opinion

Weird Tech Trends

According to an article posted on Fox News this month, there are going to be a lot of wacky trends in the tech world in the coming New Year. A lot of these “coming soon” trend-type articles are pretty “out there” themselves, but some have come surprisingly close over the years, so it’s always worth it to pay attention. Read on for some of the highlights from that list.

Online Funerals

I thought it was bad enough that Wal-Mart announced last month that it was getting into the casket business. With an already booming urn and pet urn business, the Low-Price Giant decided to further extend its “cradle-to-grave” services to millions of loyal Wal-Mart bargain shoppers. But Fox News says that the relationship between death and the Internet will go a step further with sites such as Otrib.com and Tributes.com for online memorials and new services including FuneralRecording.com and FuneralOne.com webcasting services so family and friends can virtually attend services from anywhere on the globe.

Body Controlled Video Games

You’ve probably already heard about Project Natal, the new XBox controller that allows you to “move” in the game with a camera that tracks your movements and a microphone that captures your voice commands. PlayStation has also announced its Motion Controller which uses a wand to bring you more physically into the game. After the successful launch of Wii you knew XBox and PlayStation had to come up with something competitive.

Content Aggregators

According to Fox you’ll actually start using content aggregators to help you organize all of your content and information. Check out Toobla.com, the site Fox highlights as a leader in this area – it aggregates videos, photos, docs and websites for you to store and share online. It’s not just a place to keep your stuff; it makes your stuff easier to access and more useful than ever before.

Business Cards – No Mas

With all the cool iPhone apps out there featuring virtual business cards, only dorks and dinosaurs will be handing out paper business cards in the New Year. Don’t have an iPhone? Don’t worry – Twitter has a Tool that will help you get in on the virtual business card game that is easy to use and fun to share. Check out TwtBizCard.com for details!

Check out the full story @ Fox News and remember these tips. How many people will be swapping virtual cards @ Internext in January and which company will come out with the first body-controlled adult game? 2010 is just around the corner... I can hardly wait!

Click here for the FOX News Link

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