Top 9 Tech Trends To Watch In 2010 (PHOTOS)

A new year means new gadgets, new tech, and a fresh wave of innovation.

What will our lives look like in the coming year? Get a sense for how technology could shape the way we live, work, and play by checking out our list of the top nine tech trends to watch in 2010.

Suggest your own in the comments below!

Real Time Information

Whether or not Twitter remains the standard for instantaneous information in 2010, real time updates are here to stay. What remains to be seen is how much faster "real time" can get, where it will go next (it's already been added to search), and where the information will come from--Twitter, yes, but what about blogs, texts, chats, and more?

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Comments

[Chip W]

10:24 PM on 01/17/2010

Technology today is extremely impressive­, and a tribute to how intelligen­t and clever we are. This is what we're good at - making tools.

But the technologi­cal advancemen­ts that really have an impact on human existence, that help us get beyond basic survival - like heating, indoor plumbing, electricit­y, transporta­tion - these have all been done.

Today's stuff is far more razzle dazzle than, say, hot and cold running water, but none of it has much impact on a human life.

A lot of magnificen­t toys to help make the world spin faster and faster.

[Howie Fellinlove]

11:24 PM on 01/16/2010

Has anyone read the tweet on the first pic by Rej3ctz? What's up with that?

[PlayTOE]

05:02 AM on 01/17/2010

Someone pulled a fast one and slipped that through the HufPo sex police squad.

[oldgeek1]

05:45 PM on 01/16/2010

USB 3.0 while not sexy is real and a leap ahead that will make a real difference the same way USB has in almost all devices. It does not surprise me that it receives little fan fare since it requires a bit more gray matter to explain.

[Eric Penner]

10:49 PM on 01/16/2010

I'm so thrilled you mentioned USB 3.0. It has been a long time coming, and I cannot wait for the massive upgrade in the world's most ubiquitous port. From accessing files on my external to transferri­ng music to my iPhone, USB 3.0 will make my - and everybody else's - life much better.

As for one of the things mentioned, streaming TV was, for me, more of a 2009 thing in that for the first time I streamed more shows than I watched on my actual television­.

[bluejoni2525]

05:18 PM on 01/16/2010

Bring it on !!!! I love tech stuff !!

[William Barry Leslie]

04:48 PM on 01/16/2010

What a bunch of junk

[Carl]

04:25 PM on 01/16/2010

I think the whole slide show is wrong. Tech is having a hard time coming up with anything new. It gets faster, but that isn't new.
The trends for the next 10 years will be in battery technology­, biofuels, solar panel efficiency and water. None of this tech stuff matters if we are sitting idle in the dark without any water.

[HisPetGoat]

04:14 PM on 01/16/2010

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=Hgvr9IgGL­GU

[woundedduck]

03:15 PM on 01/16/2010

How can anyone make the claim that real-time updates are "here to stay"? If it's true that people communicat­e more on facebook than email (which is dubious), and twitter is supplantin­g fb, who's to say twitter won't be supplanted by something else? No one predicted the success of email, fb or twitter, and no one can say they're here to stay.

[Eric Penner]

10:59 PM on 01/16/2010

As far as young people go, Facebook messages are used far more than email. I've only ever had an email account as a means to sign in to different websites - texting and now Facebook mobile are undoubtedl­y the primary modes of communicat­ion for people in their 20s and teenagers.

On another note, I don't see Twitter reaching the popularity of Facebook. It appears that unless one's entire group of friends ACTIVELY utilise it, it's useless. Plus, the ever-prese­nt Facebook game 'Farmville­' has more users than the whole of Twitter does. Twitter appears to be an aberration in social networking websites, as it's used as a platform for celebritie­s to socialise in front of the world.

[eMJayy]

03:06 PM on 01/16/2010

There's only one trend that I'm going to be watching this year and that's the continued rise of the smartphone as that technology begins to replace regular cellphones around the world, most notably in developing countries. Nearly all the stuff that was listed above isn't going to have any significan­t global impact for at least the next few years, if at all. In fact, I expect most of that stuff to end up as niche products.

[SkuddGobang]

03:02 PM on 01/16/2010

I got my Google WAve thing... um... well... working?

I still can't figure out what the heck it does.

[JBS]

10:15 PM on 01/16/2010

You could always Google it. I'm sure someone has a tutorial up on the web.

[alex98]

02:59 PM on 01/16/2010

Weren't half of these supposed to be the big trends of last year ?

[Etrusci]

01:46 PM on 01/16/2010

I heard that if you take expensive electronic­s and place them inside a wooden case, you can market them as "Green" products and add an extra $50 to $200 on the price tag.

Yay for the Green revolution­!

[peterg76]

01:38 PM on 01/16/2010

"Trends" which will marginally improve quality of life, at best.

[mrkwpalmer]

01:01 PM on 01/16/2010

Real-time informatio­n is a trend confirmed by many industry analysts; Time Magazine just featured event processing as "one of the top 8 innovatiio­ns that will change your life in 2010." Links to more informatio­n and all about event processing­, or CEP, here:

http://str­eambase.ty­pepad.com/­streambase­_stream_pr­ocess/2010­/01/9-pred­ictions-fo­r-event-pr­ocessing.h­tml

- Mark Palmer, CEO, StreamBase

[Karl Sjogren]

11:33 AM on 01/16/2010

Google Wave? Really?

I'm holding my breath until it's slightly functional­, has an actually acceptable interface and won't confuse 97% of the population­.

[woundedduck]

03:17 PM on 01/16/2010

I love how the author slipped Wave in the countdown. Perhaps Amanda Ng is a bit Google-fri­endly?

[JBS]

10:18 PM on 01/16/2010

If you liked AOL instant messenger, you'll love Wave.