Things I want in 2011

New year brings freshness, excitement, energy and also expectations. Here are a handful of things I hope 2011 brings for me. These are not predictions by any means, just some wishful thinking on my part enroute to India.

Broadband Anywhere We pay for broadband access many times over. Wired broadband at home, 3G/4G for smart phones. And increasingly on device specific plans, monthly (as in ipad) or part of the device (as in kindle). If you own multiple connected devices, chances are you also are paying multiple carriers for same internet access sliced and diced differently. I hope in 2011 carriers come out with unlimited internet access plans with no restrictions that work everywhere, or any device of my choosing.

Digital wallet Our smart phones are becoming smarter with each revision. I hope in 2011 they take over our wallet. I recently lost my physical wallet and had to go through the pain of individually calling the various card providers and then waiting for a physical replacement to arrive in mail. I hope smart phones become smart enough to replace a physical wallet. Upcoming technologies like NFC, or Pay-by-sms are promising steps in that direction. Phones should be able to allow me to complete a transactions via a payment method of my choice (via secure pin, phrase, finger print recognition etc) and let me remote wipe it, if I were to loose a phone (and thus the digital wallet). This Idea can be extended to other physical cards typically carried in a wallet i.e. membership cards, passes etc. I hope in 2011 smart phones get rid of my wallet

Video on demand 2010 was a year where a myriad of devices struggled to get video on demand to our TV sets. I believe a large number of people are waiting for a true video solution in order to get rid of their cable/satelite TV. Google TV, Roku, Boxee, Apple TV are just a few players. They all are struggling to sign up enough content from the various content producers to make video on demand an viable alternative. I think technology is there and it is waiting for a business model/plan to make it work. I hope in 2011, the players in this space get together to give us a true video on demand, where I can watch what I want, when I want for an decent price - iTunes for Video.

Death of CD We all thought CD was dead. Apple even told us so [TBD]. But wait, why did I buy handfull of them just in a last few weeks ? Game Consoles rely heavily on CDs for their games to prevent piracy. Most of my games are kid oriented. kids and cds dont go togather, I am always worried about cds getting scratched and unplayable. I hope with Kinect, Move & Wii focusing on more kid oriented games, an kid friendly alternative to CD is developed in 2011. That will save me some yelling.

Try-before-you-buy-apps Not sure if apple realizes, but in my opinion the biggest obstecle to an even more widespeard use of apps is lack of “try before you buy”. I hope in 201l, the appstores come out with an innovative way to let us try apps, before we acutually purchase them. They can just hold charging the card for a day or so. I know, I would definitely buy a lot for apps, both for me and my kids if I could experience the functionality before making a commitment. Like dating before you pop the question ;)

What does the techie inside you want in 2011. Post your thoughts in comments :)