2005 Round up

2006 marks my second anniversary at Talis and so I'm going to be (even more) self indulgent now and have a quick recap at what's happened in 2005. I think the biggest thing for me personally was buying our first house, which has introduced me to the delights of a real kitchen and a dishwasher and also gardening. This can be translated into turned me into a sad old git, but I love it. But as far as work goes 2006 holds a lot of opportunities, thanks primarily to some key events in the last 12(ish) months:

Firefox

The Firefox browser was launched in 2004. But it really found it's market share in 2005, at last there is a real alternative to Internet Explorer and one that offers far more standards support than previous browsers. Tabbed browsing is also a great innovation that makes my surfing just that little bit easier.

Adobe buys Macromedia

Adobe's purchase of Macromedia has already cost 7000 people their jobs for Christmas, but that will just be the begining. I wait with baited breathe to see what will happen to the software I use everyday. Lets hope they don't under estimate the unique value of Fireworks.

Google Desktop and Dave's Quick Search

Google Desktop is well documented across the web, but Dave's quick Search is often overlooked. It's a great little app that sits in the taskbar and can be used to directly search the web via google or a multitude of other websites. It can also be customised to use searches on other websites, with additions of a few lines of parameters. Very handy indeed.

XBox 360 Launched

The first of the next gen consoles. Although most people won't be lucky enough to have one of these yet (me included). In an industry that has has overtaken film in the entertainment market, gaming is big business and so is the launch of a new platform. Recently, with the exception of the Eye Toy and the Nintendo DS; hardware developemnts which have spurred some interesting games, gaming has become overall stagnant with development costs hindering inovation. Hopefully as with the other hardware developemnts this new platform will push developers to create some new and interesting games to take advantage of the XBox 360.

RSS

Really Simple Syndication, RSS, has taken off in a big way. No longer do you have to chase down that information you wanted, but you can have it fed to you. Similar to how you would subscribe to an email newsletter, but without having to give away your details and with up to the minute information. It's the bits of the web you like, delivered to your door. For me so far the weaknesses have been trying to find a News Reader that does everything I want, Including offering suggestions of RSS feeds I might like based on those selected. But also the inevitableness of advertising within this media. Still a little too new, RSS adverts are few and far between, but where there is an audience the spammers are sure to follow.

iPod in all it's new guises

iPod released the Shuffle, Nano and colour Screen iPod this year. iPod has already clearly defined itself as a design icon, but with this has moved to make itself more affordable and now the "cool thing" is affordable to than just the designer elite. I think eventually the old 20MB version will become the retro cool, in a statement of I did it first, if the battery can last long enough ;) . Just a thought.

Hybrid cars

With the cost of petrol becoming increasingly ludicrous in the UK and the enviromental issues around fossil fuel consumption. Hybrid cars have not yet taken off in the UK, but they are certainly something worth paying attention to.

PSP

Play Station Portable, PSP, this little gadget I think will have a profound affect on portable media. Not just gaming, but there has already been a huge boost in film related sales and it is starting to establish it self as a new type of media. While I have never felt comfortable with trying to view the web on a crappy little phone screen, and like most people I can't justify the cost of a PDA, the PSP offers a lot of potential as like Nintendo's Gameboy I think we can expect it to become common place. Although this is just theory at the minute. If we are eally going to see a mobile internet I think the PSP may be the way forward. It hasa beautiful hi-res screen that can easily cope with a web browsing experience we have all become used to and critically it will be in the hands of the right people to drive it forward.