What's new?

I have been wondering what new gadgets will be coming over the next couple of years.

Looking backwards 10-20 years at the rate of progress and trying to project forward is always a bit of fun.

I have made a few predictions that panned out- most of which were scoffed at by 'industry experts'

Pre-paid mobile phones, huge growth in the computer gaming market, video phones, colour printers and the MP3 type music player were all things I had picked for the early 21st century (this was 20 years previous)

I got a few wrong- teletext was nobbled by the internet and a universal personal phone number hasn't happened yet.

It's not that there a re great new inventions coming onto the market- it's more a steady refinement of existing devices and the drop in price for these goods. In another decade, the old CRT tv will be as much an oddity as a wood cabinet black &white set. And today I read that 3-D tv is in development. That will probably arrive about the time I have replaced all my favorite movies with blu-ray!

So what are my picks for the upcoming hot items?

USB data stick systems- just plug into another computer or a dumb terminal and all your stuff is there.

LED panel lighting

Internet notebooks will take off like the mobile phones they will eventually replace- the ever decreasing size of these devices will drive the development of voice interface software.

Flexible LCD screens.