Author: Navneet Alang

Long long ago, in that distant, ancient era of the 2000′s, we heard unending chatter about this thing called ‘the semantic web’. The semantic web was supposed to be like the holy grail of technology. At its heart, it was meant to do two things: to make all that impersonal data online accessible in regular, everyday language; and to make connections between that data in ways that aren’t always readily apparent. There were a bunch of promising apps. Two of the biggest were Twine – which has since become evri – and Glue, which is now Getglue. But now, those two semantic apps are social apps. And in 2011,…

It has become common wisdom that retail stores that carry physical media – CDs, books, movies in particular – are, to use the scientific term, “toast”. And indeed, whatever is being said, physical media stores are going through an upheaval: in the U.S. Borders seems barely solvent; in the U.K, Waterstones and HMV are shutting stores. It’s a pattern being repeated everywhere. Around the wealthy parts of the world, retailers who trade in old media are struggling. But they aren’t dead. Or, at the very least, they don’t have to die. There are steps that can be taken so they can save themselves. It won’t…

Android is not ‘cool’. There, I said it. Sure, this year it’s almost certain that Android will overtake iOS in terms of market share. And, the Consumer Electronics Show may as well be called the “Half This Stuff is Android Electronics show”. But, rather than simply being a question of what gets the tech world drooling, the ineffable nature of ‘cool’ has real consequences for ecosystems, economics and cultural cachet – and right now, for a variety of reasons, Android just doesn’t have it. Apple’s Cool Factor = Mindshare Here’s something about iOS’s success that people have never been very good at…

The scene was one familiar to many tech geeks. It was after the launch of Netflix’s PS3 app, and I, breathlessly, excitedly, couldn’t wait to show my parents, who had a PS3 under their TV too. “Look!”, I said “you can watch an unlimited number of movies! There are new ones and classics and documentaries… trust me, you’ll love this.” My father’s brown furrowed a little. “Okay,” he said skeptically. “What do I have to do?” “Oh, it’s easy, I said. First, switch the input on the TV. Then pick up this remote and – well, you see that button with ‘P’ on it, press that. Okay, then see that circle pad? Use that to…

The past year in technology was among the more surprising ones we’ve had. Even the most astute, insightful tech observers would have had trouble predicting some of the things that happened this year. The iPad and Kinect have become the fastest selling electronic devices in history. Android exploded at a rate few could have seen coming. Facebook and Twitter kept up their blistering expansion rates, while Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7… is actually good. But what about this coming year? What events and happenings will not only define 2011, but also cause tech-heads to look back in a year from now…

From an industry perspective, 2010 was a fascinating year in video games. We saw both Microsoft and Sony successfully release motion control add-ons to existing systems – something that a few years ago, would have seemed unbelievable. (And frankly, even though we here at Techi did predict it, we were all a bit surprised how successful Kinect was). The Xbox 360 will likely outsell the Wii in North America, while Call of Duty: Black Ops outsold most games total sales in its first month. Meanwhile, depending on sales in December, the potential of Sony’s Playstation 3 may remain just that. And though…

Now that the tech world has had some time to look at ChromeOS, Google’s new stab at an operating system, there is a lot of skepticism about the worth and viability of the move. While Google trumpeted the launch as the future of the OS, a lot of people are a lot less sure. Some, like Gmail creator Paul Buchheit , think it will be dead by the end of next year, and will end up simply merged into Android. Others, like GNU founder Richard Stallman, are worried that a cloud OS will put users at risk. Some tech blogs seem to think the whole thing is a waste of time. All are fair complaints. But what many are missing is that…

2010 was, even more so than most, a rollercoaster year for tech. From the glossy newness of the iPad, to the frenzy surrounding Wikileaks, to the rise of Android, to the continuing explosion of Facebook and Twitter, it seemed the pace of change just kept on accelerating. Still, like any year, not all of that change was good. From the entrenchment of big media to  the ambivalence of ‘hacktivism’, 2010 had some disturbing trends for tech. Here are my picks for some of the worst. Old Media, Clinging to the Past While 2010 had some old media success stories – like the success of the The Atlantic or the unprecedented…

Here in North America (and a bunch of other places around the world) people are getting ready to celebrate, whether it be for Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. You know what that means? Presents! And as we all know, in a sign of just how important they’ve become, tech gifts are now the most desired presents of all. But amidst all the hype and rush to get something before it’s too late, people sometimes buy things that are less than ideal. So as a loyal service to our Techi readers, here’s a list of some very popular gifts that you might want to think twice about before purchasing for your loved ones. And even…

While the ebook market sometimes seems like the least sexy segment of the digital world, it’s still a huge deal. After all, last time I checked, books were still a pretty big deal, whether in terms of how many people read or how many people many money off that fact. So while the arrival of Google’s new electronic bookstore may seem a little blah, it’s actually pretty important. Because, although it’s true a group of high school students could have arrived at a better name than the Google eBookstore, Google’s new cloud-based approach is not just their challenge to Amazon and Apple – it’s also part of…