JP/Wendra Ajistyatama

As always, technology continues to march forward, never waiting for those whose main occupation is to find fault with one another. Here are some of the trends in 2009 that will likely continue into 2010.

The idea of green technology, technology that is friendly for the environment, has been around for a few years now. In fact, it goes way back to the time the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy set the Energy Star standard for home and business products that used electricity.

At the beginning, manufacturers used the word “Green” more as a marketing gimmick. However, over time, we have all become aware that our planet is getting significantly hotter, fresh water is getting scarcer and the air is getting dirtier. There is an awareness that we need to make technology greener.

Progress has been made in the field of IT, although we are still racing against time.

Processors have become more power-efficient. Blade servers are used instead of the usual huge boxes, reducing data centers’ electricity consumption. Chipmakers also contribute by designing and fabricating low-voltage (LV) and ultra-low-voltage (ULV) versions of their CPUs, which deliver just enough power to drive our everyday applications.

Several products indirectly help us preserve the environment. The Global Positioning Systems (GPS), which proliferated into our lives in the past couple of years, is a good example. If, guided by a GPS, we can get straight to our destination instead of circling around and around and stopping to ask for directions, we can save fuel and release fewer emissions into the air.

GPS is available in dedicated devices and is embedded into most smart phones today. The good thing is that we do not have to pay the US government for using their satellite signals. We certainly hope it will remain this way in the future.

Windows 7, launched by Microsoft in October, is also a marvel. This operating system is so much less demanding on hardware that it runs very well in systems with ULV processors, even on netbooks with the old Atom N270 processors and 1 GB of RAM. There is no need to use a more powerful processor that consumes more electricity.

Incidentally, although many of us have not upgraded to Microsoft Office 2007 because of the new interface, the new version, Office 2010, is already on the horizon. So get ready to eventually say goodbye to Microsoft Office XP.

By now you must have heard of cloud computing. The idea has actually been tossed around for many years under different names. You use the services offered by a company that has its data centers somewhere in the cloud. In other words, you don’t care where your data is stored. All you know is that the service provider maintains the service level agreement (SLA) and you pay only for the amount of service that you use. As a business, you can forget about IT and focus on growing your business.

Cloud computing may also contribute to the preservation of the environment and reduce power consumption. Small- and medium-sized businesses — and even some larger ones — no longer have to build their own data centers. Data centers, with their cooling systems and security features, generate a notoriously high electricity bill every month.

The reason cloud computing may be catching up in 2010 is that today we have much better infrastructure. Bandwidth has become far more widely available. In Indonesia, the construction of the Palapa Rings has finally started and will connect the outer islands to an integrated, nationwide broadband infrastructure.

What else did we see in 2009? Except for the influx of Chinese-made smart phones — many of them with QWERTY keypads and sleek designs — we still haven’t seen any real showdown between LTE and WiMax. These are the two competing 4G technologies. We’ve either seen nationwide adoption of WiMax, such as in Taiwan, or LTE, offered by TeliaSonera.

LED is slowly replacing LCD technology. We have seen this happening on the entertainment side.

Currently, LED panels are more expensive, but we all know the rule of consumer electronics: The longer we wait, the lower the price. LED, which uses light-emitting diodes to light up the screen, is environmentally friendlier. In general, it consumes less power than an LCD of the same size, and, unlike the LCD, it does not use mercury in its production process.

Two years ago we saw the arrival of the netbook. What is the form factor that we saw this year and will continue into next year? The “All-in-One”, definitely. You may not be aware of it, but more and more computer vendors are offering All-in-One models. We have All-in-Ones from Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and many others. ASUS had an Atom-based All-in-One too.

The All-in-One is a desktop PC in which the CPU, the hard disk, the optical drive and all other components are housed in the same casing as the monitor.

There are no dangling VGA cables, making it easier to move the PC around. Many of the All-in-Ones have touch screens and cordless keyboards and mice, simplifying the setup process even further.

The All-in-One is, again, not a novel idea. In the past, we had a lot of similar products. However, the concern that consumers and business owners had at that time was expandability. Today, with a slew of connectivity choices, such as USB 2.0, Firewire, HDMI, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, we no longer have to worry about adding more components to our All-in-One.

Speaking of USB, expect to see more and more peripherals, PDAs, game consoles and smart phones coming with USB 3.0. It is faster than USB 2.0 (5 Gbps versus 480 Mbps).

The cell phone industry has agreed to standardize the power adapter, so you do not have to carry a separate one for each of your mobile devices. An interesting development to watch next year is perhaps the wireless transfer of power. A company named WiTricity Corp. (www.witricity.com) is developing a commercially feasible method of charging batteries without direct connection.

Well folks, it seems that next year we will have more excitement reviewing interesting IT products and technologies. Just let those who are politically inclined continue to debate who is right and who is wrong. We know that in politics, there is simply no right or wrong.

The writer is The Jakarta Post’s IT columnist.

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