BYE BYE QWERTY
Each year brings a set of new technology trends with it. But at the same time, it also shows what is going to fade in the future. Here are some things you need to say goodbye to...
LOOK MA, NO DVDS
When was the last time you burned a DVD to share those pictures you snapped on your kid's birthday? Most people don’t realise it, but DVDs are slowly going out of fashion. Fewer and fewer people are using them. CD drives, which are slow and unreliable, are losing the battle against cheap pen drives, which are far more convenient, faster and easily rewritable. Most movie players and televisions nowadays can play media (music, video and picture) directly from pen drives and people rarely need a DVD drive. Apple, a company that tends to read future trends before anyone else, is gradually removing DVD drives from its computers. Its MacBook Air, the latest MacBook Pro and iMacs all come without a DVD drive. The company’s latest operating software doesn’t come in a DVD drive. Instead, consumers are expected to download it from Apple servers. Microsoft's latest operating software Windows 8 is officially available in DVD form but finding it is difficult. Instead, Microsoft too wants people to download its OS. Taking a cue from Apple, many laptop makers have discarded DVD drives. Almost all ultrabooks in the market come without a DVD drive. None of the tablets, which have started encroaching on laptop territory, support DVDs.
DECLINE OF QWERTY PHONES
Remember when phones with physical QWERTY keyboards were all the rage? In 2010, if you peeped into most folk’s wishlists, you would have spotted BlackBerry. Not anymore. The age of phones with physical keyboards is over. After routing BlackBerries from the high-end category, touchscreens have now invaded the low-end. Nokia, which once sold its E range of phones with QWERTY keyboards has transitioned to selling touchscreen Asha phones. Only RIM, which originally popularised QWERTY keyboards, continues to hold the fort with its BlackBerry phones. But this is because the company has no other alternative. Next year it will have one in the form of its BlackBerry 10 operating system, and RIM too will phase out QWERTY phones. SMS IS NO LONGER HIP
2012
was the beginning of the end for the SMS. Don’t believe us? Ask any teenager
armed with a smartphone. As more and more smartphones reach people’s hands and
more and more people use data connections like 3G, there is decline in number
of SMS they are sending. Instead, these people use apps like WhatsApp, Nimbuzz,
or even Google Talk, to communicate. The benefits are many fold: The apps save
users money, which they would otherwise pay their telecom operator — Re 1 per
message usually. Besides, they can see the status of the person to whom they
have sent the message. Of course, it will be a while before the SMS really
fades away, but it has started. For the first time in its history, SMS use
declined by 3 per cent in 2012 in the US. This came even as WhatsApp announced
in August that its users were sending 10 billion messages a day. It’s not
difficult to connect the dots.
END OF FAX
Let’s be clear, the fax is dead. Dead as in extinct! Even before 2012, few people used a fax machine to send documents halfway across the world. But now virtually no one outside archaic office setups, which still cling to their inkjet printers and dial-up internet connections, uses a fax machine. Scanning a document and sending it via email is easier, faster, cheaper and more convenient than sending a fax. Even if you don’t have access to a scanner, it is more convenient to just snap a picture of the document and attach the image in an email. Even in companies that must retain the ability to send and receive a fax, the dedicated fax machines have been replaced with ‘fax servers’ that allow people to exchange fax messages using a computer.
FORGET THE CAMERA, USE YOUR PHONE
How many times in the last one year, you have left your camera behind while going to a party and snapped pictures with your phone? You are not alone. Smartphones have disrupted many industries, and you can now add the camera one to the list. People who used to buy expensive DSLRs still buy the same gear. But point and shoot cameras, which are the mass market devices, are feeling the heat. That’s because most smartphones now pack a camera that is “good enough”, especially when the photo is going to be shared on Twitter or Facebook, and users don’t really differentiate between high-resolution and low-resolution images. Instagram, the popular community where people share photographs, hosts almost all images shot with smartphones. The majority of images shared on Twitter are shot with smartphones. On Flickr, one of the biggest community of amateur photographers and enthusiasts, iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 are the most popular cameras by a huge margin, well ahead of DSLRs. Photographers have a saying — the best camera is the one that you have on you. If 2012 is any indication, smartphones are proving to be the best cameras for most people.
— TEXT BY JAWED ANWER
END OF FAX
Let’s be clear, the fax is dead. Dead as in extinct! Even before 2012, few people used a fax machine to send documents halfway across the world. But now virtually no one outside archaic office setups, which still cling to their inkjet printers and dial-up internet connections, uses a fax machine. Scanning a document and sending it via email is easier, faster, cheaper and more convenient than sending a fax. Even if you don’t have access to a scanner, it is more convenient to just snap a picture of the document and attach the image in an email. Even in companies that must retain the ability to send and receive a fax, the dedicated fax machines have been replaced with ‘fax servers’ that allow people to exchange fax messages using a computer.
FORGET THE CAMERA, USE YOUR PHONE
How many times in the last one year, you have left your camera behind while going to a party and snapped pictures with your phone? You are not alone. Smartphones have disrupted many industries, and you can now add the camera one to the list. People who used to buy expensive DSLRs still buy the same gear. But point and shoot cameras, which are the mass market devices, are feeling the heat. That’s because most smartphones now pack a camera that is “good enough”, especially when the photo is going to be shared on Twitter or Facebook, and users don’t really differentiate between high-resolution and low-resolution images. Instagram, the popular community where people share photographs, hosts almost all images shot with smartphones. The majority of images shared on Twitter are shot with smartphones. On Flickr, one of the biggest community of amateur photographers and enthusiasts, iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 are the most popular cameras by a huge margin, well ahead of DSLRs. Photographers have a saying — the best camera is the one that you have on you. If 2012 is any indication, smartphones are proving to be the best cameras for most people.
— TEXT BY JAWED ANWER
TCR 121229
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