Social networking warfare Upstarts like Facebook and Twitter took the world by storm in 2010. Will tech heavyweights like Google stand by and watch success like that go unchallenged? Unlikely. Storage Think big and fast in 2011. Traditional mechanical hard drives will be available in 3-terabyte (TB) capacities and larger -- and at prices that will be budget-friendly.
Speed freaks, though, will want to look at the upcoming crop of solid state drives (SSDs), which will take full advantage of the newest 6 gigabit per second (Gb/s) SATA drive connectivity standard to pump data through your PC at roughly twice the speed of today's widespread 3 Gb/s standard.
Networking Networks are generally boring, but 2011 will see some exciting advances in how you get online -- and how quickly. First, the speedy 802.11n wireless standard will become firmly entrenched in notebooks and wireless routers, making wired-like speeds widely available to notebooks and other wireless devices.
For those who want the reliable speed of wired connection, the new HomePlug AV2 standard will allow gigabit networking speeds over the standard electrical wiring in your home. USB 3.0 was unveiled in 2010, but hardly anyone noticed. Expect that to change in 2011, as a flood of new products are unleashed that take advantage of USB 3.0?s tremendous speed advantage over USB 2.0, as well as its bi-directional communication prowess.
Not only will 3.0's theoretical 10x speed advantage over 2.0 make fast external storage a reality, but its ability to send and receive data simultaneously will mean that a wide range of peripherals that bumped up against the limits of 2.0's data transfer rate will be able to adopt USB wholeheartedly. In 2011, don't buy a desktop or notebook PC that's not equipped with the improved USB standard.
Google Android-based phones and even Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 will provide real competition for the market leaders from both a price and feature standpoint.