The End of the World is Nigh!

No its not Armageddon, nor the end of the Mayan calender.  Rather, could it be the end of the desktop computer as we've come to know it and love.

Back before the tablet, further back before the notebook, and even further back before the relative cheapness of laptops, most people's first contact with computers, was through the tower and screen of the typical desktop computer.  While not mobile, the desktop computer retained lots of advantages when compared to the developing laptop market.  To begin with, they were a lot cheaper.  With more space in the tower, they could have bigger hard disks giving them greater backing storage.  They had more powerful graphics cards giving them greater game playing ability and with more input and output sockets they could connect to almost every type of device, from joysticks through full sized keyboards to the ability to output to multiple monitors. More memory could be packed in and with space for big cooling fans and heat sinks faster processors could be used.  In almost every way, apart from portability, desktops had the advantage over laptops.

More Poowwwwerrrrr!!

For Power Users

For Steam Punk Fans

For Motorbike enthusiasts

And best of all.  Desktop PC's could be fully customised and be easily built at home according to your own needs or specifications. They could be game orientated or built especially for web or program development. Or for video editing or for business needs.  For example I know someone whose desktop computer has 24 Gb (shed loads) of RAM memory and backing storage of 48 Terabytes (48,000 Gigabytes, more than all the school desktop computers put together)

Nowadays, the key aim is for mobile computing and so development is focused around small laptops, tablets, 4G smart phones etc.  And manufacturers - Samsung, HTC, Lenovo and Apple in particular etc - don't like people messing with the innards of their machines and anyway, there isn't any room for custom bits and pieces.  So more mobility means being less fixed to desktop machines which means less need for for desktops which means an end to customisation and so fewer people building their own computers.   So it's not so much video killed the radio star, its more mobility killed the desktop!

Is this true!  Are we at the beginning of the death of the desktop?  Or if you have a desktop, how would like to see it customised?  What would you add or remove to make it your own?  It has to be more than a sticker!

Nominate your best tech or gadget!

Santa is just around the corner.  He knows where you live, and like stealthy ninja, is checking out best entrances and exits to your home!

We want your nominations for what you think is the best tech of the year and what you would like to see most under the Christmas tree.  It can be any kind of gadget you like, phone, camera, tablet, gaming machine etc. But you have to say why you think is so cool and briefly describe what it does so much better than any other kind of its class.

Or if you don't think anything worthwhile has been produced in 2012, offer suggestions for the kind of gadget you would like to see in 2013.  For example, I'm pretty keen to see what the Surface Pro can do.  And I would nominate the Surface RT for the gadget of the year in 2012.  Its a big departure for Microsoft and I think the new interface is very quick to use.  Plus, I think the keyboard in the cover lifts the tablet from just a fancy internet browsing and emailing device into a proper computing alternative to a laptop or desktop.

So come on.  Give us your nominations!