Technofile:Last year will probably be remembered as the year that gadgets came out of the nerd zone and entered the "officially sexy" category. Well, that's my world view at least, and I'm sticking to it, writes Mike Butcher.
However, letting the side down last year was that strand of tech forever marked a bad idea. These included such ridiculous products as the in-car espresso machine and the alarm clock that sent a small propeller airborne every morning. Dangerous perhaps? There was also the wooden keyboard and mouse, and perhaps the worst of all - the Guinness Surger, supposed to help you pour the perfect pint - but which required special cans . . .
• What we have to look forward to this year hopefully includes a few more interesting and useful innovations. Among them will be a new technology from Phillips, designed to turn television into a 3D experience. Phillips' 20-inch display is different from rivals like Samsung and Toshiba in that no 3D specs are required to see the 3D images.
The content will be coming too. Disney now routinely produces animated features in digital 3D. More news is expected at the giant Consumer Electronics show in the US this month.
• A trend with a firm grip across the world by now is making calls over the internet. Long the preserve of the more technology-minded, firms like Jajah.com are emerging to take the idea into the mainstream.
Among the new breed of firms offering free or cheap calls via your normal landline phone, you just go to Jajah.com, enter your own number and the number you want to ring and Jajah calls both phones to connect you up. Just Google the firm and you'll find a number of other sites offering similar kinds of deals.
• One of the things that we can expect this year is the pending format war between the new high-definition formats for DVD. It will be HD-DVD versus Blu-ray at noon across the planet from now on. But one light on the horizon is hardware makers like NEC which will be bringing out dual-format chips inside their new DVD players, allowing you to play both formats.
The first dual-function players will arrive in the autumn.
And around the corner are even dual-function discs, able to be read by both Blu-ray and HD-DVD players, which should make the transition smoother than the Betamax versus VHS war of yesteryear.
• Another technology trend this year, outside of the the usual clutch of mobiles and music players is something that may prove properly planet-saving instead of planet-draining.
The UrbanMover mountain bike appeared last year with a subtle and small electric engine to boost those hill climbs, while this year, Schwinn's Stingray, appearing in the summer, will go for 40 miles on one charge, disguise its engine and weigh only as much as a normal bike.
• Apple's diminutive 2GB Shuffle music player has spawned a handful of copycats, and the Novomax Joypot CP C210 is the latest.
The palm-sized player weighs 25 grams and can either come with internal memory up to 1GB, or you can add a memory card, meaning the device doubles as a USB card reader. It boasts "10 hours" of battery life on a single AAA cell, but pricing and availability remain sketchy just now.
