10. Facebook Timeline
Facebook's new profile layout, Timeline, is designed to be a better way to "tell your life story." Timeline was supposed to roll out a few weeks after its September debut, but we still haven't seen it (in mass effect) as of early December.
9. Windows Phone 7 Platform
Microsoft's efforts in the mobile OS arena have been greeted by big yawns from the majority of smartphone shoppers. But Windows Phone 7's prospects may brighten in 2012. The new Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) software adds the features and fine-tuning that the OS needs to compete with Android and iOS.
8. Android 4.0 Phones
The latest version of Google's mobile operating system is already generating buzz in the mobile world. Android 4.0 offers a lot to love: a polished interface, improved multitasking, better search tools, and the intriguing-yet-gimmicky Face Unlock and Android Beam.
7. Xbox 360 Update
Will the next-generation Xbox arrive in 2012? The latest rumors from reliable sources, including Supersite for Windows editor Paul Thurrott, say the next Xbox is slated for a 2013 debut. Until then, Xbox fans will have to be content with software upgrades, including an Xbox 360 dashboard update sporting a Windows 8, Metro-style interface.
6. Apple iPhone 5
When Apple unveiled the iPhone 4S in October, many fans felt a twinge of disenchantment. The iPhone 4S has some nice changes under the hood--including the voice-recognizing personal assistant Siri and an excellent 8-megapixel camera--but it looks virtually identical to its predecessor.
5. Wider Choice of Tablets
Tablets are currently going in two directions, splitting into the "just good enough" variety and the "powerful yet pricey" business models.
4. Quad-Core Mobile Devices
Speedy dual-core processors, such as Apple's A5 in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, will soon be old news as even faster quad-core chips migrate to the mobile market. Chip maker Nvidia says that smartphones featuring its quad-core Tegra 3 processors may arrive in the first half of 2012. And quad-core tablets, such as the Tegra 3-powered Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, are already here. Qualcomm, meanwhile, says that its quad-core Snapdragon chips will appear in Windows 8 tablets in the second half of 2012.
3. Smarter TVs From Apple and Sony
Rumors of an Apple-branded TV set aren't new, but recent developments lend credence to reports that the folks in Cupertino are cookin' up something good. According to Steve Jobs's biographer Walter Isaacson, Apple's cofounder was obsessed with the smart-TV concept, and had been working diligently on a genre-defining television interface before he passed. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, a longtime Apple watcher, recently predicted that an Apple television would debut by the end of 2012 or by the start of 2013.
2. Microsoft Windows 8
Microsoft's next operating system promises to be everything. Designed to power both tablets and conventional PCs, Windows 8 is ambitious and risky. The new OS will feature the touch-oriented Metro interface that we first saw in Windows Phone 7. That means Microsoft's "reimagined" flagship OS will be the first Windows version since the iconic Windows 95 to revamp, rather than simply tweak, the desktop interface.
1. Apple iPad 3
If the gossip is true, the next-generation iPad will be a sight to behold. Its most compelling (alleged) feature: a 2048-by-1536-pixel display, offering four times the resolution of the iPad 2's 1024-by-768-pixel screen. Assuming that Apple maintains its tablet-upgrade cycle, we can expect to see the new slate in the spring (the iPad and iPad 2 each shipped in the spring).
