Why 2013 was a Great Year for Tech

I read a rather annoying article last week about why 2013 was a bad year for tech. I felt was lazily written; the main reason is it only highlighted the major news stories, didn’t add any analysis, and didn’t mention any of the good to go along with the bad. It was a very one-sided article that provided no insight, and in all honestly, was probably a grab for end of the year blog traffic. Well in my feeble attempt at a grab for end of the year blog traffic, here’s why I think 2013 was a great year for tech.

The Mobile Mindset

Finally, people are thinking about mobile- this year more than ever. The notion of Responsive Design came about in 2010 and started to get adopted by developers in 2011, but now clients are asking for it, more people are using it, and developers are not only doing it, but doing it right. Websites are expected to responsive now, not only by developers, but by users. This is a great thing that will make great mobile web for 2014.

Wearable Technology makes a Splash

Google Glass, the Pebble Watch, the Galaxy Gear, and lots more wearable technology entered the consumer market this year. Similarly, wearables that were already out (like the Fitbit and the Jawbone UP) became a lot more popular. It’s still a very young field and there are some growing pains, but people are talking about it, and more importantly, slowly buying into it.

Disney Magic Bands

This is kind of a subset of wearable technology, but I think it deserves its own heading because of what the Magic Bands do- namely everything I envisions in this article I wrote about NFC in 2012. They use RFID (not NFC) for your park tickets, hotel room keys, room charging abilities, FastPasses, saving photos, and more.  The band combines with a biometric (namely the size/shape of your index finger) or a PIN that you define, and after using it for a week this past month, I’ve got to say it works really well. I will likely do a longer write-up here later.

Other Advances in Disney Technology

Aside from Magic Bands, Disney Parks have seen other technological advances regarding the audio-animatronics (their ride robots) and even costumed characters. For the first time ever, you can meet Mikey, Minnie, and the rest of the gang and they will talk to you with a moving mouth and look at you with blinking eyes.

Privacy Became a Big Concern

What annoyed me the most about that article I read was it mentioned that people are weary about technology because of all the privacy issues that arose this year; I want to put a different spin on it. I’m glad that people are finally aware of the privacy ramifications that accompany doing everything on the Internet. Maybe next year, people will realize SnapChat is probably keeping those images that users are sending on their servers.

All-in-all, I think 2013 was a good year for the technology field. We are entering a very interesting time with the convergences of several different  types of tech- mobile, wearables, always connected- and I think that will make 2014 even better. What was your favorite technology story of 2013?