Hi, it's HandyAndy Tech Tips here, and if 2015 has taught us anything, it's that there
are some products which are looked forward to, some that are hotly anticipated, and some
where the rumors, leaks, and waiting in line for days before the release date just seem
a little bit too excessive.
Just a little.
But, of course, technology is always moving forward, and that's why I'm going to be counting
down the top 5 most anticipated tech products of 2016.
So let's begin!
At number 5 is Microsoft HoloLens.
Now this is an augmented reality headset, and you might be thinking to yourself, "What
is the difference between virtual and augmented reality?"
Well, put simply, in a VR headset your entire field of vision is covered by an LCD screen
that's been magnified with a couple of lenses.
But with augmented reality headsets, like the HoloLens, you can continue to see the
real world, but you can also have computer graphics overlaid on top of it.
Which is what makes this concept so futuristic and sci-fi.
Now even though head-mounted displays have been available for ten years or perhaps even
longer, the fact that this one will be made by such a large company as Microsoft, and
the fact that it will have so much publicity and press attention, means that this could
be the product which pushes augmented reality out into the mainstream.
But unfortunately, the price certainly won't be mainstream.
The development kit will be released in the first quarter of 2016, and will cost, wait
for this, US$3000.
But if Microsoft can get the price down to reasonable levels, then I think that we might
see the HoloLens become a must-have piece of technology in the not-too-distant future.
At the fourth spot: forget about the Pebble, forget about Android Wear, it seems like Apple's
second smartwatch, which has been dubbed the "Apple Watch 2", is going to be one of the
hottest pieces of wearable tech for 2016.
So how will it improve over the original Apple Watch?
Well, for a starter, it will have better battery life.
Just compare the battery of the Pebble Time Steel, which lasts ten entire days, to the
battery of the Apple Watch, which actually needs to be charged every day.
Now, sure, the Pebble has an OLED screen versus an AMOLED, which does make it more power efficient
by a significant margin, but surely Apple could improve their battery a little bit,
even if it means increasing the thickness of the case.
Anyway, the Apple Watch 2 will likely come out in June 2016, and I'm sure heaps of people
will be looking forward to it.
Now to the third spot, and, you know, I've talked about Apple, I've talked about Microsoft,
what other major tech company have I left out?
Oh, that's right, Samsung!
So the Samsung Galaxy S7, which is the newest iteration of the company's flagship phone,
is due to be released at the Mobile World Conference in late February.
And judging by the rumors, it sounds like a really interesting device.
It looks like it'll have a pressure-sensitive touch screen, which actually sounds just a
little bit like the iPhone's 3D Touch feature.
It will likely add a USB Type C charging port, so no more fiddling around trying to get the
USB plug in the right way.
But sticking with the sci-fi theme which I explored earlier with the HoloLens, this is
the most amazing feature: the S7 might have a retinal scanner.
Now you've heard about fingerprint scanners on phones, but retinal scanners, I don't think
we've ever seen one of those before.
Anyway, I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to the S7, and we don't have
many months to wait now until it's released.
Now, at the second spot, we find a product by Samsung's arch nemesis.
Now, of course, I'm talking about the iPhone 7.
Uh, need I say more?
Now even before the iPhone 6S was actually released, I'm serious about this, rumors came
flooding out about the iPhone 7, which shows you just how much people are excited about
Apple's new device.
Now, of course, it's more than six months until it's due to be released, so we don't
have that much guaranteed information about it yet, but I did find this, it's very interesting.
This is a rendering, a concept, that was showcased on a channel called CTNtechnologynews.
Now, as you can see, judging by this, it actually looks like the next iPhone might have a kind
of an elliptical shape at the end.
It actually reminds me of the old iPod nanos, you know, the ones with the clickwheel.
In fact, another thing that reminds me of them is that you can see on the bottom of
the rendering there, the way that it has the classic 30-pin dock connector.
Now of course, the new iPhone will have nothing like that, it will have Lightning.
But the interesting thing is that it might ONLY have Lightning, no other ports.
Apparently, the rumor is that Apple is considering removing the 3.5mm headphone jack so that
it can make the phone thinner.
And that one's got the Internet into a bit of a panic.
But honestly, I wouldn't worry at all about any of these rumored features, since the iPhone
will be released in September 2016, so it's still a long way to wait, but as a hotly anticipated
piece of tech, it's certainly up there with the best of them.
And, by the way, if you want to see CTN's rumor video on the iPhone 7, then please click
the screen now.
And also in the description, you can see a link to his channel and the channel of Mesut
G. Designs, which actually created the rendering.
Anyway, enough free advertising, we've got to get to our number one spot.
And I bet you can guess what it will be.
Now Palmer Luckey certainly is a lucky man.
He started a collection of VR headsets when he was just a teenager, but he found none
of them met his needs.
So back in 2011, when he was only 18 years old, he developed the first prototype of what
was to become the Oculus Rift.
Three years later, he sold his company to Facebook for two billion dollars.
Now maybe this price allows you to have a little bit of a feeling for how good the Oculus
Rift really is.
It's not a groundbreaking technology, but it's certainly a massive refinement to what
we had before in the world of virtual reality.
And it's such a sought after piece of tech as well.
It'll be released in the first quarter of 2016, and in my opinion, it could well be
the first VR headset to gain massive mainstream acceptance.
And I, for one, can't wait until it's released.
So I'm HandyAndy, thanks for watching this video, please subscribe if you want more tech
videos because I've got heaps more of them coming right up.