Top Ten Technologies That Shaped The Decade
The last ten years have without a doubt been filled with many memorable ups and downs. From an unprecedented terrorist attack and two recessions to the swearing in of the United States first African American president and a growing focus on protecting the environment, the significance of the events since the start of the millennium have left a lasting impact on who we are and how we think of the world around us.
Without a doubt, technology has been one of the biggest influencers of the past decade, and it’s fabulous to reflect on how far we’ve come since the dawn of Y2K. While there have been countless advances and improvements, some technologies have changed our lives for ever. For better or worse, the following top 10 tech advances are now part of our reality and positioned to become even more ubiquitous as we peek into the future.
Web 2.0
First coined at a conference in 2004 to label a second generation of internet-based services, Web 2.0 has shifted the Internet away from static web pages towards dynamic and collaborative content and social networking. Web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups, and more are all examples of Web 2.0. Certainly just the fact that there are now over 65 million Facebook users worldwide is enough reason to put this among the best 10 tech advances of the decade. However, if you also include how this shift in how we use the Internet applies to business, education, politics, news, and entertainment, its influence is truly monumental.
VoIP
It’s hard to hold that only a decade ago we were paying our local phone company by the minute whenever we made a call outside of our place code. Rates were often outrageously high, and many people simply couldn’t afford to call friends and family living abroad. Then came Skype, MediaRing Talk, and a whole host of other internet phone providers that made calling anywhere in the world affordable and often times free.
Yes, VoIP technology might have been first introduced in the 1990s, but it wasn’t widely available to consumers until the last ten years. Now, many of us have replaced our landlines with VoIP phone service such as Vonage and don’t think twice about calling long distance. VoIP has also been instrumental in the shift to overseas call centers and the growth in teleconferencing, and has become an instrumental tool for countless businesses that have expanded their customer base beyond their local site.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing, also known as internet-based computing, let us slash hardware and software expenses and pay for only the applications we use. Cloud computing buzz words and acronyms like software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) began rolling off the tongues of IT managers as they discovered the cost-savings in this technology. Cloud computing spawned a wave of telecommuting as workers could now access their data and applications by logging on from their home PC. It also let small businesses gain access to many of the same tools that were once only available to their larger competitors who had deep pockets for IT expenditures.
Smartphones
Blackberries, iPhones, Android phones, and many others. We have definitely made a tremendous leap in mobile phone technology. As we enter 2010, we employ our phones to text message, send emails, browse the Internet, play games, take photos, read books, and listen to music. With PC capabilities, these supped up phones have itsy-bitsy in common with our cumbersome cell phones of days gone by. No doubt, manufacturers such as Apple and Nokia will continue to churn out new advances as our addiction to mobile technology grows.
TiVo/DVR Players
For TV lovers, TiVo and digital video recorder technology have been among the decade’s best technological advances. While we once bought and level-headed video tapes, frustrated ourselves with programming our VCRs, and hoped for the best that we taped the shows we wanted to watch, we’re now ensured that we’ll never miss anything on TV. By storing programs onto hard disk storage, we can also do cool things with this handy technology like pausing live TV and rewinding and replaying it with a touch of a button.
Digital Cameras
When was the last time you bought a little yellow box of Kodak film? If you’re like most, you ditched your old camera for a digital model sometime in the last ten years. Now, we can choose an unlimited amount of photos, upload them onto our PCs, share them with everyone on Facebook and Flickr, and make copies on our home printer. Professional photographers almost exclusively work in digital now and have to be equally talented in Photoshop as they are at shooting at the right angle.
Streaming Media
Streaming media technology has let us incorporate audio, video, and multimedia in ways that we never thought were possible. Adding a video to a personal blog, incorporating a webcast to your corporate site, watching your favorite point to on HULU, or downloading your favorite tunes to your iPod, streaming media has made the online world more lively, up-to-date, and interactive.
GPS
For the navigationally challenged, traipsing to AAA before a trip for foldable paper maps was a must. Now, our cars and mobile phones are designed with GPS (global positioning system) in place to retain us from getting lost. This satellite-based navigation system, made up of 24 satellites effect into orbit by the US Dept. of Defense, was originally developed for military use. However, it’s quickly become a favorite tech gadget for civilians, too.
Wii
Video games used to be primarily for teenage boys with too distinguished time on their hands. Nintendo’s Wii changed all of that. The home video game console’s distinguishing feature is its wireless controller which detects movement in 3-D. With a growing number of games, including Wii Fit that is being targeted to “gamers” of all ages and has been incorporated into exercise programs at health clubs worldwide, there’s no denying that Wii has changed the map we play video games.
E-Book Readers
Internet gurus have touted the waste of printed books for nearly two decades, but the technology to allow readers to truly enjoy printed material on a highly readable, portable procedure simply wasn’t available until this decade. Now e-book readers such as Barnes & Helpful Nook and Amazon Kindle are piquing the curiosity of book lovers everywhere and selling out at retailers. Like what the iPod did for music, e-book readers are now taking the publishing world by storm.
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Filed under Vonage Business Solutions by on Jan 28th, 2012. 
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