Tech Tuesday on Sirius/XM PGA Tour Radio for 10/8/13 - Tech Trends

* TOPICS - Rick is Macon, GA this week as the media coordinator of the ButlerCars.com Tennis Classic of Macon. A women's pro tennis tournament, on a circuit kind of like the Symetra Tour is to women's golf
Women players ranked 85-300 in the world are participating

* Rick and Brian will look at some tech trends on the horizon....


1.  The Demise of the Desk Top Computer...

Still around, but now used for "heavy computing" - work stations, app developers, programmers.
We are a "mobile society" that is why we love out laptops, tablets, and smartphones
For the fifth quarter in a row, traditional desktops have seen a decline in sales globally. 
The past 10 years have seen U.S. consumer desktop PC sales shaved nearly in half, according to researcher Gartner.

2.   Free Wi-Fi for everyone. 

Towns are cities are slowly embracing this initiative.  Free Wi-Fi is popping up in cities all over the country. Soon there will be free universal Wi-Fi everywhere
http://www.techguysmartbuy.com/2013/09/nyc-to-free-wi-fi-by-december-in-select-areas.html

3. Augmented Reality

3D, but so much more
CrowdOptic is a company on the forefront of Augmented Reality and focus-based analytics
Augmented Reality is the interaction of superimposed graphics, audio and other enhancements over a real-world environment displayed in real-time. A key challenge in cyber-physical systems is that users often can’t see the cyber information they need in the real-world setting. For example, as construction workers walk around a site, they can’t see the 3D building plan for the project directly overlaid on the walls in front of them to determine if they are built as planned. Augmented reality technologies enable these workers to reduce costly mistakes by visualizing what they are building atop what actually exists in the physical world. Retailers are currently experimenting with augmented reality to get more customers into the stores by allowing shoppers to ‘see’ the clothes on them without having to actually try them on. Some of these apps are a bit gimmicky now, but have the potential to change how we shop, train for new skills, game, build, and make other important decisions.

 
 
4.  Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding campaigns will get more popular

More and more people, organizations, bands, tv and movie producers are putting their ideas up on sites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo or creating their own websites to get money to produce their projects.
What's to say cities or schools can't start their own campaigns for various things.
It's a new way of fundraising.
 

5. More People "Cutting the Cord"

Our cable bills are out of hand  - Average range is now $115-$200
Now, for about $23 a month, you can watch all your favorite programs through the streaming subscription services Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus.
To catch local news, and sports like NFL games, tune into free over-the-air network TV using a low-cost “rabbit ears” digital antenna, which sells for as little as $8.
More and more programming, including original programmins will be coming via the internet

 
6.   5G

The G stands for Generation, thus typically the speed of data transmission over wireless networks increases with each generation. U.S. wireless providers are far into the process of converting their networks from 3G to 4G, as are the device makers (Apple's iPhone 5 was its first 4G smartphone). Recently two competing 4G platforms were in use by various wireless telecom companies. For many reasons, LTE (long-term evolution) won out over WiMAX for North American cellular phone markets in 2012, thus moving all of us closer to a common broadband platform for the world. You can expect to see 5G roll out within the next few years.