Tom’s Hardware’s 2015 Wish List

[HomerThompson]

@SinxarKnights Yikes. Your internet prices are even worse than mine. Mine's $50 something for 3 Mbps (1.8 actual) down. That said that's the best I can get. 5 miles. I live 5 miles from the city limits and no one cares to run lines out here. Heck, we can't even get 3G.

Windows 9 to be purchasable. Don't care how good it is if they make it a subscription, I'm done.

SteamOS to die a fiery death. Last thing I want is to have to use a new OS just to play games. Especially not one associated with Valve. Valve's got way too much control over the market as it is.

So you're worried about Windows being a subscription service and you hope SteamOS dies so you have no backup plan?

Linux?

SteamOS seems to be the only way to really get Linux in the game, which is why I'm rooting for it to succeed majorly. If devs start writing their games for SteamOS then they're probably writing them in OpenGL so that Linux will run them outside of Steam too. Windows just sucks as a Desktop OS in comparison to Linux and the only plus it has is much better AAA gaming support.

 

[wolverine96]

Why exclude Rhode Island? It's only ranked 43rd in the nation, as far as population goes.
Source

AFAIK, it's to do with laws regarding lotteries and competition. I think there has to be skill involved or something; it can't just be random.

In other words law maker stupidity.

Aha. Useless politicians.

 

[surphninja]

"...and no numpad."

Would someone please tell me why a laptop needs a numpad?

It puts the whole keyboard off-center from the screen and takes up valuable real estate. If a numpad is so essential, get a usb numpad. What are you doing that requires you always have a numpad?

 

[tvieson]

I'd like to see a well thought out SMARTPhone for 2015 that doesn't break the bank. Something around 3 to 4 hundred dollars out right. Meaning I can use it with any carrier and no contracts.

I don't care who makes it, each phone weathers its Apple, Andriod, Blackberry, or Windows Phone all have their short comings.

Wireless Charging (Sit it on a charging pad and it charges)
Reasonable Screen Size (Between 4 to 5 inches, something that will still fit in my pocket)
16, 32 or 64 Gig available storage even after the OS is installed, not before
Micro SD Card reader in case you want more storage
NO CARRIER Exclusivity - If you the carrier want to encourage people to use your service vs the other guy then make your service better cause quite frankly, all carries have gotten lazy and are relying to much on phones to bring them business instead of the quality of the service.
A reasonable camera. An 8 to 10 Mega Pixel Camera seems reasonable. I don't need a camera that fills my on board storage with 2 pictures.
Finally and most importantly, 12 to 16 hours of battery life. Something were I can wake up, use the phone off and on all day and plug it in when I go to bed at night. Not well it will last you 24 hours as long as your not using it and its just idling.

Now onto APPS. Honestly I have no real opinion on apps as I don't use them, but what apps I do use I would like to install and just run it without it asking for access to ever piece of information about me or every possible function on my phone.

To those who commented about Games, Preach Preach on. When did it become accessible to sell incomplete anything. Whats next, "Yes you can purchase this car, but windshield wipers may kick on at random till we fix the rain detection bug."

Reasonably Priced and larger size SSDs. You can purchase 32GB Micro SD Cards the size of fingernail. You can't come up with a 4TB or larger SSD for under 200 dollars.

A true dual purpose Tablet/Laptop/PC. Something that when docked to a control station, cause hell why stop at tablets, do it with phones. While on its own. Its a small generic low powered tablet or phone, but when docked its a fully function hi powered PC with 256GB or more of storage, 8GB memory or more, and now has access to multi USB ports to attach printers, cameras, and what ever other USB device you want to attach. Full wire gigabyte Ethernet. Asus Transformer and Lenovo are so close to something like this.

 

[smeezekitty]

@SinxarKnights Yikes. Your internet prices are even worse than mine. Mine's $50 something for 3 Mbps (1.8 actual) down. That said that's the best I can get. 5 miles. I live 5 miles from the city limits and no one cares to run lines out here. Heck, we can't even get 3G.

Windows 9 to be purchasable. Don't care how good it is if they make it a subscription, I'm done.

SteamOS to die a fiery death. Last thing I want is to have to use a new OS just to play games. Especially not one associated with Valve. Valve's got way too much control over the market as it is.

So you're worried about Windows being a subscription service and you hope SteamOS dies so you have no backup plan?

Linux?

SteamOS seems to be the only way to really get Linux in the game, which is why I'm rooting for it to succeed majorly. If devs start writing their games for SteamOS then they're probably writing them in OpenGL so that Linux will run them outside of Steam too. Windows just sucks as a Desktop OS in comparison to Linux and the only plus it has is much better AAA gaming support.

If Windows switched to subscriptions or even continued on its current path, I can guarantee that
Linux will see more adoption forcing game devs to build for it.

 

[no1enter]

1. AFFORDIBLE Gb internet
2. End to DRM
3. End to VGA, DVI, HDMI, Displayport, USB. All converted to Thunderbolt.
4. End of FBI/BS warrnings on leagally bought DVD/Bluray...

 

[Someone Somewhere]

1. AFFORDIBLE Gb internet
2. End to DRM
3. End to VGA, DVI, HDMI, Displayport, USB. All converted to Thunderbolt.
4. End of FBI/BS warrnings on leagally bought DVD/Bluray...

Yuck, no to #3. TB is expensive, proprietary, daisy-chained, power-hungry, and not backwards compatible (with the exception of DP, which is on your get rid of list).

Bring on USB 3.1 with the Type C connectors.

Mostly agreed on the others.

 

[RElectrons]

(2) Elon Musk releases a line of products that take 18650 batteries and/or 123A batteries (instead of AAs, AAAs, Cs, Ds) on the day his GigaBatteryPlant opens. They are sold under the "Tesla" name.

Uhh...why? Those batteries are rare and expensive

Nothing is rare on the Internet. If You want a Sasquatch skin sample, check FleaBay (eBay.)

They are only expensive up front. After You recharge a $8.00 3.7V, 3.4AH Panasonic 18650 for the 100th time, it is really very cheap.

There are times when I can not rely on a bunch of NiMH AAs. For example,I just got back from walking to my favorite gun store which is next to my favorite restaurant. I had a red LED light strapped to my arm so the cars driving by could see me. I do not trust NiMH cells to not die on me when my tail is on the line, and I do not trust Duracell AAs when it is cold (37 deg F at the moment) so I use Energizer E2 Ultimate Lithium AAs. They cost $1-$2 per cell, but I use them anyway. I wish the thing would take a 16340 (rechargeable 123A) cell.

My bluetooth speaker has a 2.2AH 3.7V battery in it, presumably an 18650. I wish it was easy to change the cell out.

A few weeks back when I sold an old Mossberg 500 Slugster shotgun, it had a tac light attached. I had not touched it in 5 years, but the 18650 (probably salvaged from a dead laptop battery) still held a good charge.

Another time I was out in the hill country and by friend told me he thought he had been bitten by a snake. As he pulled up his pants legs to look, I tried to turn on a 4D Mag Light. It seemed dead. I rushed him to the hospital on icy roads (I should have known no snakes would be out in snow and ice.) As I was downshifting and exiting the highway, I must have accidentally hit the switch on the Mag Light because it came on so bright it blinded me for a second. I almost had a wreck. The pickup's heater had warmed up the Duracell D cells in the Mag Light, and they were working again. You can test this Yourself - put some alkaline cells in the freezer overnight then try them in the morning. They will seem dead until they warm up.

(4) Apple release OSX as an operating system.

Well it IS an OS. It is just not licensed to run on non Apple hardware

That's what I meant. They sell it as a product that works on any PC hardware.

(5) Microsoft resumes support for all old OSes, and sells "old" OSes for $5 per copy. (e.g., DOS, Windows 95, NT, 2000, XP, etc.)

(6) Microsoft build decent virtualization into all their OSes, then releases (sells) VM images of all "old" OSes for $5 each. They even support at least one hypervisor for Linux and OSX.

(7) Microsoft encourages software vendors to sell "old" software as VM appliances, and provides tons of support for this on MSDN. Suddenly, most GOG installs work in one of a few virtual appliances they sell. Older CAD/CAM systems are now secure from hackers.

Why?

I have spent weeks trying to get an obsolete CNC mill to work, because the software only supports Windows 95 with certain updates. I refuse to throw away a $10k machine because Microsoft refuses to support OSes used by millions of people. (Hundreds of millions in the case of XP.)

(9) Since all legacy software is virtualized, Windows 10 is based on Linux, and shares binary-level compatibility with OSX.

LOL -- About as realistic as teleportion

True.

 

[smeezekitty]

Nothing is rare on the Internet. If You want a Sasquatch skin sample, check FleaBay (eBay.)

But they are rare in a sense that I can't buy them at a local store. Significantly more inconvenient.
And If I need it "now" then I am out of luck.

when I can not rely on a bunch of NiMH AAs. For example,I just got back from walking to my favorite gun store which is next to my favorite restaurant. I had a red LED light strapped to my arm so the cars driving by could see me. I do not trust NiMH cells to not die on me when my tail is on the line, and I do not trust Duracell AAs when it is cold (37 deg F at the moment) so I use Energizer E2 Ultimate Lithium AAs. They cost $1-$2 per cell, but I use them anyway. I wish the thing would take a 16340 (rechargeable 123A) cell.

I can see the point about NiMH with the sharp discharge curve. It can be full brightness and 10 seconds later
barely be glowing.

A few weeks back when I sold an old Mossberg 500 Slugster shotgun, it had a tac light attached. I had not touched it in 5 years, but the 18650 (probably salvaged from a dead laptop battery) still held a good charge.

That is the nice thing about LI-ION is a relatively slow self-discharge rate compared to NI-*
But I still prefer regular AA/AA sizes for most items

Another time I was out in the hill country and by friend told me he thought he had been bitten by a snake. As he pulled up his pants legs to look, I tried to turn on a 4D Mag Light. It seemed dead. I rushed him to the hospital on icy roads (I should have known no snakes would be out in snow and ice.) As I was downshifting and exiting the highway, I must have accidentally hit the switch on the Mag Light because it came on so bright it blinded me for a second. I almost had a wreck. The pickup's heater had warmed up the Duracell D cells in the Mag Light, and they were working again. You can test this Yourself - put some alkaline cells in the freezer overnight then try them in the morning. They will seem dead until they warm up.

My late grand mother used to store batteries in the refrigerator. She claimed it made them last longer.
It was to the point that things didn't work right until they warm up. (Some people *sigh*)
All battery chemistries perform worse in the cold weather. Some worse that others.
I don't know much about how Lithium works at low temps.

That's what I meant. They sell it as a product that works on any PC hardware.

Agreed. But Apple is terribly proprietary.

I have spent weeks trying to get an obsolete CNC mill to work, because the software only supports Windows 95 with certain updates. I refuse to throw away a $10k machine because Microsoft refuses to support OSes used by millions of people. (Hundreds of millions in the case of XP.)

Nothing is stopping you from running those old OSes even though they are not officially supported.
I do it all the time.

 

[EasyLover]

I wish for AMD's strong come back.

nVIDIA's support for FreeSync. Maybe a nightmare for nVIDIA But again why not. nVIDIA should be flexible for the benefit of the customers. 😉

 

[Soham1080p]

@yanta

I would really like to have all these US specific applications start working in other countries. Like in India, we have no music streaming apps with any good collections. Spotify's been saying coming soon for years. It really is the cause of piracy.

 

[RunLuke]

The disappearance of uPlay.

 

[smeezekitty]

@yanta

I would really like to have all these US specific applications start working in other countries. Like in India, we have no music streaming apps with any good collections. Spotify's been saying coming soon for years. It really is the cause of piracy.

And for that matter, stop region locking DVDs and console games.

 

[8bit_architect]

Excluding things I've already seen on here.

1. Consoles die, and are replaced with set-top boxes running specialized Linux OSes.
2. Steam OS takes away Windows' hold on the PC gaming sector, and gives it to Linux.
3. AMD/Intel cross compatibility for motherboards/sockets.
4. 4k+VR headests are introduced

now, I doubt most of these are realistic for 2015, but a man can dream, can't he?

 

[AndrewJacksonZA]

Fritz Nelson, I love you! 🙂

 

[wolverine96]

3. AMD/Intel cross compatibility for motherboards/sockets.

Now that's something that will never happen. Fun to think about, though!

 

[smeezekitty]

3. AMD/Intel cross compatibility for motherboards/sockets.

Now that's something that will never happen. Fun to think about, though!

It USED to be the case. Socket 7 was the last one

 

[wolverine96]

3. AMD/Intel cross compatibility for motherboards/sockets.

Now that's something that will never happen. Fun to think about, though!

It USED to be the case. Socket 7 was the last one

Ah, that was before I was born. 😀
I don't see anything like that happening today, mainly because of inter-CPU chipset incompatibility (I made that up, but it sounds professional), competition, etc.

 

[smeezekitty]

Ah, that was before I was born. 😀

Well I was very young at the time. But I collect and tinker with vintage machines.

I don't see anything like that happening today, mainly because of inter-CPU chipset incompatibility (I made that up, but it sounds professional), competition, etc.

Intel deliberately broke compatibility by going from Socket 7 to their weird-ass Slot 1
causing AMD to develop Super-socket 7. As they say, "the rest was history"

 

[vertexx]

What do you all think of 2014 biggest successes and biggest duds? Bit-tech.net did a nice 2014 recap, which got me thinking about this.

My list:

2014 Successes:
1. Crucial & Samsung - leading SSDs into the mainstream.
2. The X99 platform
3. Phanteks Enthoo case line
4. Kabini
5. Maxwell and the GTX 970
6. MSI Gaming GPUs and Mobos - they really nailed it this year with that line.

2014 Duds
1. Devils Canyon
2. Mantle
3. Elder Scrolls Online
4. Bit/LiteCoin Mining

 

[smeezekitty]

1. Crucial & Samsung - leading SSDs into the mainstream.

SSDs have slowly been becoming more and more common.
Samsungs famous 830 series was released in late 2011. Hardly 2014

2. The X99 platform

Too expensive. I don't know how much it really helps

5. Maxwell and the GTX 970

Agreed

2. Mantle

Yet to be seen but vendor locked in stuff usually doesn't do that well.

4. Bit/LiteCoin Mining

Agreed!

 

[Zalmoxe]

I have 100Gb/sec internet speed in Romania,in Cluj
And I pay 200 lions or 50 dollars per month for internet,tv and 2 phones,together
Surely it doesnt hit much of this because my ethernet card is only capable of 1 Gbit/second

 

[smeezekitty]

I have 100Gb/sec internet speed in Romania,in Cluj
And I pay 200 lions or 50 dollars per month for internet,tv and 2 phones,together
Surely it doesnt hit much of this because my ethernet card is only capable of 1 Gbit/second

100Gb/s?!? As in 12.5 GIGABYTES PER SECOND?
Are you serious? Oh crap

Is there ever a web server that can get near even one GB/s?

Are you sure about that number?

Spending that much for 5Mbp/s

 

[bit_user]

I have 100Gb/sec internet speed in Romania

Are you sure it's not 100 Mb/sec? The first 100 Gb/sec Ethernet cards are just starting to hit the market, and they'll probably cost thousands of $. It doesn't seem plausible that your ISP would support those speeds, as it would take them forever just to recoup the equipment costs on their end.

My cable modem will reach 100 Mbit/sec, on rare occasions. I live in one of the few competitive broadband markets in the US.

 

[bit_user]

I want a girlfriend that shares my passion for tech 😉

I can geek out with my friends and coworkers, so I don't need that from my girlfriend. It actually bugs me when they pretend to be interested, just to gain favor. The fact is, I actually like some balance in my life, so I prefer women who can help provide that.

But a partner who respects and accommodates one's passions is a must. It's a two-way street, of course.