Technology Highlights of 2009

Global e-Village

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon... Wave, Windows 7, iPhone, Kindle... So many things, new technologies, improved versions... Some of them you shouldn't forget when you think of previous year


By GABRIELA ZAGO (gabriela.zago@wavemagazine.net)
from Porto Alegre, BRAZIL


Every day several new websites, gadgets and devices are launched. But only a few manage to get media attention. Even fewer manage to remain mainstream for quite a some time. In order to remember some of the technology highlights of the year that just ended, WAVE magazine made a list of some of the year most awaited (and others not so popular) releases:

Google Wave - Online collaboration tool that blends the funcionalities of a wiki with a powerful communication tool. Although it was launched with a promising usefulness, too few has been heard about it by the end of the year. It's supposed to replace e-mail messages in the future. Far far away in the future, maybe? First invitations started to be sent out by September 30th.

Windows 7 - This new version of Windows was launched in 2009 (in July, for enterprises, and October, for the rest of us). It corrects some functionalities that made people avoid migrating from Windows XP to Windows Vista, after it was launched, almost 3 years ago.

Snow Leopard - Apple has also launched a new version of its OS in 2009. The version 10.6 of Mac OS X is focused on improving perfomance and efficiency. Released on August 28th.

iPhone 3GS - Another Apple 2009 release was iPhone 3GS. The smartphone functions as iPod, digital camera, and comes with Internet and 3G technology, among other resources. Announced on June 8th, iPhone 3GS has improved performance, a better camera (including video capability) and voice control.

Android cell phones - Although this Google OS for cellphones isn't exactly a 2009 creation, in 2009 a lot of cell phones were released with this functionality. One of these is Motorola Droid, the first cell phone to be released with the version 2.0 of Android. Another good call is Nexus One, or "Google Phone", announced by Google in the beginning of 2010 - it will probably make to the 2010 list, just wait and see.

Bing - New search engine from Microsoft, it started ts operations by June. Bing replaces the Windows Live Search. Its features include the explorer panel (suggestions of related searches, based on semantic technology from Powerset (www.powerset.com), purchased by Microsoft in 2008) and a list of search suggestions as queries are entered on the search box.

OLED - Although OLED technology has been around for quite a few time - OLED TVs, for instance, are there since 2007 - 2009 was the year of implementing OLED screens in devices other than TV. Like on Samsung touchscreen cell phones, or on Philips lighting called "Lumiblade".

Kindle 2 - Amazon e-book device received in 2009 its second version, with improved battery life, text-to-speech option, and thickness reduced. But the truly new feature appeared on October, when Kindle started to be sold internationally, with the ability to buy books using a 3G international chip installed on the device.

Formspring.me - a Twitter-like site where users ask questions one to another. You can add friends and read their answers. Anonymous questions can be asked and answered too, what makes the site even more interesting, and led to its success - at least in Brazil. Launched on November 25th.

New Orkut - Even though only popular in countries like Brazil and India, Orkut is Google's social network site. In October, the site launched its new version. But in order to estimulate people's participation, people had to be "invited" by their friends in order to see the redesign. It helped to bring a little novelty to the site, but it soon went back to the previous state of abandon (at least in Brazil).

Bonus track - There are a lot of technologies that, despite not being launched in 2009, became more popular during last year. This is the case of Twitter, for example, that received in 2009 a lot of mainstream attention. Another good example is cloud computing, which is a new model for IT services based on the Internet that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet, usually on demand. Social games at social networks like Facebook also became famous in 2009, with farms, mafias, vampires, and others.


(Published: 15.01.2010.)