New Year, new home

 It has been quite a while since my last post. There are good reasons for that, amongst them a long drawn out move from Essex to the North-West, which has finally been completed. We first tried to move back in late 2019 but then the pandemic but that on hold. Now some folk used the pandemic time to spend even more time online and to write even more blog posts. Personally there was so many other things going on in our lives at that time that blogging took a back seat. 

So, it's now 2023 and a Happy New Year to you all! For some loved ones it was a terriblwe year in 2022 and we lost some very dear ones to us. Others close to us aer still facing major health challenges so 2023 still holds the potential for some bad news. Hopefully and prayerfully there will be some good news instead.

In terms of what has been happening in the digital world there is so much we could discuss but I want to highlight a few trends.

1. Crypto - its been a roller coaster for anyone investign in crypto currencies. Whatever your thoughts on the future of crypto following the FTX debacle its clear that blockchain technology is here to stay. I expect 2023 will see some interesting developments in this space including regulation by central banks, CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) and real-world uses for blackchain that may suprise us, particularly in the healthcare sector.

2. Photography - the Fujifilm X-T5 looks amazing and hopefully, one day I will get my hands on one. Also, the role of Ai in photography will only grow, both from the technology perspective (think in-camera alogorithms for focussing) and from the post-processing aspect (think DALL-E and Stable Diffussion etc). Controversial in the opinion of many but nevertheless here to stay and become more influential.

3. Computers - it seems that computers get ever more powerful and more essential to our daily lives. This is especially true when it comes to the computers in our hands, i.e. our smartphones. They get more powerful and capable with each new model and especially when it comes to photography. I expect that more folk will never buty another camera other than what is in their smartphone and the traditional camera manufacturers will see their market share erode even more in the coming years.

4. Drones - what a year drones have had! With the invasion of Ukraine by Russia we have seen drones create more headlines than we could have imagined in January 2022. I expect this will drive even greater development in drone technology and what happens in the military sector will eventually impact on the consumer sector. Drones will undoubtably get smaller, lighter, faster and more capable at all levels and I expect more of us will own and use them in 2023 than ever before. 

5. Internet - the unstoppable behemoth that is the world wide web continues to grow with ever more websites, web services and bandwidth beign created. As we continue to stream ever more music and programmes, our appetite for faster broadband grows exponentially. Also, as more countries expand their digital services (and blockchain will play a part in this trend) then the need for more bandwidth will continue to expand. As 5G mobile services expand this will only increase the demand for fast networks everywhere. Add Wi-Fi 6 to the mix, IoT networks and more health services using digital networks and I expect massive growth in this arena.

What does all this mean for our daily lives:

1. More working from home for most of us. Already most fo the jobs I look at are either all done from home or are hybrid with just one day a week (or even a month) in the office. Many involve travel and require mobile communications (again more need for 5G and the like).

2. More government services available only online. This is especially true of the UK but also around the industrialised world and increasingly so in the developing world. In Ukraine they have developed online services out of necessity and in a way they are a model for other nations to follow.

3. More reliance on our mobile devices, especially smartphones. We increasingly use our smartphoens for sat nav, booking tickets, paying at the store and for social media (including photography and video).

4. More streaming. However, when will the networks (as in Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Apple etc) work together to reduce the number of streaming services we need to subscribe to. When economic pressures reduce our 'free funds' - otherwise knwon as discretionary spending - we can't afford to subscribe to several streaming services. There is already some recognition of this - for example SKY now gives a free subscription to Netflix with its packages. Hopefully we will see more of this sort of thing, especially when some of our favourite programmes end up on another streaming service when the next series comes out - very annoying!

So, those are some of my personal thoughts. I will post some more specific posts in near future. Expect some photography related ones in the near future. Until then, I hope 2023 will prove to be a happier, safer and more progressive year all round. Oh, and Slava Ukraine!