2016 in Tech: Insights & Predictions

Technology, much like time, marches on, and if the huge leaps in the field in recent years is anything to go by, 2016 is going to be an incredibly exciting time for technological development. Here, we take a look at some of the things we think are going to be making waves in the next year or so.

1. Smartphone Services to Streamline Your Entire Existence

It’s no big secret that the rise of smartphones has seen some terrific innovations in the world of portable software, although the majority of the big hitters to have graced pockets the world over – apps like Tinder, Snapchat and their ilk – have been largely concerned with the social. It’s about time, we feel, that more attention was given to the potential productivity boosts that a smartphone can offer, and fortunately it seems like the developers are listening. In 2016, we can expect (or at least hope) to see genuinely helpful services like Magic – a kind of all-in one personal assistant, accessed by texting just about any request to 83489 – and Be My Eyes – an ingenious service connecting sighted volunteers to blind users in need of help via live video chat – gain a much wider audience.

2. Biometrics. Biometrics Everywhere

We’ve already caught glimpses of the potential offered by biometric technologies on the Windows 10 advert, a commercial for Microsoft’s latest operating system that proudly boasts an impending end to the confusion of multiple passwords in lieu of a simpler – not to mention more secure – system of protecting your privacy. Certain manufacturers – Samsung definitely springs to mind here – have already dipped their toes in the water by offering users the ability to access their devices using things like thumbprint scanning and facial recognition to a generally positive reaction, and we personally can’t wait to see this type of thing become the norm. Gone will be the days of having to remember a million and one different passwords, as the only key you’ll need will be your biological makeup.

3. Super-Fast Broadband to Become Super-Duper-Fast

With the massive success of Netflix in recent years having spawned an all manner of on-demand video services – like Hulu and HBO Go, to name just two of many – the number of people axing their standard cable/dish television subscriptions in favour of the much-cheaper alternative of streaming video over the internet, the need for consistently high-speed fibre optic broadband has never been greater, as it’s not exactly rocket science to understand that high definition video can place a real strain on your connection. Fortunately, this is a need that the providers appear to have taken notice of, with BT – one of the biggest ISPs operating in the United Kingdom – planning to roll out not just theirfastest service, but the fastest service the UK has ever seen, in 2016. Capable of hitting maximum download speeds of 500mbps, this is just the beginning, as the company is promising to be hitting 1gbps by decade’s end.