Its a brand new year and I’m looking forward to all of the exciting things that will happen in the world of gadgets. What do you wish will happen this year? Well, like I did yesterday on my other blog, I’m going to share a few of my gadget related wishes for the new year

Happy-New-Year

My 09 tech and gadget wishes

1. Media from any download service will work with all devices

If I download a movie from iTunes, it only works on iPods. If I download a movie from Xbox live, I have to watch it on my Xbox. I know this is a long shot, and will never happen but I wish drm and formats will consolidate so that any movie, song, or tv show downloaded from any service can be viewed or played on any device. Give the customers a choice, let us price shop. Stop forcing us to buy specific equipment to watch specific content.

2. I wish for an iPhone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard

Another long shot. If you kept up with my rants about the iPhone, you’d know I have a love/hate relationship with that phone. One of my biggest complaints is the lack of a QWERTY keyboard. I know, some of you think the touch screen is so cool that you make yourself think that you don’t need buttons. Adding QWERTY with real buttons would greatly improve the iPhone, to a point where my next phone would be a QWERTY iPhone (right now, I’m pretty sure my next phone will be something other than an iPhone). Steve Jobs and Apple in general have a thing about buttons, so this will probably never happen. but one day, someone is going to release an Android phone, with a real QWERTY keyboard, and many will switch over to it. I just wish Apple would do it first.

3. Netbooks with better processors

One thing that has kept me from buying a netbook thus far is the lack of options when it comes to the CPU running them. Yea the Intel chip is good as far as battery life and power consumption, but I would like something with a little more umph. I would like to plug a netbook into my LCD TV and play Blu ray movies (via usb Blu Ray drive) if I want. I would like the opportunity to encode, convert, burn video at similar speeds as I do now with my desktop when I want. Is it too much to ask to have a highly portable Netbook device that can do some of the things "I" want to do on the run from time to time? Add a dual core processor? Id even be happy if they added one of those cheap ATI cards with AVIVO (Ive seen Desktop version for $30 bucks). I don’t want a high end laptop in netbook form, just the option to get a netbook with better components.

4. $99 Netbooks

I really think by the end of 09, this will be a wish that becomes a reality (and will top the holiday sales charts) I wish the prices of the minimal Netbooks, the ones that sale for $299 today, will drop to about $99 bucks sometime this year. Imagine how many people will be getting $99 dollar netbooks as gifts during the 09 holidays if this happens…Get on it Asus.

5. News of the Next..next generation consoles

I know, many console gamers want their Playstation’s and Xbox’s to last 10 years, but that’s not me, I’m from a PC gaming background, and I like new hardware. I like improvements, I like new features. While many are predicting 2011 or 2012 before new consoles are announced, I’m hoping for new console announcements in 2010. What I wish for is not announcements, but leaked information to give me an idea of what to expect the next go around in the console world. (I actually think holiday 2010 is when a new generation should start)

6. A drop in Blu Ray disc prices

This Blu Ray disc price drop I wish for isn’t just for movies, but also the blank Blu Ray media. For one, I wish the Blu Ray movies will drop to the same price as today’s DVD. Second, I wish that blank Blu Ray media would drop to a sensible purchase price (which right now it isn’t)

7. Palm’s CES announcement will rock your world

As many of you know, Palm is announcing something at CES this year. There has been much speculation, but no one knows what it is (as far as I know). I was a big fan of the Palm Treo 650, and even though that phone is long outdated, and there are better devices available, I still haven’t been as satisfied with anything Ive owned or read about as I was with that Treo. I’m wishing for a renewed life for Palm with an announcement of a awesome device, and a new awesome OS. Will it happen? Well we got about a week before we know.