Top 10 Technologies of 2008

10. Face recognition

More and more laptops today are coming outfitted with integrated cameras, so it was only a matter of time until someone came up with a use for them outside of web conferencing and 'special videos' for your distant significant other. Some systems today come with software that will let you "enroll" your face and login without a password or fingerprint. While I doubt we'll see this rolled out in Fortune 500 companies anytime soon, it is a cool feature that might keep Junior from locking himself out of his computer and certainly has the 'wow' factor. You can find these features on Lenovo's IdeaPads and Toshiba's Satellites, among others. Just keep in mind that it isn't exactly totally secure.

9. Intel's "Montevina" Centrino 2 Duo platform

On the surface, Intel's Montevina platform may not look like much of an upgrade over the Santa Rosa refresh platform with Penryn CPU's. What you may not notice is that Intel was able to improve overall performance, decrease power consumption, increase integrated graphics performance 4x, and add more features to their wireless cards. This platform is now ubiquitous across all major notebook manufacturers' product lines, including Apple's, and one has to be able to appreciate doing more with less. I wonder what AMD has up their sleeve, if anything.

8. 3G Cellular Wireless Internet Access

Commonly referred to as 3G or WWAN in some circles, I'm talking of course about the nifty AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, or wireless cards that can be built-in or added via expansion slot to your notebook. This technology certainly isn't new and has been around for a few years now, but 2008 is the first year that you can mark it as mainstream and easily accessible. Almost every notebook manufacturer offers an integrated 3G option and the add-on ExpressCards or USB devices are pretty reasonable in price. Along with the connectivity hardware, service has been advancing quite a bit as well. Service coverage is much more widespread and users can see anywhere from a fairly reasonable 500-750 Kbps download rate up to a speedier 2 Mbps or more. You'll still need to drop some coin to get this handy service, generally starting from $50 on up.

7. Multi-touch trackpad

Apple fans are no doubt familiar with this technology, as it started out on the iPhone and has made its way into the most recent batch of MacBooks. Multi-Touch is a feature that allows one to use multiple fingers to execute more complex commands and actions on the traditionally 1-finger trackpad/touchpad. Want to quickly scroll vertically or horizontally, zoom in or out, go back & forth on web pages, or minimize and expand application windows? Apple's Multi-Touch might be just what you were looking for. Similar features have also made it into some manufacturers' netbook computers, like the Lenovo IdeaPad S10. Check out this YouTube video to get an idea of how Multi-Touch works.

6. Switchable Graphics

When people used to ask me for a notebook recommendation, one of the main deciding points would be around any 3D gaming or rendering usage. The choice between an integrated or discrete graphics chipset makes quite a difference in battery runtime, an important factor for a mobile user. While Sony initially pioneered the option of switchable graphics on their earlier SZ portables, the switch required a reboot. Thanks to new developments from Intel, NVIDIA, and ATI/AMD, you can now have your cake and eat it too. Integrated graphics' longer battery life and discrete graphics' high horsepower are a mere mouse click away on the same machine. Sony's VAIO VGN-Z590, Lenovo's ThinkPad T400, and Apple's MacBook Pro 15-inch are some examples of new machines featuring this best-of-both-worlds technology.

5. WiMax

Having been developed for the better part of this century, WiMax is finally coming into its own. For those not in the loop, WiMax refers to a wireless technology that allows for higher throughput over longer distances than WiFi, as well as higher throughput than more traditional 3G cellular networks. What makes this long-awaited technology important for 2008 is that WiMax made its first the first public debut a few months ago, in Boston, Maryland on Sprint/Clearwire's "XOHM" network. Amidst a huge press event, initial impressions were good, most reviewers experiencing download speeds from 2-7 Mbps with good mobility around Boston. Acer, Asus, Lenovo, and Toshiba currently offer laptops with integrated WiMax cards, while you can also get a good ol' ExpressCard to slap into your system. As the network is expanded, you might see WiMax start to replace home broadband for some people, with prices starting at just $25 per month.

4. Ultramobile full-sized notebooks

Now this isn't quite a singular technology, but rather a conglomeration of complementing technologies that produced a rather impressive new product. These ultrathin, ultralight, full-sized notebooks are represented primarily by the Apple MacBook Air and Lenovo ThinkPad X300/X301. A special Low Voltage Intel processor was used, which was dimensionally smaller to allow better packaging in these petite machines. LED backlit LCD panels kept the display thickness and weight down as well, but the 13.3" display size makes sure the display is easily viewable and makes room for a full-size keyboard. Apple went one route by including very few built-in features, truly giving users the bare minimum to use their machine portably, but achieving a thickness of 0.16 - 0.76 inches and a mere 3 lb weight. Lenovo went the opposite route, including nearly everything that comes in a larger ThinkPad. 3 USB 2.0 ports, TPM security, GPS, WiMax, WiFi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, and a revolutionary 7mm-thin optical drive, all in a 0.73 - 0.92 inch frame weighing 2.93 lb. While some current notebooks may come very close to this class and likely others will join it, these two machines are the ones that started it. On a side note, this YouTube video is a quite funny, if one-sided, take on the two would-be competitors.

3. LED backlit LCD panels

LED backlights use LED's instead of cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) to provide the backlighting behind the LCD panel itself. These backlights use less power, weigh less, and are able to be built in a thinner profile. LED backlights were once reserved for high end, exclusive notebooks but seem to have hit mainstream with the launch of Intel's Montevina Core 2 Duo platform. Nearly every notebook manufacturer offers an LED backlight option on a number of different notebooks, for an additional charge. Some notebooks, like the Apple MacBook Air and Lenovo ThinkPad X301, only come with LED backlit LCD's to maximize weight and power savings in their svelte packages. You can even find LED backlights in the low cost, ultraportable netbooks, like the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and Lenovo IdeaPad S10.

2. Solid State Drives (SSD)

The technological basis behind SSD's, good old flash memory, has been around for a long time, but performance, technology capability, and cost have kept it from being a magnetic hard drive replacement. Late 2007 saw the main introduction of the SSD into mobile computing, with Apple's MacBook Air and Lenovo's ThinkPad X300, but an SSD-equipped unit put the price of these machines over $2500. With time, SSD's have become faster, more reliable, and lower cost. While at first a 64GB drive might run you over $1000, these days you can add one to your notebook for $500 or less. 128GB models are becoming more common and Intel's new X25-M SSD shows an incredibly promising performance bump. You will also see less impressive SSD's at the heart of some netbooks, generally ranging from 16-32GB in capacity, although with quite a lot less performance than their full-size notebook counterparts.

1. Netbook

The term netbook is relatively new, but rather strictly defined: 10" or smaller screen, low-power CPU like the Intel Atom, small hard drives including 16-32GB SSD's, 1GB or less of RAM, Linux or Windows XP operating system, and generally sub-$400 price point. These machines offer low cost and ultraportability, something that didn't used to be very common. Originally kick-started by the Asus eeePC, nearly every notebook manufacturer has a netbook in their line-up and as a whole, netbooks are selling strongly. Manufacturers are finding that netbooks find usage primarily as either a first PC intended mostly for internet usage or as a second, third, or fourth computer for people to have a low cost, portable internet solution to take around with them. We are also starting to see the bundling of 3G contracts by cell phone companies to get a netbook for even cheaper (some around $99) as long as you sign a multi-year 3G contract.