Look out: The 10 rising tech trends of 2012

By Jason Hiner

October 17, 2011, 4:17 PM PDT

Takeaway: At its annual Symposium, Gartner unveiled its list of the 10 most strategic tech trends of 2012, including a controversial demotion of the cloud.

Gartner analyst David Cearly peppered his audience of change-weary IT leaders with a new list of the tech trends that are going to rock their world next year as Cearly helped kick off the annual Gartner Symposium ITxpo on Monday night in Orlando.

This is always one of the most anticipated presentations of Gartner Symposium since it helps give a 20,000-foot view of the year ahead. At a conference that bombards IT executives with tons of research and statistics, it gives a little context at the beginning to put things in perspective for the rest of the week.




Here’s my breakout of the top 10, with select quotes from Cearly on the importantance of each of the items:

1. Media tablets and beyond - “The implications for IT is that the era of PC dominance with Windows as the single platform will be replaced with a post-PC era where Windows is one of a variety of environments IT will need to support.”

2. Mobile-centric applications and interfaces - “When building user interfaces for multiple screen sizes and operating systems, new types of tools are needed to take the data feeds from applications and transform them so they are usable on the target device… There is no automatic way to do this — it takes engineering skills to design the right outputs.”

3. Contextual and social user experience - “Context-aware computing (CAC) uses information about an end user or objects environment, activities connections and preferences to improve the quality of interaction with that end user or object.” This is where GPS, NFC, bar code readers, image recognition, augmented reality, and various types of digital sensors come together to make computing devices automatically adapt to the environment and streamline things for users.

4. Internet of Things - “This Internet of things will enable a wide range of new applications and services while raising new challenges. For example, objects will increasingly act as “users” of other systems. Imagine a scenario where a warehouse robot interfaces with the ERP system for self replenishment or a truck schedules it’s own maintenance. IT will increasingly have to consider how these scenarios impact issues such as software licensing.”

5. App stores and marketplaces - “With enterprise app stores the role of IT shifts from that of a centralized planner to a market manager providing governance and brokerage services to users and an potentially an ecosystem to support apptrepreneurs.”

6. Next-generation analytics - “We have reached the point in the improvement of performance and costs that we can afford to perform analytics and simulation for each and every action taken in the business. Not only will data center systems be able to do this, but mobile devices will have access to data and enough capability to perform analytics themselves, potentially enabling use of optimization and simulation everywhere and every time.”

7. Big data - “Another driver challenging IT is extreme information. Many organizations are beginning to realize they must to use this data for decisions, new analytic applications and pattern-based strategies… Big data has such a vast size that it exceeds the capacity of traditional data management technologies; it requires the use of new or exotic technologies simply to manage the volume alone.”

8. In-memory computing - “In-memory applications platforms include in-memory analytics, event processing platforms, and in-memory application servers… Running existing applications in-memory or refactoring these applications to exploit in-memory approaches can result in improved transactional application performance and scalability, lower latency (less than one microsecond) application messaging, dramatically faster batch execution and faster response time in analytical applications.”

9. Extreme low-energy servers - “The adoption of low-energy servers — the radical new systems being proposed, announced and marketed by mostly new entrants to the server business — will take the buyer on a trip backward in time. These systems will remove virtualization and lessen the shared use of systems. ”

10. Cloud computing - ”We could see the failure of the cloud to live up to the hype… The luster could wear off.” Gartner dropped the cloud from number one on the list for 2011 to number 10 for 2012. However, besides the hype issue, Cearly also noted that it’s partially because the cloud is getting absorbed into lots of other operational IT areas.

Cearly also noted how IT leaders should think about the “strategic technologies” on this list:


“A strategic technology is one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise during the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment or the risk of being late to adopt… Companies should use the list as a starting point and adjust based on their industry, unique business needs, technology adoption model, and other factors.”

My take

It won’t surprise anyone that tablets are at the top of the list, and rightfully so. From both an employee and customer standpoint, tablets have been driving a huge change in the way people interact with information over the past two years and the process is likely to accelerate in 2012 as the price of tablets drop, Android’s tablet software improves, and Microsoft gets into the game with a legitimate play in Windows 8.

The biggest surprise was the demotion of cloud computing from number one to number 10. I think this was a bit of grandstanding on Gartner’s part because they know that journalists and the tech world would react strongly to it and write about it. But, I think they’re generally correct that a lot of enterprises are still balking at the cloud, or at least not jumping in with both feet. The cloud is being driven heavily by SMB and in order to fully come of age it will need convince bigger players to get on board for more than just a few fringe applications.

Other than that, I think big data, analytics, and apps should have all been a lot higher up on the list, while the Internet of Things is still a couple of years away from having a widespread impact — it’s going to require better, cheaper, and more ubiquitous mobile broadband.

Ubuntu 11.10 brings Ubuntu Unity closer to fine

Ubuntu 11.10 brings Ubuntu Unity closer to fine
By Jack Wallen

October 17, 2011, 7:57 AM PDT

Takeaway: With the release of Ubuntu 11.10, Ubuntu Unity makes some progress on the desktop front. Is it enough? Jack Wallen offers his take on the state of the desktop from Canonical.

If you’ve been following me long enough, you know since the inception of Ubuntu Unity my relationship with that new desktop has been one of love-hate. When Unity was first rumored and the designs and philosophy were made known, the relationship was one of love. But when 11.04 was released, that relationship quickly shifted to hate. But now, 11.10 is out and Ubuntu has had a chance to make good on their Unity promises. I have to say, after upgrading to 11.10 … I’m pretty impressed with the improvements.

I’ll preface the rest of this by saying it’s not perfect, but it’s closer to being a fine desktop than it’s previous iteration.

Now … just what has improved? Let’s take a look. I am taking this from the perspective of an end-user, so there will be no talk of development this or power-user that. What I am interested in is whether or not Unity has come far enough along for the average end user.

The Good



The Unity Dash has had a bit of overhaul, making it easier to access various pieces. Figure A shows the Dash in action. Click on the Dash icon to reveal a new overlay that allows you to do the following (via icon):
•Open up various categories of apps (Media, Internet, and More).
•Open up default apps (as configured within System).
•Find files.

You will also notice, at the bottom of the Dash overlay, a row of tabs. These tabs are (from left to right):
•Dash Home
•Applications
•Documents and folders
•Media



So what the developers of Unity have done is make it incredibly easy to get to various applications, files, and folders. This is a big plus for not just average users, but for any level of users. Another nice addition to the Dash is the ability to quickly filter results by categories. Take a look at Figure B (sorry, wallpaper is set to randomly change.)

Click on the Applications Tab in the Dash Overlay and you can then filter by various categories, making the search for that specific file or application much easier.

It is also possible now to eject external discs and USB devices from the Launcher. Simply right-click the device to reveal a menu offering:
•Open
•Eject
•Safely Remove

The not so good

The Metaphor is still the big issue. Most end users do not like change — of any kind. They don’t like drive letters to change, they don’t like the look and feel of things to change. This is the one glaring problem with driving such a grand, sweeping change such is Ubuntu Unity. New users will take one look at it and say “Where’s my Start button? Where are my icons?” There is no way around this and new users will just have to accept that change is an inevitability with the PC desktop. Even with Windows — change happens and users have little to no choice but to move on. Eventually the touch-screen friendly desktop interface such as Unity and Gnome 3 will be less a shock to users (granted it would help if Canonical would come through on the promise of touchscreen hardware to happily marry with the interface).

More not so good

Why is it the developers of Ubuntu Unity have decided that configuring the desktop is just not something we mortals need. Sorry people, but I am a serious tinkerer on the desktop. I want my desktop cake and I want to eat it too! But alas — configuring the Unity desktop is just not meant to be (outside of changing your desktop background.) This does need to change. People (even new users) want to configure that desktop!

Even more not so good

I’m still not sold on the Apple-like application menu. No more do applications have their own menu. You want to access an application menu, you have to have that application in focus and then go up to the main bar at the top of the window. This isn’t terribly efficient when you have many windows open.

And speaking of many windows open — I want, nay need, my sloppy focus. I do not like to have to click on titlebars (or any location within the window) to give a window focus. I am all about making as few clicks and points with the mouse as possible. Give me sloppy focus and auto-raise back!

Android 4.0: Eight new features that actually matter

Takeaway: Google unveiled Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” on Wednesday and showed off lots of eye candy. Here’s a look at the useful stuff.

Google and Samsung teamed up for a joint announcement on Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Samsung was involved because it’s manufacturing the first Android 4.0 device, the Galaxy Nexus, which becomes the latest “Google phone,” following in the footsteps of the Nexus One and the Nexus S.

Thankfully, the announcement was dominated by updates about Android 4.0, which reunites the platform around one OS for both smartphones and tablets. On Wednesday, Google was mostly talking about Android 4.0’s smartphone features and there were a lot to like.

While Google showed off plenty of the improvements were just eye candy, here’s my list of eight new features in Ice Cream Sandwich that will actually be quite useful:

1. Android Beam

This is a secure peer-to-peer sharing mechanism using NFC that lets you quickly send content or information from one Android device to another. My colleague Larry Dignan said it reminds him of using IR to beam a digital business card on the old Palm devices. Hopefully, Beam will prove to be more versatile and reliable.

2. Data usage tools

Android 4.0 integrates its own built-in tools for tracking and controlling your data usage so that you don’t go over your data plan cap and owe your carrier extra money at the end of the month. This is more important than ever with the inevitable advent of usage caps in 4G.

3. Voice typing

There’s a new “voice input engine” in Ice Cream Sandwich that allows you to dictate an extended message like an email or a text message. Don’t confuse this with the iPhone’s new Siri digital assistant, but it could be a very useful feature for when you’re in the car.

4. Face unlock

Google has introduced facial recognition to its unlock screen. Instead of using a PIN or pattern recognition, you can now choose facial recognition as your login/unlock method. In the demo at the announcement, the feature failed, so this could need a couple iterations before it works smoothly.

5. Universal copy-and-paste

Android already has copy-and-paste but the various Android skins from the OEMs (and even some apps) implement it differently. In Android 4.0, Google has improved the feature and made it universal.

6. Quick responses to calls

When you receive a call but choose to send it to voicemail, you can now select from a series of canned messages (like “Sorry, in a meeting” or “Call me back in 20 min”) and an automatic text message will be sent to the caller.

7. Screenshots

You can now take screenshots in Android by holding down the power and volume-down buttons. Thank you! This is especially helpful for us journalists, but it’s also useful for IT and business pros who need to put together documentation or show an employee how to do something in Android. No longer do we have to install the whole SDK just to take a simple screenshot.

8. Camera improvements

The camera app has gotten a big upgrade. Google promises “continuous focus, zero shutter lag exposure, and decreased shot-to-shot speed.” I have my doubts about zero shutter lag, but if they’ve improved significantly on the laggy camera app in most Android phones then it will be a welcome upgrade.