1. Sensor technology Sensor technology is a game-changer because it means any physical object -- a bridge, the loading dock at a warehouse, the clothes you wear or even your own skin -- can communicate with a network.
2. Smarter Web The idea is to more easily share complex knowledge you get from the Internet.
3. Network virtualization As an application makes a request, the network would be smart enough to meet that request with an appropriate level of storage and connectivity. Services could be housed and transmitted to and from any endpoint, not just on servers or client devices. Networks could support multiple transmission types, including corporate data, cellular traffic, voice over IP, video, audio and unified communication/telepresence. And the network would be smart enough to optimize traffic in real time.
4. Fuzzy searches Finding information when you only have a vague concept of what you want. For example, you might know that there was an important English poet in the 1950s, but you can't remember his name or what he wrote. Yahoo Correlator allows you to type in vague terms such as "English poet 1950s" and correlate information.
5. Social network integration Social networking services such as Twitter and Facebook do not share data as easily as they might -- even if stopgap measures such as Twitterfeed.com, a service that feeds your status from one social network to another, do help. Open standards such as Y!OS and OpenSocial are paving the way for data sharing between services.
6. Netbooks in the enterprise One reason that netbooks are game-changing has to do with the economic crisis; most models cost about $500 or less. They use less power, last longer than performance-oriented laptops, weigh less and work well for the most common computing tasks including word processing, e-mail and Web surfing. They may also become the new "thin client" as more companies move to cloud computing.
7. Smart grid The smart grid is coming -- and local utility companies are racing to build it. Sensors connect to networks and can show consumers and companies how power is being used in real-time. In the future, appliances could be outfitted with sensors and displays that instruct consumers how to save energy based on usage.
8. SSD RAID Solid-state drives are already an attractive option in the PC market. ...This represents a major shift in cost and performance.
9. Speech-to-text and e-mail integration Voice mail transcription is an up and comer because it shows how communication technologies are unifying -- you can listen to voice mail on the Web, forward the text of a message, hold an audioconference and record messages.
10. Open PC cases BMW designed a case for the ThermalTake PC as a prototype called Level 10 and came up with an open architecture that makes it easy to swap components. The design reduces heat buildup and just looks cool. The Antec Skeleton has a similar open design with layered trays for easy access, a massive 250mm top-mounted fan and -- at about 20 pounds fully loaded -- at least a degree of portability for LAN parties, in which gamers get together in a home or office to play games over a network.
