Earlier this week I was enjoying the glorious gadget imagery from CES, everything from 3D tv to transparent displays to laptops and tablets, the future really looks sweet.

Games
Wii – a bland year for Nintendo, finally the big behemoth of consoles are turning down in sales, and even though some larger titles may appear like Mario galaxy 2 and other M, I guess we will have to wait for E3 to hear some news.
Also Michael Pachter has predicted that WIIHD will come at the end of the year, it won't, I seriously think he is overestimating Nintendo's business sense, they got one or two things right with the Wii mote and Wii fit, but the rest is not that great, ever heard of Wii Speak, well it did kinda get lost a bit there.
So no WiiHD yet,personally I am leaning towards 2013 and a brand new console.

Xbox360 – as for exclusives there is only the left over bits that where delayed like Allan wake and new ones like n3, Halo 4, oops, I meant reach, if we are lucky there will also be a Gears 3 but so far it's unannounced.
They will be going full bore with natal and explaining how it will revolutionize gaming, to that I have two points 1. it's not a game controller 2. its nothing new, playstation has been doing similar things with the PS2, so expect no more than the token games and features Microsoft requires, most of which will be able to be played using the basic controller.
So if my spidy senses serves me right they are going to want to expand the software capabilities of the xbox, perhaps in a form of a new look and feel, remember the xbox is nothing more than a trojan horse in their eyes to get another place to put a product, that is also why the likelihood of a xbox slim is small, they are not in for it to sell games or a certain hardware platform, if they update the xbox then it's a proper update and not just a slimming of it like Sony did.

PS3 – There are a few exclusives like god of war 3 and GT5, now though it is a off year for big titles my guess is that there is going to be a few surprises at E3.
Most importantly we have the PS3 motion controller that are set for release this spring, it's something they can use to begin to neutralize the wiimote as a USP, and that is something I don't think Nintendo is ready for.
The PS3 is also set for some big updates, 3d blu-ray update is coming this spring and 3D gaming for E3, they where pushing it hard at CES, so one might only wonder what E3 is gonna be like.
I hope that we will see the first UI upgrade to the XMB, preferably to take advantage of it's newfangled 3D feature.

PC: RAGE and starcraft2, nuff said

Computer Technology
The DX11 class hardware wars, AMD has already launched it's card and nvidia is soon to follow, the fermi architecture they revealed is faster than Amd's chip, question is, will AMD be able to catch up or will the graphics version have other enhancements that make it a bit faster still.
I think Fermi will kick ass, either way you look at it, and since it's mostly “software” driven it can probably be upgraded to DX12 without a s much as an afterthought.
This year much effort and attention will be spent on these netbooks, tablets and similar devices.
We will be able to see SSDs coming down in price and thus enter common use, at least by the end of the year.

Consumer electronics
As apple is preparing another iphone to sell they are going to have significant competition compared to last year, lots of phones will come with android like nexux one and Xperia X10, along with the European style of open phones and nonexclusive carriers, I am not sure if apple is ready for this.
OLEDs is gearing up for 2011-2012 so along with the spiffy tech demos (like the transparent display) we might be able to see the first commercial larger product like a 30” tv or a desktop display, though if you have to ask me about the price it's to expensive for you.
At CES we saw a great push towards 3D, and basically the technology needed is already in the higher end TVs, just not all of it, what I have heard is that you need at least a speed of 120 hertz or at least the double of the standard 60 hertz that is used today, and that is approximately what's being offered today, so I expect that basically all newer TVs will have that feature by the end of the year, except for the cheapest ones.
Same thing goes for computer monitors, except that can be done even today on some monitors, just check nvidias homepage for a list of compatible monitors, next time I upgrade I am gonna get one that can do just that, it will only then be my third attempt at a viable 3d solution, and I might even have glasses that will work with this.

Politics
North Korea seems to ramping down while Israel is ramping up, both are unpredictable, but I think Obama and Hillary can deal with them.
Swedish election this year, personally I think the redgreen opposition will win, as the alternative is looking pretty bleak.
Democrats will take a firm grasp of the senate, still won't get anything done though.

Entertainment
Avatar Part Two, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, Clash of the Titans, The A-Team, The Karate Kid, The Expendables, The Green Hornet, Tron Legacy and so on, need I go on.
Also lady gaga is slowly bringing great music to the Americas.

Apple long shot of the year
I direct you to the 2008 choice, the iTablet or iPad or whatever it will be called, it's all but confirmed.
Also a new iPhone and for a hoot a new iPod nano with tiny wireless earplugs.


Well that's all for now, if all goes to plan this will be the last one if these I do here ever (as it will be transferred to my new site), but then again who knows it might take a while to code and I'm sorta in a low productive zone right now.
But among the things coming this year is maybe some webGL stuff and something I call the Slot model as a suggestion for the future of openGL.
 
 
 

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