2013 is going to be one of the most exciting and competitive year, as giant companies like  Amazon, Google and Apple will launch new products that targets individual consumers.  Here is a list of some most awaited gadgets of the year compiled by Business Insider.

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 Apple TV

 
We used to hear about Apple’s revolutionary TV during Steve Jobs era. After months of speculation, CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with NBC’S Brian Williams that the company has an area of interest on the segment of television market. According to the reports, Apple is searching for flat-screen panels within the 46 to 55 inch range, while on the other hand Wall Street Journal reports that suppliers of electronic consumer goods have commenced testing the top-secret-product. A couple of features like Siri integration, iCloud support, and iDevice compatibility are being publicized.

Nandagopal Rajan in BUSINESS TODAY….

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Will computers have sensory powers in the near future? Well, IBM thinks so.

The “IBM 5 in 5”- a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and interact during the next five years – lists touch, sight, hearing, taste and smell as the next big things in computing. The list is based on market and societal trends as well as emerging technologies from IBM’s R&D labs.

“We have already witnessed the benefits of cognitive systems for advancing numerous aspects of the human experience – from agriculture and healthcare to utility management and weather forecasting. We envision a day when computers make sense of the world around them just like human brain relies on interacting with the world using multiple senses,” said Ramesh Gopinath, Director – India Research Lab and Chief Technology Officer, IBM India/South Asia.

Here are IBM’s five predictions:

Touch: IBM thinks within five years we will have mobile device that will allow you to touch and feel products, thus redefining retail business across the world. IBM says its scientists are developing applications for the retail, healthcare and other sectors using haptic, infrared and pressure sensitive technologies to simulate touch, such as the texture and weave of a fabric – as a shopper brushes her finger over the image of the item on a device screen. Utilising the vibration capabilities of the phone, every object will have a unique set of vibration patterns that represents the touch experience, said a release.

Sight: In the next five years, systems will not only be able to look at and recognise the contents of images and visual data, they will turn the pixels into meaning, beginning to make sense out of it similar to the way a human views and interprets a photograph. So if a future computer sees a red light it will understand that this means stop. A precursor to this can be seen in the form of the Google Goggles app that recognizes products from photographs and gives you info on the same. But IBM says that in five years, these capabilities will be put to work in healthcare by making sense out of massive volumes of medical information. For instance computers will be able to differentiate healthy from diseased tissue.

Sound: A distributed system of clever sensors will detect elements of sound such as sound pressure, vibrations and sound waves at different frequencies and interpret to predict when trees will fall in a forest or when a landslide is imminent. Similarly, by learning about emotion and being able to sense mood, systems will pinpoint aspects of a conversation and analyze pitch, tone and hesitancy to help us have more productive dialogues that could improve customer call center interactions, or allow us to seamlessly interact with different cultures.

Taste: IBM researchers are developing a computing system that experiences flavor. It works by breaking down ingredients to their molecular level and blend the chemistry of food compounds with the psychology behind what flavors and smells humans prefer. By comparing this with millions of recipes, the system will be able to create new flavor combinations that pair. The computer will be able to use algorithms to determine the precise chemical structure of food and why people like certain tastes.

Smell: During the next five years, tiny sensors embedded in your computer or cell phone will detect if you’re coming down with a cold or other illness. By analyzing odors, biomarkers and thousands of molecules in someone’s breath, doctors will have help diagnosing and monitoring the onset of ailments such as liver and kidney disorders, asthma, diabetes and epilepsy by detecting which odors are normal and which are not. IBM scientists are already sensing environmental conditions and gases to preserve works of art.

Meanwhile, Intel says sensors that ad more security to your device as well as facial analysis and gestures will become a part of daily computing by the end of 2013.

 source:::::silicon india net..

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 At HTC, a Butterfly a day is keeping Apple away. The new Smartphone from HTC is all set to take on the iPhone. Though it’s pricing has been kept under wraps, its features and looks have already got the tech pundits lauding about it. It stands out in its design which is similar to Apple, yet with a bigger 5 inch screen.

And talking about the screen, you can watch and share videos with 1080p full HD display. The screen resolution, as many reviewers agree, is better than iPhone’s.
The Apple iPhone 5 does weigh a little less. Infact, in terms of apps, memory storage and well, because it’s an iPhone, it does offer some tough competition. But then, the operating system and RAM also matter. HTC runs on Google’s reliable Android platform with 1.5 GHz RAM, with Quadcore. Simply put, you can simultaneously run multiple apps at the same time and easily multitask.

Google maps are much more reliable with features such as transport facility shown, while Apple maps lack this feature. Moreover, accuracy is much higher in Google maps.
The Butterfly can flutter even in rain, shine or sand. The makers claim that the phone is waterproof, which is definitely a welcome feature. Cameras are provided both in front and back, including the 88 degree ultra wide angle lens. Let us not forget that Apple’s scan and click feature, as shown in the ad with cutely dressed children, doesn’t work horizontally. This gives HTC an edge.
HTC also has included a built-in amplifier with BeatsAudio. This essentially means you’ll be blown away by the audio quality. But the real icing on this cake is the way it is built on the inside. The makers of the Smartphone have placed the battery first and the components on top on it, making it unique and compact in design.