Recently, I had a discussion with a group of educators and parents in a school in Princeton, NJ, about what new technology tools they should purchase for their district. Their criteria were basic computing and research, longevity, ease of use, long battery life, portability, and the ability to upload the writing/work/projects to a local server. I suggested net books, tablets, cloud applications, and interactive white board tools that allowed the student or the user to share his/her work with the class without going up to the board. This discussion got me thinking about other conversations I had with some colleagues and parents about their own computing and technology uses. The common question I kept getting from the group was “How will I know it will last?” The answer is “You don’t.” Trends come and go, applications change in popularity and usefulness/practicality but the truth is we will always need and want to communicate with others in a very intimate and sometimes collaborative way.
Two colleagues recently turned me on to Google Hangout, a relatively new feature of the Google+. The “hangout” allows you to have a conversation, share your desktop, and even create something collaboratively with a group of people you choose. This group is called a circle and you invite people from your circle to this synchronous chat. You can also follow celebrities, athletes, and other artists, adding them to a circle. A giant leap above the popular Skype, Google Hangout touts “real life sharing”, giving many participants a new way of bringing together the popular features of Facebook, Twitter, and Google Applications all in one tool. Speaking of the popular, now publicly traded Facebook, the once had to have connection tool seems to have become overly saturated. A younger audience seems to be pushing out the early adopters who are growing tired of the updates- a fatal fate of the once popular AOL. In addition, applications like Tumblr, Twitter, and Google+ seem to be grabbing the tech savvy’s attention away from the once dominant social media tool.
These are just cloud applications but what about your next technology purchase? To be clear, you have to buy what you think you will use and what will fit your lifestyle. This March Apple will launch the iPad 3 and rumor has it that an iSmall, a smaller more affordable version of the iPad, will launch later in 2012. So if you haven’t entered the tablet market yet, you have a interesting ride- Samsung Galaxy, Samsung Galaxy Note (7 inch version), Kindle Fire, and Blackberry’s Playbook are other more inexpensive options.
Net books are definitely dropping in price, some are only $99.00. Apple’s new MacBook Pro will be smaller, lighter, and faster- no hard drive, everything is up on the iCloud. And with cloud space, your need for computers with large, heavy hard drives, seems to be a thing of the past. As a matter of fact, you could buy a portable hard drive for about $20 bucks- a terabyte is only $79 bucks.
If fitness is your thing, Nike just launched its Fuel Band- a black rubber Live Strong-style bracelet, jam-packed with goal setting tools. Syncing to the nikefuel app, Nike Fuel Band might be just the thing you purchase to get yourself back on the fitness track for $149.99.
So before buying into the next technology trend, think about what you need, how you will use it, and how it will fit into your lifestyle. And don’t forget that no matter what Smart phone, web app, or computing tool you use, you will never stop communicating, you may just change the way you do it.
Posted by scarbonaro 
