What the year 2011 gave us in new technology

As the year 2011 comes to a close, I thought it was fitting to highlight key technologies of 2011:

Mobile Wallets: It seems that all the big smartphone companies like Apple with their iPhones, Google with their Android, and Nokia (yes Nokia is still limping its way into the phone market with their N8, C6, E7, and others) are trying to make using your phone as a wallet a reality.

Proof of this is that Google bought Zetawire and Apple is considering BOKU to imbed the NFC chip which exist in most credit cards enabling you to scan it using a reader and directly charge your account. It is not likely that these ventures will make this dream come true but it definitely will supercharge the idea. The biggest question that comes to mind, even IF this technology is in your hands right now, how likely will you use it in your day-to-day transactions?

Context-Aware Apps: Let’s face it, the internet is a mountain of content and finding something you need is getting harder and harder since it keeps growing. This makes applications that filter, the information you are presented with when you search, according to your interests and your local region much more useful. For example getting news of the most shared links from people you follow on twitter instead the same static news that everyone sees. You can find more about “Contextual Discovery” here

Geo-Aware Database: Unless you have an old smartphone, then there is a high chance your device is capable of pinpointing your geographical location with accuracy that could make you paranoid enough to hide in a cave and get “off the grid” so to speak. However, this lack of privacy comes with the great advantage that applications can inform you of discounts of near by businesses. This is achieved due to hosted databases by all the big shots like Google, Facebook, Twitter that capable of storing location-information of these establishments. In case you didn’t know, all these companies are planning to create a definitive database of places, click here for more.

The Streaming Cloud: It seems that physical media is slowly dying and the days of owning a copy of a movie on a disk will be a thing of the past. The idea of having media stored in the cloud has been around for quite a while but the year 2011 has seen an exponential increase of media being moved to the cloud.

Unless you are stuck in an area with a poor connection to the internet your media library is available and ready to stream wherever you are without the need to lug compact disk, DVDS, or blue rays disks while on the move or on vacation away from home.

For another list of new technologies of 2011, you can check out the article by Chris Pirillo here