the ship's giant portholes. And this is only the beginning: Mashable has totted up nine commercial companies planning to send normal people into space over the next decade or so.
Self-driving cars
GOOGLE'S SELF-DRIVING CAR. IMAGE: GETTY.
Yes, they've been around for ages, but now we have on-the-road testing and the beginnings of a legislative framework for the cars, they could soon be an everyday reality. Google has announced it's teaming up with Ford to build self-driving vehicles, hinting at large-scale commercial production in the near future.
...and cars that make you better at driving
AUDI'S Q7 SUV. IMAGE: AUDI.
While self-driving cars are grabbing the headlines, ordinary cars are also stepping up their game. Tesla's latest in-car software offers a hands-free autopilot mode, while Audi's Q7 SUV will also brake on behalf of the driver and nudge you back into the correct lane. This type of gradual automation may make fully self-driving cars an easier sell in the long run.
The suncream pill
Fish and coral both excrete a compound that protects them from the sun, and for the past five years or so scientists have been working to use these substances in a pill which, when consumed by humans, would offer the same protection. If it works, it could cut rates of sunburn and skin cancer, and spare you from endless bouts of greasy reapplication.
An end to language barriers
Messaging and voice call service Skype recently released a live translation tool, Japan is trialling a live translation megaphone to use during the 2020 Olympics, and Google's Translate app translates street signs and real-time conversations. It looks like technology may finally be breaking down the final barrier in worldwide communication.
Zero-carbon fuel made of carbon dioxide
Improbable as it sounds, a few different companies have developed working prototypes which turn carbon dioxide into a fuel. All rely on sucking CO2 out of the air, then converting it into a diesel fuel, which, amazingly, emits no carbon when burned.
Xbox One vs Xbox 360: Is it worth upgrading to the new generation?
With Christmas just around the corner, it’s definitely a prime time to consider theXbox One vs Xbox 360 debate.
The Xbox One has been around a year now and in the last 12 months Microsoft has been steadily adding new features to its latest console. That means your looking at the two consoles more on a more even keel now, especially when it comes to media services.
We’ll guide you through some of the key things to consider, before you decide to splash out on a shiny new next gen Xbox..
Xbox One vs Xbox 360 – Design
There’s no getting away from the fact the Xbox One is a considerably bigger beast than the Xbox 360. The Xbox One is a huge monolith, measuring up at 33.3cm wide, 27.4cm deep and 7.9cm tall.
The most recent Xbox 360 is 27cm wide, 26cm deep and 7.5cm tall, which is quite a lot smaller than the Xbox One. Even the original iteration of the Xbox 360 was smaller (if a touch fatter) 30.9cm wide, 25.8cm deep and 8.3cm tall.
Microsoft has made the Xbox One so chunky to give the console enough room to breathe. The smaller Xbox 360 suffered from some major overheating issues, which were partly to blame for the Red Ring of Death problems that cost Microsoft over a billion dollars. There’s no wonder why Microsoft is playing it a bit safe with the Xbox One.
But its size is also to ensure its reliability over a number of years. The Xbox One has been designed to be switched on for its whole anticipated 10-year life cycle.
If you’re into voice command or motion gaming features, you’ll also want to consider the Xbox One Kinect. Originally, it came pre-packaged with the Xbox One console itself, but now you can buy the console cheaper without it.
The Xbox One Kinect is smaller than the original Kinect, measuring up at 6.68cm tall 6.6cm deep 24.9cm wide compared to the original’s 7.62cm tall, 7.62cm deep, 27.9cm wide dimensions.
Of course, the Xbox One Kinect is far more advanced than the original, with better body recognition, wider field of vision for play in smaller spaces and enhanced voice commands. We would say that the Xbox One UI is far easier to navigate with Kinect, as often it can be tricky to find certain options or settings with the Wireless Controller alone.
Xbox One vs Xbox 360 – Noise
Although you might not think noise is an issue when choosing between the Xbox One and Xbox 360, it could be a consideration for those with older generation Xbox 360 consoles.
The Xbox One is nearly silent when it’s running, partly down to its size of course, because the more space the fans have, the less hard they need to work.
You might not notice a huge difference between the latest couple of Xbox 360 models though.
Xbox One vs Xbox 360 – CPU and RAM
The Xbox 360 has a PowerPC-based CPU - it's a triple-core 3.2GHz processor. The Xbox One has an eight-core processor based on the AMD Jaguar chip series.
Does that mean the Xbox One is two and a half times as powerful as the Xbox 360? No, it's more powerful than that as the efficiency of the CPU is much better, not just the clock speed and number of cores.
The increase in RAM is much more marked. The Xbox 360 has 512MB of RAM, the Xbox One has 8GB of RAM.
Xbox One vs Xbox 360 – Controllers
There isn’t a revolutionary change between the Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers, but Microsoft made some iterative changes that makes the Xbox One Wireless Controller have the edge.
The biggest change is what Microsoft is calling the Impulse Triggers. The Xbox One Controller triggers now pack rumble motors. That makes the Xbox One the ultimate console for racing games, as you’ll feel anything from the subtle gear changes to the hard brakes with the left trigger right in your fingertips. It’s a great addition for shooters too, but when you’ve experienced racing games like Forza Horizon 2 with the Xbox One controller, it will feel fantastic.
The shoulder buttons have also been enlarged slightly, so there’s not that bizarre gap between R1/R2 and L1/L2 as there was on the Xbox 360 controller.
Microsoft has also revamped the D-Pad, making it more clicky, more responsive and altogether better for your old school arcade games.
Sadly, the Xbox One Wireless Controller still runs on AA batteries as standard, with the rechargeable pack available as an optional extra.
Xbox One vs Xbox 360 – Games Library
Because the Xbox 360 has been around for nearly a decade, it has a stellar array of games to it’s name. Plus, Microsoft believes its ageing console will be supported by developers for at least another two years yet, so it’s still worth investing in on a games front.
However, as the months roll on you can see the Xbox One’s game resolution and game library getting to be far stronger than its predecessors. You can’t deny that cross-platform games look far better in the 900p/1080p resolution of the Xbox One.
It’s getting to the point that developers like Ubisoft are creating two different games to take advantage of the power of the Xbox One and PS4. Just look atAssassin’s Creed Rogue and Assassin’s Creed Unity.
But in the year since release, we’ve had some strong Xbox One titles such as Forza Horizon 2, the colourful Sunset Overdrive and Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Plus, you’ve got titles like the aforementioned Assassin’s Creed Unity that is only available on new-gen consoles.
Xbox One vs Xbox 360 – Media Skills
From launch and even before that, the Xbox One has been touted as the all-in-one entertainment console, and over the past twelve months or so, Microsoft has been working hard to fulfil that promise.
Originally, the Xbox 360 was miles ahead in terms of media skills, but the Xbox One has now caught up on all fronts.
The Xbox One app line-up currently looks like this: Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video, BlinkBox Movies, Wuaki.tv, 4oD, Crackle, Demand 5, Eurosport, Machinima, Muzu TV, Now TV, TED, Twitch and YouTube.
Plus, the Xbox One has some other great features including the Xbox Media Player app (currently in preview) for watching content from a USB or external hard drive and Plex.
That means it’s definitely on par with the Xbox One in terms of media services, especially as you can now plug in a USB 3.0 external hard drive of 250GB or above for additional storage on your Xbox One.
However, the Xbox One has a few additional strings to its bow that the Xbox 360 can’t even dream of competing with and that’s the TV services.
Natively, the Xbox One can draw in cable TV feeds from services like Virgin Media or Sky and integrate your TV content within the Xbox One UI. There’s even a rather special EPG called the OneGuide that will let you pause/rewind live TV up to 30 minutes, collate your favourite programmes and even see what shows are trending on Twitter.
Even if you don’t have a cable TV subscription, you can fork out an additional £24.99 for the Xbox One Digital TV Tuner to achieve the same results with Freeview and Freeview HD feeds.
Xbox One vs Xbox 360 – Price
Despite several waves of Xbox One price cuts, the Xbox 360 is still considerably cheaper than it’s successor. You can pick up the low-end 4GB Xbox 360 for around £130, but we’d recommend opting for the more expensive 250GB option for around £170 brand new.
At launch the Xbox One retailed for £429 with a game and the Kinect. Now, you can pick up the Xbox One, Kinect-free with a game for £329 on special occasions, or for a PS4 matching £349.99.
If you’re on a budget and haven’t already invested the PS3/Xbox 360 generation, the Xbox 360 is still well worth considering.
But, a year into its lifecycle, the Xbox One is proving to be the far better option and now is a great time to upgrade from Xbox 360. It’s the ultimate entertainment console, the controller is vastly superior and the games look better on the Xbox One than its predecessor.
Plus, you're not going to a get a better all-round console at this stage for gaming and for entertainment services.
Shares of the gadget maker Friday are down another 1.3% Friday to $107.61 — knocking the stock down 20% from its recent high of $134.54. The breathtaking decline not only puts Apple into a bear market - defined by a 20% drop — but has obliterated a staggering $150 billion in shareholder wealth from the top.
Just to put that into perspective, Apple's $150 billion decline is larger than 475 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 are worth. A drop this big is the financial equivalent of wiping out the market value of entire companies like Pepsico (PEP) at $145 billion, International Business Machines (IBM) at $133 billion and Nike (NKE) at $111 billion.
Seeing such a massive decline in Apple carries more weight than a similar decline in any other stock would. Apple is still worth more than any other U.S. company — making it the most important stock in market measures like the S&P 500. Apple also is the most widely held stock by individual investors, says Sigfig, so the decline directly hits home.
Troubling signs pointing to weakening demand for smartphones continues to dog the stock. Analysts are cutting growth expectations for the fourth quarter — and even the first quarter — as they incorporate weaker demand. Despite efforts to diversify away from the mature smartphone market — Apple still gets a vast majority of its revenue and profit from smartphones.
A number of leading investment banks have been cutting earnings estimates on Apple along with price targets in some cases. Analysts on average now expect Apple to report adjusted quarterly profit of $3.24 a share in the fourth calendar quarter, down 1% from a month ago, says S&P Capital IQ. Estimates for profit in the first calendar quarter have been cut 2.4% from a month ago to $2.41.
Estimate cuts for Apple are very unusual. Estimates for fourth quarter calendar profits were boosted last December, as well as in March, June and November.
1. Computing Everywhere
As smart-phone technology advances, smart-phones will be used in new contexts and environments. Along with wearables, smart-phones will offer connected screens in the workplace and in public. User experience will be key.
2. The Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things is big and it will continue to grow along with user-oriented computing. Prediction: The Internet of Things will be the focus of digital business products and processes in industrial and operational contexts. Expect technology to be embedded everywhere.
3. 3D Printing
3D printing is about to get cheaper, and its market will grow over the next three years. The expansion will be biggest in industrial, biomedical, and consumer applications helping companies reduce costs.
4. Advanced, Pervasive, Invisible Analytics
Analytics will continue to grow propelled by the Internet of Things, creating large pools of data. Every app will need to be an analytic app. But big data isn’t the most important thing: instead we’ll need big questions and big answers.
5. Context-Rich Systems
Thanks to embedded intelligence and analytics, systems will become alert and responsive to their surroundings. Expect context-aware security as well as other trends.
6. Smart Machines
Analytics and context will pave the way for smart machines that can learn for themselves and act accordingly. These machine helpers will continue to evolve. Prediction: The smart machines era will be the most disruptive in the history of IT.
7. Cloud/Client Architecture
As mobile computing meets cloud computing, centrally coordinated applications that can be delivered to any device will continue to grow. Apps that can use intelligence and storage effectively will see lower bandwidth costs. Expect to be able to use applications simultaneously on multiple devices.
8. Software-Defined Infrastructure and Applications
Software defined networking, storage, data centers and security are maturing. Cloud service software is configurable thanks to rich APIs. Computing will have to move away from static models to deal with the changing demands of digital business.
9. Web-Scale IT
More and more companies will begin thinking like Amazon, Google and Facebook. As cloud-optimized and software-defined methods become mainstream, we’ll see a move towards web-scale IT, starting with DevOps.
10. Risk-Based Security and Self-Protection
While 100% security solutions aren’t feasible, advanced risk assessment and mitigation will come into play in the next few years. Security will move away from perimeter defense to multi-faceted approaches. Expect security aware application design, dynamic and static application security testing, and runtime application self-protection.
Logically, I know there isn’t a hulking four-armed, twisty-horned blue monster clomping in circles in front of me, but it sure as hell looks like it.
I’m sitting behind a workbench in a white-walled room in Dania Beach, Florida, in the office of a secretive startup called Magic Leap. I’m staring wide-eyed through a pair of lenses attached to what looks like metal scaffolding that towers over my head and contains a bunch of electronics and lenses. It’s an early prototype of the company’s so-called cinematic-reality technology, which makes it possible for me to believe that the muscular beast with the gruff expression and two sets of swinging arms is actually in the room with me, hovering about seven feet in front of my face.
He’s not just visible at a set distance. I’m holding a video-game controller that’s connected to the demo station, and at the press of a button I can make the monster smaller or larger, move him right or left, bring him closer, or push him farther away.
Of course, I bring him as near as possible; I want to see how real he looks up close. Now he’s about 30 inches from my eyeballs and, though I’ve made him pocket-sized, looks about as authentic as a monster could—he seems to have rough skin, muscular limbs, and deep-set beady eyes. I extend my hand to give him a base to walk on, and I swear I feel a tingling in my palm in expectation of his little feet pressing into it. When, a split second later, my brain remembers that this is just an impressively convincing 3-D image displayed in the real space in front of me, all I can do is grin.
To be sure, stereoscopic 3-D has recently started getting better. The best system you can currently buy comes from Oculus VR, which Facebook purchased last spring for $2 billion; the $199 Gear VR, which was built in collaboration with Samsung and is aimed at software developers, lets you slide a Samsung smartphone into a headset to play games and watch videos.
Abovitz says he and his employees are trying to “blow away” their inner 11-year-olds.
But while Oculus wants to transport you to a virtual world for fun and games, Magic Leap wants to bring the fun and games to the world you’re already in. And in order for its fantasy monsters to appear on your desk alongside real pencils, Magic Leap had to come up with an alternative to stereoscopic 3-D—something that doesn’t disrupt the way you normally see things. Essentially, it has developed an itty-bitty projector that shines light into your eyes—light that blends in extremely well with the light you’re receiving from the real world.
As I see crisply rendered images of monsters, robots, and cadaver heads in Magic Leap’s offices, I can envision someday having a video chat with faraway family members who look as if they’re actually sitting in my living room while, on their end, I appear to be sitting in theirs. Or walking around New York City with a virtual tour guide, the sides of buildings overlaid with images that reveal how the structures looked in the past. Or watching movies where the characters appear to be right in front of me, letting me follow them around as the plot unfolds. But no one really knows what Magic Leap might be best for. If the company can make its technology not only cool but comfortable and easy to use, people will surely dream up amazing applications.
Behind the magic
Magic Leap won’t say when it will release a product or how much the thing will cost, beyond that the price will be within the range of today’s consumer mobile devices. When I press founder and CEO Rony Abovitz about such details, he’ll only smile and say, “It’s not far away.”
He’s sitting behind the desk in his office, which is just down the road from the Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood airport. The shelves are lined with toys and View-Masters—the plastic gadgets that let you look at pictures in 3-D. Abovitz, 44, is a bear of a guy with a kind smile, and when I meet him he’s dressed in black Nikes, a long-sleeved shirt, and slacks, his graying curly hair topped with a yarmulke. He’s thoughtful and composed, which I find somewhat surprising given that the only time I had seen him before was ina video of his talk at a TEDx event in 2012 in Sarasota, Florida. It featured two people dressed as furry creatures called “Shaggles,” Abovitz walking on stage dressed as an astronaut, and unintelligible rock music. Though the talk, called “The Synthesis of Imagination,” came off as performance art (perhaps even a mockery of a TED talk), he swears there is a coherent message embedded in it; figure it out, he says, and he’ll give you a yo-yo.
By day, Abovitz is a technology entrepreneur with a background in biomedical engineering. He previously founded Mako Surgical, a company in Fort Lauderdale that makes a robotic arm equipped with haptic technology, which imparts a sense of touch so that orthopedic surgeons have the sensation of actually working on bones as they trigger the robot’s actions. Mako was sold to a medical technology company, Stryker, for nearly $1.7 billion in 2013. By night, Abovitz likes to rock out. He sings and plays guitar and bass in a pop-rock band called Sparkydog & Friends. And as he tells it, Magic Leap has its origins in both the robotic-surgery company and his life as a musician.
Combining virtual reality with the physical world appealed to Abovitz even at Mako. Although the robotic-arm technology could give surgeons the sensation of touching their instruments to bones, Abovitz also wanted to let them see virtual bones as they went about this work. Over and over, he says, he tried out head-mounted displays made by different companies, but he was disappointed with them all. “They were all just complete crap,” he says. “You’d put it on and it would give you a headache and it was awful, and I was wondering, ‘Why is this so bad?’”
About four years ago, he started mulling the problem over with John Graham Macnamara, a high school friend who had dropped out of Caltech’s theoretical physics program. They became captivated by the idea of displaying moving holograms like the one inStar Wars. Holograms—3-D images that can be viewed from many angles—are made by accurately re-creating light fields, the patterns made when light rays bounce off an object. But Abovitz figured it would cost a lot and take lots of time to project even low-resolution holographic images. At one point, he remembers muttering, “There is no display that can actually work.”At the same time, Abovitz also wanted to take Sparkydog & Friends on a virtual tour. In U2’s 1987 video for “Where the Streets Have No Name,” the group, in a nod to an earlier move by the Beatles, plays an impromptu show on the roof of a Los Angeles liquor store. Abovitz yearned for his band to be able to do that, but virtually, and on a thousand rooftops at once.
The next morning, though, he awoke with an idea: why bother with the painstaking steps needed to send a hologram out into a room for multiple people to see at once? Why not, instead, essentially make a hologram that only you see, doing it in a way that is natural for the eyes and brain to perceive, unlike stereoscopic 3-D? “We’re spending half a billion dollars–plus to effectively make nothing happen to you, physiologically,” Abovitz says.
The solution he and Macnamara and the rest of Magic Leap’s team have come up with is still largely under wraps, and on the record they avoid discussing how the technology works except in vague terms, citing concerns about competition. But it’s safe to say Magic Leap has a tiny projector that shines light onto a transparent lens, which deflects the light onto the retina. That pattern of light blends in so well with the light you’re receiving from the real world that to your visual cortex, artificial objects are nearly indistinguishable from actual objects.
If the company can get this to work in a head-mounted display, showing images near the eyes and consistently refocusing them to keep everything looking sharp, it will make 3-D images much more comfortable to view, says Gordon Wetzstein, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Stanford who researches computational imaging and displays. “If they do what people suspect they do,” Wetzstein says, “it will be amazing.”
From virtual to reality
Magic Leap is working feverishly to get to that point. Since building its first prototype in 2011, the company has continued to shrink its technology down.
Already it works on something smaller than the unwieldy scaffolding I used. In another demonstration, using hardware on a cart, I can poke at a tiny flying steampunk robot, a character from a first-person-shooter game called Dr. Grordbort’s Invaders that Magic Leap is making with Weta Workshop, which created many of the special effects in the Hobbit movies. The robot can follow my finger around with surprising accuracy, right between the cubicles in Magic Leap’s office.
To judge from a look I get at a design prototype—a realistic-looking piece of hardware that’s completely nonfunctional—the company appears to be aiming to fit its technology into a chunky pair of sports sunglasses wired to a square pack that fits into your pocket. A somewhat similar image in a patent application Magic Leap filed in January suggests as much, too. The company won’t say for sure, though; Abovitz confirms that the headset will be a glasses-like wearable device, but I have to twist his arm to get him to agree to use even that hazy phrasing on the record.
Abovitz was enigmatic in his brief appearance on a TEDx stage in 2012. “A few awkward steps for me; a magic leap for mankind,” he said from inside his spacesuit.
It’s clear that getting the technology into that small form will be very hard. The smallest demo hardware I’ve seen at Magic Leap can’t yet match the experience of the bigger demo units. It includes a projector, built into a black wire, that’s smaller than a grain of rice and channels light toward a single see-through lens. Peering through the lens, I spy a crude green version of the same four-armed monster that earlier seemed to stomp around on my palm. In addition to improving the resolution of smaller units, Magic Leap will have to cram in sensors and software that will track your eyes and fingers, so you can control and interact with its virtual creatures—which themselves will have to incorporate real-life objects into whatever they appear to be doing.
That’s where last year’s half-billion dollars of investment come in. Magic Leap is hiring like crazy. It’s looking for software engineers for everything from eye tracking and iris recognition to the branch of artificial intelligence known as deep learning. It needs optical engineers, game designers, and other people who will dream up virtual objects to display. To give you a sense of where their minds might go, I saw ray guns and magic wands lying around the office. As its chief futurist, Magic Leap has hired the science fiction author Neal Stephenson, whose 1992 novel Snow Crash imagined a virtual world called the Metaverse.
The excitement of such quick growth is palpable at Magic Leap’s brightly decorated headquarters, where staid office trappings are punctuated by red high-backed love seats and yellow chairs. Employees energetically describe the games, sensors, and ray guns they’re working on.
With the massive investment last year, interest in the company has intensified. Abovitz says, “We went from ‘Does anyone care about this?’ to ‘Okay, people do care.’” Now he and the team are feeling the weight of these expectations. He says, “The inner 11-year-old—we want to blow that away.”
The Apple Watch will be Apple's first new product category under CEO Tim Cook. While the company introduced the watch in September, we only got a limited look at all its features. Apple is still working on the device, so expect to get more details when it launches in early 2015.
Windows 10 should fix a lot of problems with Windows 8.
Image credit: Microsoft
Microsoft gave the world a small preview of the next version of Windows, Windows 10, this fall.
Windows 10 is designed to work on all devices including smartphones, laptops, desktops, and the Xbox. It can also change its interface depending on what kind of device you're using thanks to a feature called Continuum.
It's still in the early stages, but Windows 10 will launch before the end of 2015.
Samsung reportedly has big plans for the Galaxy S6.
Image credit: Steve Kovach | Business Insider
Samsung's next flagship phone, the Galaxy S6, will likely launch in early 2015.
Details are scarce, but some early rumors suggest this will be the biggest upgrade yet to Samsung's Galaxy phone. Supposedly, Samsung has given the Galaxy S6 the codename "Zero" because it's designing the phone from the ground up.
More watches are coming from Samsung.
Image credit: Karyne Levy | Business Insider
Even though Samsung has launched six different smartwatches in the last year and change, we've heard the company isn't finished experimenting with wearable computers.
So far, none of Samsung's watches have been very good. Maybe 2015 will be the year Samsung nails it.
Samsung says it's working on a phone with a bendable screen.
Samsung recently announced that it will start mass producing bendable displays in 2015. By the end of the year, it also expects to ship its first phone with a bendable display.
A mini version of the Microsoft Surface?
Image credit: Lisa Eadicicco
Microsoft was originally supposed to launch a smaller version of its Surface tablet in the spring, but scrapped those plans at the last minute and only introduced the full-sized Surface Pro 3 instead.
Still, we've heard the so-called Surface Mini isn't completely dead. There's a chance Microsoft will give it another shot in 2015.
Apple is working on an even larger version of the iPad.
Image credit: Business Insider
Apple is preparing a larger version of the iPad with a 12-inch screen, according to a report from Bloomberg in August. While nothing is guaranteed yet, Apple appears to be planning an early 2015 launch for the so-called iPad Pro.
HTC set a new bar for Android device design when it launched the HTC One in 2013. It was the only phone that rivaled the iPhone in terms of looks and build quality. The second version launched this spring, and we expect the third iteration of the One to launch in March or April 2015.
The Oculus Rift will likely launch by the end of 2015.
Image credit: reiniciado.com
The Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset that impressed Mark Zuckerberg so much he bought the company for $2 billion, is still in development but expected to launch by the end of 2015.
At first, the Oculus Rift will mostly be for gaming. But in the years to come people will be able to use the Rift for social networking, interactive movies, and virtual concerts.
Project Morpheus is Sony's take on a virtual reality headset. It's designed to work with the PlayStation 4 and will likely launch by the end of 2015.
A touch version of Microsoft Office for Windows.
Image credit: Microsoft
Microsoft Office is going to get an overhaul next year. The company is working on a new touch-friendly version of Office for Windows tablets and touchscreen laptops. It's similar to the new version of Office for the iPad and will likely launch around the same time as Windows 10 in 2015.
The next phone from OnePlus is guaranteed to be a big seller.
Image credit: Steve Kovach | Business Insider
Chinese startup OnePlus released a very impressive phone this year called the One. The Android device has all the best features as top-tier phones like the Samsung Galaxy S5, but only costs about $350.
The phone is insanely popular because you can usually only buy it with an invitation from the company. And OnePlus is already working on the next version, which should launch in the first half of 2015. According to sources, the new version will be customizable and might have a smaller screen.
Apple's $3 billion purchase of Beats Music means it now has access to a pretty good streaming service. Rumor has it Apple will integrate Beats Music into iTunes to make it a viable competitor to popular services like Spotify.
Pebble makes one of the best smartwatches you can buy. Its latest version, the Steel, launched in early 2014. We've heard that a new version is coming in early 2015.
