Best Tech of 2013: A Year End Wrap-Up of the Biggest and Best Technology Releases of 2013

The year is almost over, and like most, 2013 was a year full of surprises, successes, and disappointments. This was equally true when it came to the new products that tech companies released to the public. Here is my list of what I thought were the best and biggest products of 2013.

Cameras

Sony QX10/QX100 Camera Lenses:

With the release of their pair of "smart lenses", Sony took a completely new approach to smartphone photography. Will this be the way more cameras work in the coming years?

Canon EOS 70D:

Though Canon didn't update many of their DSLR camera lines this year, the newly released 70D, featuring a brand new dual pixel autofocus technology, might hint at what direction Canon plans on taking their entire lineup in the coming year. Can't wait to see what 2014 holds for Canon!

Smartphones & Mobile Accessories

Samsung Galaxy S4 & Note 3:

Though Samsung's attempted launch of the smartwatch, dubbed "Galaxy Gear", fell flat, their two leading smartphone lines continue to fly off of the shelves. Whether you want a smartphone or a phablet, they have you covered.

iPhone 5s:

Apple's yearly update to their iPhone line was met with the usual roar of combined outrage and praise. Unlike the 5c (which is essentially a iPhone 5 with a splash of color), the 5s actually introduced a few new features to the smartphone world, namely the power of 64bit processing.

Pebble Smartwatch:
Funded through the power of Kickstarter, the Pebble Smartwatch is the first truly successful wearable technology to hit the market (sorry Galaxy Gear, maybe next year). Where other smartwatches have tried to essentially be a smartphone on your wrist, the Pebble has embraced simplicity and somehow it worked.

Media Devices & Gaming Platforms

Xbox One:
Finally, after 8 years of waiting, Microsoft updated their ever-popular Xbox line with the release of the Xbox One. While many people were disappointed once they saw the huge increase in price compared to the modest increase in specs, the update was still a big deal considering how long we had to wait for it.





Sony PS4:
Coming in at $100 less than its arch nemesis Xbox One, Sony's Playstation 4 has also received slightly better reviews than the Xbox One. There shouldn't be any rush to come to a conclusion though; given Microsoft's and Sony's track record of updating their respective gaming platforms we should have several years before the next generation is released.




Google Chromecast:

Google jumped into the media streaming device market this year with their release of the Chromecast. Costing less than half of what its competitors (mainly the Apple TV and Roku HD) sell for and supporting virtually every major operating system, the Chromecast shows us that Google doesn't mess around when it releases a new product.

Desktops, Laptops, & Tablets

Apple's New Mac Pro:
While mocked by some for its exorbitantly high price tag and resemblance to either a tissue box or Darth Vader's helmet, the release of the new Mac Pro marked the first time that Apple has really changed anything up and stepped outside the box (literally in this case) since the passing of Steve Jobs.







Amazon Kindle Fire HDX:
With extremely competitive pricing, near instant customer service thanks to the "Mayday" button, and a revolutionary display, the Kindle Fire HDX 7" & 10" lineup just got a lot hotter. Of the three main tablet lineups on the market (iPad, Nexus, and Kindle), the Kindle HDX line saw the biggest jump forward when its third generation hit the market this year.

Apps, Video Games & Software

Grand Theft Auto V:
Receiving extremely high critical acclaim and being the fastest selling entertainment product in history easily earns the fifth installment of the Grand Theft Auto series a spot on this list. I mean come on; the game generated more than $800 million in worldwide revenue in just the first 24 after it was released!




Apple iOS 7 & Mavericks:
Apple redressed its mobile operating system in bright (what some have called tacky) colors all while adding new features and redesigning their included apps. On the Mac OS front, Apple running out of cats to name their operating systems after also marked the end of having to pay to upgrade your computer's software, and another step towards the likely merger of iOS and Mac OS in the increasingly near future.



Vine - Create & Share Beautiful Looping Videos:

Released a year ago this coming January (it was only a year ago?), the Vine app was the fourth most downloaded app in the AppStore this past year. It's amazing what people can do in just 6 seconds.

Apple Announces iPhone 5s—The Most Forward-Thinking Smartphone in the World

iPhone 5s Features 64-bit A7 chip, All-New 8 Megapixel iSight Camera with True Tone Flash & Introduces Touch ID Fingerprint Sensor

CUPERTINO, California—September 10, 2013—Apple® today announced iPhone® 5s, the most forward-thinking iPhone yet, featuring an all-new A7 chip, making iPhone 5s the world’s first smartphone with 64-bit desktop-class architecture for blazing fast performance in the palm of your hand. iPhone 5s redefines the best smartphone experience in the world with amazing new features all packed into a remarkable thin and light design, including an all-new 8 megapixel iSight® camera with True Tone flash and introducing Touch ID™, an innovative way to simply and securely unlock your phone with just the touch of a finger. iPhone 5s comes with iOS 7, the most significant iOS update since the original iPhone, engineered for 64-bit technology and featuring hundreds of great new features, including Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop®, enhanced Photos, Safari®, Siri® and iTunes Radio℠.

“iPhone 5s is the most forward-thinking smartphone in the world, delivering desktop class architecture in the palm of your hand,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone 5s sets a new standard for smartphones, packed into its beautiful and refined design are breakthrough features that really matter to people, like Touch ID, a simple and secure way to unlock your phone with just a touch of your finger."

The all-new A7 chip in iPhone 5s brings 64-bit desktop-class architecture to a smartphone for the first time. With up to twice the CPU and graphics performance, almost everything you do on iPhone 5s is faster and better than ever, from launching apps and editing photos to playing graphic-intensive games—all while delivering great battery life. Apple also engineered iOS 7 and all the built-in apps to maximize the performance of the A7 chip. iPhone 5s is the best mobile gaming device with access to hundreds of thousands of games from the App Store℠, the A7 chip’s 64-bit architecture and support for OpenGL ES version 3.0. iPhone 5s delivers incredibly rich and complex visual effects, previously only possible on Macs, PCs and gaming consoles.

Every iPhone 5s includes the new M7 motion coprocessor that gathers data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass to offload work from the A7 for improved power efficiency. Developers can also access new CoreMotion APIs that take advantage of M7, so they can create even better fitness and activity apps that go well beyond what other mobile devices offer. The M7 motion coprocessor continuously measures your motion data, even when the device is asleep, and saves battery life for pedometer or other fitness apps that use the accelerometer all day.

iPhone 5s introduces Touch ID, an innovative way to simply and securely unlock your iPhone with just the touch of a finger. Built into the home button, Touch ID uses a laser cut sapphire crystal, together with the capacitive touch sensor, to take a high-resolution image of your fingerprint and intelligently analyze it to provide accurate readings from any angle. Setting up Touch ID to recognize your fingerprint is easy, and every time you use it, it gets better. The Touch ID sensor recognizes the touch of a finger so the sensor is only activated when needed, preserving battery life. All fingerprint information is encrypted and stored securely in the Secure Enclave inside the A7 chip on the iPhone 5s; it’s never stored on Apple servers or backed up to iCloud®. Touch ID can also be used as a secure way to approve purchases from the iTunes Store®, App Store or iBooks Store℠.

iPhone 5s makes it even easier to take great photos with the world’s most popular camera. The all-new 8 megapixel iSight camera features a larger f/2.2 aperture and a new, larger sensor with 1.5μ pixels for better sensitivity and low-light performance, resulting in better pictures. These improvements, along with the Apple-designed image signal processor in the A7 chip and the new Camera app in iOS 7, provide up to two-times faster auto-focus, faster photo capture, automatic image and video stabilization, and better dynamic range. iPhone 5s introduces the new True Tone flash—the world’s first for any camera—that variably adjusts color and intensity for over 1,000 combinations, so photos taken with a flash appear more natural. iPhone 5s also includes a new Burst Mode, Slo-Mo video with 120 fps, a new FaceTime® HD camera for better low-light performance and audio-only FaceTime calls with iOS 7.

iPhone 5s features a remarkable thin and light, precision-crafted design that customers around the world love, including an anodized aluminum body with diamond cut chamfered edges, a stunning 4-inch Retina® display and glass inlays. iPhone 5s is available in three gorgeous metallic finishes including gold, silver and space gray. To complement iPhone 5s, Apple designed premium leather cases in six rich colors—beige, black, blue, brown, yellow and (RED)—with soft, color-matched microfiber lining.

iPhone 5s makes it even easier to connect to high-speed networks with support for up to 13 LTE¹ wireless bands, more than any other smartphone in the world. With download speeds up to 100 Mbps², you can browse, download and stream content even faster. iPhone 5s includes dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi support for up to 150 Mbps² and Bluetooth 4.0. iPhone 5s delivers an amazing 10 hours of talk time on 3G networks, up to 10 hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi and LTE networks and up to 8 hours on 3G networks, and up to 10 hours of video playback and up to 40 hours of audio playback.³

iPhone 5s comes with iOS 7, the most significant iOS update since the original iPhone, engineered to support the A7 chip’s 64-bit architecture, the new iSight camera and Touch ID fingerprint sensor. iOS 7 features a stunning new user interface, completely redesigned with an elegant color palette, distinct, functional layers and subtle motion that make it feel more alive. iOS 7 has hundreds of great new features, including Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop, enhanced Photos, Safari, Siri and introduces iTunes Radio, a free Internet radio service based on the music you listen to on iTunes®.⁴

iPhone 5s customers have access to the revolutionary App Store, which offers more than 900,000 apps to iPhone, iPad® and iPod touch® users in 155 countries around the world. More than 50 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store to date, offering customers an incredible range of apps in 23 categories, including newspapers and magazines in Newsstand, games and entertainment, business, news, sports, health and fitness and travel.

Designed specifically for iOS, iPhoto®, iMovie®, Pages®, Numbers® and Keynote® are among the most popular apps in the App Store and are now available as free downloads with the purchase of iPhone 5s. iPhoto and iMovie enable you to do more than you ever thought possible with your photos and movies, and with Pages, Numbers and Keynote you can create, edit and share stunning documents, spreadsheets and presentations on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Pricing & Availability
iPhone 5s comes in gold, silver or space gray, and will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model and $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the 64GB model.⁵ iPhone 5s will be available from the Apple Online Store(www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores, and through AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPhone 5s cases will be available in beige, black, blue, brown, yellow and (RED) for a suggested retail price of $39 (US) through theApple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Authorized Apple Resellers. iPhone 5s will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK on Friday, September 20. A new iPhone 4S 8GB model will also be available for free.⁵ iOS 7 will be available as a free software update starting on Wednesday, September 18 for iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad mini and iPod touch (fifth generation). Some features may not be available on all products.

¹ LTE is available through select carriers. Network speeds are dependent on carrier networks, check with your carrier for details.
² Based on theoretical speeds, actual speeds may vary.
³ Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.
⁴ iTunes Radio will be available with the launch of iOS 7 in the US.
⁵ For qualified customers.