By Anick Jesdanun, deputy technology editor, AP
NEW
YORK: As I look back at the more than 100 tech products we reviewed in
2013, a handful of gadgets and services deserve a second look.
It's
become clear that one brand rarely stands out any more in whatever
product category you look at. Competition is more intense than ever,
which means consumers have more choices than ever. That's why coming up
with a "best of" list for 2013 proved difficult.
So
instead of a comprehensive list, I'm highlighting five big trends.
These are also areas where further innovations are likely in 2014, so
stay tuned.
Better camera phones
This
was the first year I didn't mind leaving my point-and-shoot and
full-bodied, SLR cameras at home. Camera phones have gotten good enough
to stand in for those stand-alone cameras in many situations.
Of
the ones I tried, Apple's iPhone 5S proved to be the best as an
all-around camera. It's good at getting the auto-focus right, even for
moving objects. A larger sensor and an improved flash compared with
previous models mean better shots in low light.
An
honorable mention goes to Nokia's Lumia 1020. It's consistently good at
night and indoor shots. It combines the small amount of light from
multiple pixels into one, resulting in better lighting. It also has
manual controls typically absent from camera phones.
Given how frequently people use their phones to take photos, expect even more improvements in the coming year.
Personalized technical support
It
used to be when you couldn't figure out how a product worked, you
called your tech-savvy children. With Mayday on Amazon's new Kindle Fire
HDX tablets, you no longer need to do that. Instead, just tap the
Mayday button, and you'll be connected to a live customer service
representative within seconds, even at 4 a.m. on a weekend.
Amazon's
representatives can help you install apps, connect to Facebook or
tackle anything else confounding you. You see them on the screen, but
they can only hear you. They have a virtual orange marker to point you
to buttons and menus on the screen. They also can take over your machine
remotely and do it for you.
As gadgets do
more, they also get more complicated to use. As someone who's constantly
asked by friends and family for tech assistance, the Mayday feature is
something I would welcome in other products.
Shackle-free phone plans
The
traditional way of buying phones: Pay $100 or $200 for a phone, and
stay locked to your wireless carrier for two more years.
The new way: Buy or bring your own phone. Leave any time.
T-Mobile
introduced that concept in March when it split the monthly phone bill
into two parts -- one for the device, and the other for the voice, text
and data services. If you already have a device or have finished paying
for it, your overall bill goes down. If you need a phone, you pay its
full retail price, spread out into monthly installments. You're no
longer getting a subsidy for signing a contract, but you're also not
paying for it through a higher phone bill.
A
few months later, T-Mobile introduced a program that lets you upgrade
your phone up to twice a year, rather than every other year. The other
national carriers followed with their own contract-free,
frequent-upgrade plans. AT&T also lowered its service fees for
voice, text and data for those who pay for phones separately. Sprint
reduced those fees as well, but only temporarily.
Some
people will still find it more cost-effective to buy phones the
traditional way, but these contract-free options give consumers more
freedom to leave their carrier or change phones frequently.
Meanwhile,
some phone makers have come out with cheaper phones that do almost as
much as the $600-plus ones. Motorola's Moto G phone is particularly
notable, at just $179 _ ideal when you pay for your own phone.
Laptops with long-lasting batteries
Most
laptop owners no doubt have found themselves out of juice at the most
inopportune times, whether in the middle of an important business
meeting or the start of a super-long flight to Asia or Australia.
A
new generation of processing chips from Intel makes that far less
likely to happen. These chips, known as Haswell, are more efficient at
using power. It's now possible to go a full waking day on a single
charge, with some reasonable breaks for meals and exercise.
The
13-inch (33-centimeter) MacBook Air, for instance, promises up to 12
hours of battery life. I was able to stretch that to more than 14 hours
by turning off Wi-Fi, though nine to 11 hours was more common with
general Web surfing. On the Windows 8 machines I tested, I was able to
get seven to nine hours consistently.
Expect to pay at least $1,000 for a Haswell laptop, though prices may start coming down in the new year.
Internet television
A
few friends and I dropped cable TV service this year. I saved more than
$100 a month and used some of that to buy a new TV. You might be
wondering: Huh?
Several options are now
available for watching television over the Internet. Watching on a
computer or a tablet seems unsatisfactory.
With
a streaming device such as Roku, Apple TV or Chromecast or a game
console such as the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One, you can project
Internet video to the big screen. You'll need to subscribe to a handful
of services such as Netflix or Hulu Plus.
The
downside is you often need to wait at least a day for shows to become
available online. That means avoiding spoilers on social networks. It's
also a poor option for live sports. Major League Baseball has a great
online service, but typically blocks hometown teams.
But it's money saved to buy the hot gadgets of 2014 -- or tickets to a ballgame, plus beer and hot dogs.
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