2015 In Tech: A Review

This year we’ve seen some aspects of tech explode onto the market as expected, while some have been surprisingly quiet…
2015 has been a great year for sci-fi, which means it was a great year for us too. We lived through October 21st – the day that Marty and Doc Martin visited in Back To The Future II – meaning that we now officially live in the future. We were shocked once again by the infuriating George R. R. Martin who potentially killed off our favorite Game of Thrones character. And finally we are now just days away from the awakening of The Force; Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens will finally be released this week! Our lightsabers are on standby.
Aside from all of this excitement in the world of fiction, the factual universe also had a pretty exciting year too. There were leaps and bounds in the way we travel, make purchases and monitor our physical health, to mention just three!
Below are a few stand-out advancements we’ve seen in tech over the past year, with a couple of our very own milestones included:
Connectivity took a step forward
As the internet age hurtles forward at an unprecedented pace, we’re seeing more and more of the hardware we interact with on a daily basis becoming connected. We know this is called the Internet of Things, but have we really seen much of it in practice? Amazon made a move towards the connected world with the introduction of their Dash Buttons – designed to order replenishments of home stock as we run out of it. We also saw the debut of The Ring – a wearable designed to communicate with home appliances to control our environment with ease.
Looking towards 2016 we can expect our vehicles to get the connectivity treatment, as pretty soon our cars should be able to let each other know about any traffic problems, risky road conditions and when other cars are getting a little too close for comfort! This is in line with the autonomous vehicles movement which has been heavily trialled this year, and could make a domestic debut in as little as five years’ time.
Health monitoring got personal
Devices such as the FitBit have been commercially available as health trackers for a few years now, and this trend of health monitoring via our personal devices grew even more this year. Many smartwatch releases have been primarily touted as health trackers – their only other functionality seemingly being the ability to notify us directly whenever we receive an email or a Twitter notification.
Apple now also provides all its smartphone customers with a “Health” app on their device, which acts as a pedometer. Given the fact that most of us are connected to our smartphones all day, this has proven a popular alternative to an invasive wearable device, and in fact there has seemingly been a decline in wearables on the market.
Although the smartwatch first appeared on shelves in 2014 it was the Apple Watch release of April this year that really gave it the fashionable makeover it needed. Although Apple have kept their figures under wraps we can’t see the Apple Watch disappearing from their stores any time soon; hopefully the next iteration of the device will see it loaded up with useful features.
Online security became a huge part of the online conversation
This year saw many high-profile hacking attacks, some of which resulted in very harmful consequences. The ethics of hacking were brought into question, and there was much debate on the subject online. Is hacking ever OK? We’re certain that in some cases such as issues of national security that it is, but as the internet creates such a global community it can be hard to draw a line between which acts should be judged by whose legislative ruling.
Security did see a boost, though, with the likes of Apple Pay technology hitting the mainstream. With our smartphone capabilities increasing, it is Apple once again who have been at the forefront of this digital payment movement. Payment can be authorized by a fingerprint, which is a sign that as we move forward into 2016 biometric data could begin to play a huge part in how we secure and access our online data.
VPS.NET expanded!
It’s been a pretty big year for us at VPS.NET, as we took our SSD VPS servers to several new climates including Los Angeles and Sao Paulo! We’re always aiming to do better and provide a more robust service, and with these added locations we have been able to bring our clients in close proximity with their customers and provide a range of options for any cloud solution around the world.
We also introduced our Holla For Dollar initiative, which allows you to receive discounted services for recommending a colleague, associate or friend to VPS.NET. If you’d like to find out more about this you can do so over on this blog post.
The expansion isn’t over yet, as we have plans for a new location to launch over the next couple of weeks, so watch this space…
How did technology change your life this year? Let us know over on Twitter @VPSNET.