[Technology] Best of 2010

In this on-going series of holiday schedule friendly series of entries (briefly) talking about the best stuff of 2010. Wednesdays tend to be about computers, technology and all things internet related. So let's think about the year.

Image via WikipediaOf course on a personal note, saddest web series closing down was Google Wave. I'm a huge fan of the concept and my partner and I are still regular users of the site. And we'll probably stick around until the service finally shutters sometime early next year. A close second would have been Xmarks until it got saved by LastPass.

Most amazing progress for the year definitely has to be Google Chrome. Whether or not you're already a fan of the increasingly popular web browser, you have to admit it's become a major contender in the browser wars this year. They've resolved a lot of the stability issues of the site and with the launch of extensions, the Google Web Store and other goodies, you have to admit Chrome is going places. And once you get around to Google Chrome OS, well, the sky's sort of the limit on changing the way we think about things.

Despite my not being a fan of the whole Apple universe, I have to admit that the one piece of technology that's made the most impact this year was the Apple iPad. Suddenly everyone is coming up with new rival tablet designs (or dredging up old ones) in an effort to compete in the market. And it's not even that great a tablet mind you - it's just because of how well it's packaged that has made it the driving technological force this year. It seems EVERYONE is determined to have one this year or is trying to find creative ways of using it.

Website of the year is definitely still Facebook. While you can argue that the movie alone didn't change things, the fact is that it has risen to the top of the heap. Facebook is the most-visited site in most countries around the world and a lot of social media marketing is increasingly built around the service. Plus their efforts to compete in the location market with Facebook Places and in the email market with Facebook Messaging, it's getting harder and harder to avoid the tech giant

And computer game of the year (for me at least) remains to be StarCraft II. Sure, it hasn't evolved all that much from the original game but the little tweaks, the addition of a stronger story and improved graphics have resulted in this being one of the most anticipated and celebrated games of the year. Plus it's a reminder to everyone that the real time strategy market isn't quite dead and not everyone is ready to jump on the MMORPG band-wagon.

[Google] The Nexus S, Google eBooks, Google Wave Lives and Chrome OS

Google loves to surprise us - that much I've noticed over the course of the past few years. And man when it rains, it certainly pours!

First, they announced the release of Gingerbread, the latest flavor of the Android operating system along with the Nexus S, a Samsung-produced Google mobile phone that will herald this new OS release. And you thought it was all over when the Nexus One was discontinued, haha!




Introducing Nexus S

Second, Google finally announced the launch of the Google eBookstore. With over 3 million books, we now have an eBookstore that is not directly tied to any reader device and promises to share a lot of content that is no longer available in print.




Introducing Google eBooks

Then, the Google Wave folks announced that December 31 is NOT a drop-dead date for Google Wave. Sure, Google Wave is still a Google product without future support (hello Google Notebook!) but at least the domain will survive until Google figures out an alternative for all the Google Wave users out there (like me and my partner!). Plus the Apache Foundation has accepted Wave into its incubator for new products. Exciting times for us die-hard Google Wave geeks!

And today, we saw the official announcement of the Google Chrome OS, the world's first web-based computer operating system. And as alien as the concept is, the initial demonstrations look pretty amazing and the speed is a lot faster than some desktop setups. Imagine an OS that gets faster over time since it automatically upgrades itself and becomes better without the need to purchase upgrades.

And together with that they've officially opened the Google Chrome Web Store, the world's first open app store that lives independent of platforms. In means the benefits of apps as normally seen on iPhones and Android phones now on your desktop or anywhere you can run Google Chrome or Google Chrome OS.

Am I excited about all this? Of course I am! The continued success of Android is always a good thing. Google eBooks gives me access to more books without the need to get a Kindle or something. I still get to use Google Wave in 2011. And the Google Chrome OS together with the Chrome Web Store means new and exciting things for computing, netbook users like myself and a heck of a lot of other things.

And it's barely Wednesday - what else is Google giving us for Christmas this year?

[Daily Geekery] December 7, 2010

Well, ended staying home last night instead of going to work - my asthma been's a pain ever since the temperature getting colder. I did find a few items of interest right before this post, so hope you folks enjoy!

Images:

• Google Wave Blog: Waving in 2011 - As one of the few regular users of Google Wave, I'm glad to hear that the application will continue to work even after support ends this year. Plus the news about Apache agreeing to take it on as a project of well does seem promising.
  
• Geekosystem: Street Artist Uses Graffiti to Converse with the Police - Don't you just love it when street graffit artists have a great sense of humor?
  
• Lifehacker: Most Popular How-To Guides of 2010 - Lifehacker is a great resource for little tips and tricks to improve your geeky life. Technology is always a great leverage in terms of making yourself more productive. This is just an efficient collection of some of their best guides for the year.
  
• Geekosystem: Women of DC Comics Jewelry is Awesome, Outside My Price Range - This is exactly what we need - designer jewelry inspired by DC Comics super-heroines.
  
• Geekosystem: 40 Classic Photos of the People Behind the Video Games - Ever wonder what the creators of your favorite video games looked like, then here you go! Okay, so maybe this isn't as cool as I thought it was.
  
• Scott Adams Blog: National Discard Day - Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, comes up with a lot of quirky ideas. This time - it's a holiday that acts as the inverse of Christmas.
  
• io9: Read an entire novel in these striking text-only posters - I love creative approaches to books. While I doubt these are actually very readable, these fun posters depicting the books that compose the poster are awesome.
  
• How-to-Geek: 20 Windows Keyboard Shortcuts You Might Not Know - What geek can survive without more keyboard shortcuts, right? Come on - you can't work faster with your mouse you silly kids!

Images:
I've never been a fan of Foursquare - and apparently neither is Batman!
 Silly idea, but you know someone is going to buy it.

And there you go - a quick Daily Geekery for today!

[Google] Goodbye Google Wave

Image via Wikipedia

On May 27, 2009, Google made a breakthrough announcement - a revolutionary new product called Google Wave. They described it as a radical new way at looking at communication from a modern perspective. It promised greater capabilities for real-time collaboration as a combination of email, chat, wiki writing and social networking. The service also allowed for developers to create custom extensions to expands its capabilities and make the game a heck of a lot more powerful. The sky was the limit really when it came to the platform.

I fought tooth and nail to get a beta invite so that I could start playing around with the service. Seriously, the lengths I went to in order to find a friend who still had invites for the initial closed beta was, well, crazy. And when I finally got my invite, I totally went nuts with the service and was wildly excited about the potential for the service. I could see how this would totally change project management collaboration online with other unique use cases such as running roleplaying games online.

But on August 4, 2010, Google decided to shut down Google Wave at the end of the year, citing lack of user adoption as the reason for axing the service. Of course this announcement broke my heart and I can't help but feel it's a tad too soon. It's only been less than three months since the service opened to the public and now they're already killing the service.

So of course I wanted to spend a little time to talk about it.

[Google] My Google Wave Wish List

Image by jlori via Flickr

So I've been using Google Wave for more than a month now, and it's been an interesting trip thus far. At first all I was wishing for was either more friends on Google Wave or to actually have invites for the application so I could have more friends on Google Wave. Long story short, a mass of invites seems to have gone out in the past two weeks and now practically all of my geek friends seem to have it now (and I still have about 20 invites left.) So naturally more contacts on Google Wave has resulted in a lot more experimentation.

There are something things that I'm already loving about this application and you can certainly feel the potential for it. The big things for me are (1) the ability to edit anything in the Wave, (2) true real-time collaboration and (3) it's just so gosh-darned shiny!

But given this is still in beta, there are also some major things I'd love to see in upcoming updates in Google Wave, so here's my short wish list just in case Santa works at Google:

[Contests] Google Wave Invites Up For Grabs!

Image via Wikipedia

So I've been using Google Wave for about a month now and it's been pretty cool but of course a tad confusing at times. I think all new Google Wave users get that initial "Yay, I have an invite!" feeling that's quickly followed by the "Great, now what do I do with this?" notion immediately after. It's definitely a different concept that only really makes more sense when you have more contacts to Wave with - this is a social communication tool after all.

To get a better idea of what Google Wave promises to be, check out this video:

What is Google Wave?

So I was surprised to find that I've been given 28 Google Wave invites and given it's Thanksgiving, it only makes sense to share the love with all you Geeky Guide readers! But let's make it a little more interesting in terms of how you can get a Google Wave invite.