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It’s hard to believe another year is about to go. A lot of things happened in 2023, which actually made the year move at the pace of a glacier. Now, we look back at some of the biggest news that had caused quite a stir in the tech industry.

Last year was the year when AI made some big swings. This year, we’re seeing more AI development. It’s slow, but it’s moving forward. One of those is NVIDIA, through its Broadcast feature, the AI ensures during video conferences whoever is speaking their eyes will be pointed at the camera, at all times. It sounds cool, but it’s also eerie and uncanny in a way as you look more closely at the video, it’s not exactly perfect, but it’s very good. This way, you can project a front where you’re discussing something as if you were not reading your notes. 

Also in January, we got Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series. These phones feature a 4nm processor and vastly improved night photography. This would become the beginning where phone makers released smartphones with night photography and portrait modes in mind. 

Also in February, Microsoft yeeted Cortana in favor of Bing Chat, an AI chatbot you could ask questions and interact with. This is later rebranded into Copilot, as Microsoft pushes AI into their ecosystem. Later in the year as Microsoft revealed AI will be integrated into their Microsoft 365 subscription, where you have an AI assisted Copilot access to your entire Microsoft apps. This way, you could get information from your documents far more quickly, generate formulas of your spreadsheets, and have a vastly different experience with PowerPoint.

In March, Google played catch up by releasing a beta version of Bard to users. It’s also a chatbot where you can ask questions and Bard will try its best to answer you. Google is working on Bard extensions for other Google apps, such as analyzing emails and generating responses. It’s still in beta, but Google without doubt will continue to expand its functionalities.

Between the last week of February up to the first week of March was the Mobile World Congress 2023, where tech leaders around the world talked about innovation and the new digital decade. It was more about setting the stage or envisioning the future of communications.

This was also the year of flip phones. I blame Samsung for this one, restarting the trend. I also blame Motorola, for even introducing it in the first place in 1996. We have been seeing a lot of them since last year and we got even more of them this year. So, for 2023, we’ve seen the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5, OPPO Find N3 Flip, the vivo X Flip, and the TECNO Phantom V Flip. We shouldn’t dismiss Motorola’s comeback efforts with the Razr and the Razr+. All of these flip smartphones have unique camera designs and versatile cover screens. We also saw a lot of Fold smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5, the HUAWEI Mate X3, HONOR Magic V2 and Magic VS2, OPPO Find N3 Fold, Xiaomi Mix 3 Fold, OnePlus Open, Pixel Fold, TECNO Phantom V Fold, and the vivo X Fold 2.

Google also announced the Pixel 8 series, including the Pixel Fold–which is something I’m really liking a lot. What piqued the interest the most in this phone is the introduction of powerful AI features. They were cool and fun features that are also horrifying in a way. These AI features involve the camera, where you can edit out images at ease. You take a picture and there’s an unexpected photobomber behind you? You can erase them with a few flicks. Is someone not smiling in your supposed perfect group pic? Not to worry, you can make them smile. It’s cool. Sure. But also horrifying, as I said, because with all the rampant misinformation around the internet, modifying images to this level of extent could potentially make things worse. 

In May last year, Luna, a cryptocurrency from Terraform Labs, collapsed, which many believe is one of the harbingers of the crypto crash during the so-called crypto winter (a period where crypto value has declined, for many reasons, such as a bear market). The reason for the collapse is due to the de-peg of its stablecoin, TerraUSD. Peg means the price of a crypto coin that’s aimed to remain at. TerraUSD was supposed to follow the price of the US dollar, and the de-peg happened when TerraUSD’s price became lower than the dollar, creating a massive stir in its community. So, basically, when that changed, everything did as well, and all for the worst. People lost millions and billions. Terraform Labs co-founder and former CEO, Do Kwon, limited his social media presence, until he seemingly disappeared. And no one knew his exact location. Do Kwon claims he’s been never on the run and information about his Red Notice (an international arrest warrant from Interpol) couldn’t be verified and has often been dismissed as fake news (by Do Kwon’s supporters). So, long story short, Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro last March for having fake passports. He’ll remain detained there until February 2024 where he faces extradition to the US and face fraud charges from the Luna and TerraUSD collapse.

Photo by Mariia Shalabaieva on Unsplash

Another topic on cryptocurrency, the other harbinger of the crypto crash was FTX, a major exchange in the US. Its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been charged with fraud for mishandling customer funds. It’s a long saga, so let’s keep it at that. In October, months after being extradited from the Bahamas to the US, Bankman-Fried’s trial began and all of his colleagues basically threw him under the bus, which resulted with him facing 110 years in prison. Yes, 110. GG.

Sliding back into mobile devices, how can we not talk about Apple? Their newest iPhone 15 series looks just as spectacular as last year’s model, and the year before that, and maybe even the year before that, too? I dunno, they all look the same. But the base iPhone 15 and 15 Plus did get Dynamic Islands and the Pro models got titanium bodies–which, as pretty as they look, seems a dire need for cases ASAP for their intense hunger for catching fingerprints. Okay, okay, let’s be serious for a moment, the newest update for the Pro models would allow you to capture spatial videos for next year’s Vision Pro, so you have a deeper immersion and perception. We’ll still have to see how it looks. And, in part to precondition people in using the Vision Pro (at least, for those who will actually be getting one) is some new cool stuff from the new Apple Watch Series 9. And that is, the double tap. Where you can tap twice your thumb and forefinger. This gesture would allow you to answer phone calls, playing or pausing music, scrolling through widgets, among other things. It changes depending on the app. 

In September, Meta rolled out their new AI experiences. Users are able to generate AI images for Messenger. You can create AI stickers and edit images with AI tools when uploading to Instagram. On top of this, Meta released AI personalities based on celebrities such as Snoop Dogg. Meta is also in partnership with Ray-Ban for new high-tech glasses, which Meta is working on for a hand-free AI experience, which should be really interesting. 

As X (Twitter) was adjusting itself with new management, its users were trying to find someplace to migrate to. A few options presented themselves, such as BeReal (was really popular in the US) and Hive (big missed opportunity here). Bluesky is looking like a serious contender, but it’s still not ready with sign ups being invite only for now. Mastodon was the best bet for everyone. But there was something in it that was missing and no one can really say what it is (it’s still very recommendable though). So, this was a big chance for Meta to swoop in, as they launched Threads in July. When I created my own account, I found a bunch of my tech friends there and like giddy children, had fun with it along with a lot of very excited people. It got so many people hyped up, Mark Zuckberg announced that on launch day there were 30 million users. The problem would soon dawn on us all. Threads did not have hashtags or DMs and the feed was weird. On top of that, Threads seems to be linked to Instagram (it does it's an IG app) and if you tried to delete your Threads account, your IG account goes down with it. Like, what a way to lock people in, right? Threads now has hashtags and DM, you can now also delete it safely without sending all your IG content down to oblivion. 

In November, one of the biggest dramas to have ever happened in the tech world that does not directly involve Elon Musk, Sam Altman was ousted as CEO by the board members of OpenAI. The exact reason remains unclear, only that Altman hasn’t been fully transparent to the board members. Maybe someday we’ll find out the real reason. But the sudden ousting has led to a full company coup, as over 600 of OpenAI’s 700 employees threatened to quit the company. Microsoft, being interested in AI and a huge investor of OpenAI, swooped in to say they would welcome Sam Altman and everyone who quit from OpenAI. In the end, Altman was reinstated and all the board members who tried to yeet him off the company had been removed instead. 

Sometime in August, a huge controversy came online in what is known as the “superconductor,” the LK-99. Explaining how it works would take too long. Suffice to say, if it performed the way it was hyped up to be, it would have created lossless energy transmission, generating significantly carbon emissions and produce more clean energy, it could have created levitating trains, improved quantum computing, helped create new breakthroughs in medical research, among many other things. Unfortunately, upon further scrutiny, the LK-99 wasn’t what it was expected.

Also in November, during COP28, a summit that brought leaders around the world to talk about climate change. Acer is taking a more proactive approach by using more recycled plastics and metals for their devices as well as packaging. They shared their vision of the future PC as a device that consumes less power, which is quite a bold thing to say since a lot of PCs right now – especially the gaming brands and crypto mining rigs – devour power like nothing. Still, the fact Acer has claimed their commitment and vision into sustainability shows that maybe they are working on something to help develop devices with low-power consumption.

And now we have this month, December. All I can think of right now are games and only games. We got confirmation that E3 is dead, gone for good, as every big game company has their own thing. We also got a teaser of Hideo Kojima’s OD, which looks really spooky. And also another trailer for part two of the Final Fantasy VII remake, where Square is trying very hard to make us believe they will end this game the same way they ended Disc One from the original game. From a gameplay perspective, it would be such a waste of losing a very useful and cool character. Storywise, it makes sense? They changed a lot of things already, so please, Square, don’t stab us again. But the biggest and most important piece of game-related news we got in December, or maybe in the entire year, is finally an official trailer of Grand Theft Auto VI. Nothing more needs to be said. GTA VI will drive straight to your homes in 2025. Assuming no delays happen, which is a fairly common thing these days. 

Finally, one of the biggest things to have happened in tech throughout the year–maybe not just tech, but across multiple industries, are the large scale layoffs happening all year round. Companies such as Spotify, Amazon, ByteDance (TikTok owners) have all laid off people. Google cut over 12,000 jobs. Microsoft cuts over 10,000. The first half of 2023, Meta has also laid off over 10,000 jobs, which soon saw over 21,000 people without jobs. Epic has cut over 800 jobs. These are companies making billions, mind you. Even Apple has laid some employees off, though they did not release the exact numbers, and their cuts have been significantly smaller.

Here’s hoping 2024 would see a reverse in more people finding jobs.

Fearless Forecast

Now the fun part. For 2024 things are headed in an interesting direction. 

We are also hearing some news here and there that Samsung will be adding an AI feature in their upcoming Galaxy devices. No surprise there. Google has done it with their Pixel phones, so it is without doubt Samsung has something up their sleeve. Now that we know for sure Samsung will be stepping into the game with sleeves rolled up. It’s interesting if other phone brands will also get into the AI game?

For Apple, we’re not expecting anything radical with the iPhones. It will look the same as the iPhone 15 models and some of the 15 Pro features will be carried over to the base 16 and 16 Plus. Titanium bodies? I’m half hearted to include that. But we have rumors of some iPad changes and not just mere refreshes but actual reasonable upgrades, so there’s that to get a little excited over tablets again. But, more interesting, is the next Apple Watch. Will it be called the Watch 10 or the Watch X (pronounced as 10). We’re expecting some radical change with next year’s Watch, in the same way the iPhone X was a radical change from the iPhone 8 (Just a quick reminder, for some reason, Apple skipped the iPhone 9. So from 8 we jumped to X.) For me, all I’m looking forward to is a Watch capable of monitoring blood pressure.

For crypto, January will be an interesting month as all eyes are looking at the US SEC if they will approve the spot ETF applications from the biggest financial titans in the US. Many believe January will be the month of approval. And the approval would see massive cash flow into bitcoin. We’re speculating the US SEC will approve it.

Speaking of bitcoin and the spot ETF applications, in April will be the bitcoin’s halving event. It’s when rewards for miners are cut in half, making bitcoin scarce. This happens every four years. The last one happened in 2020. And everyone involved in the crypto space is eagerly waiting for it, as history has shown, every halving event led to a massive bull run. Of course, this is highly speculative, and it’s not an absolute guarantee the halving will indeed lead to a bull run. Just saying history has been consistent so far.

2023 also saw a lot of EVs and hybrids out in the streets. Personally, electrified vehicles still have a long way to go. But year after year in welcoming new models is still a great thing, as more people begin to adopt the technology, plus as the cost of these vehicles gradually lower, so too would the technology powering them. We’ve seen Nissan put out some nice-looking EVs, such as the Kicks. But Toyota has taken the risk in bringing more EVs and hybrids to the country, such as the new Yaris Cross. In 2024, we just might see more EVs other than Toyota. Hyundai has some cool cars, like the IONIQ 6. Honda is preparing to launch the Prelude and Prologue–but not anytime soon, but maybe we’ll get to see a few more details about them.

Lurking in on games, we fully expect in the second half of 2024, we will be, at least, seeing official images of the PlayStation 5 Pro. And we expect it to perform at least 50% better than the original PS5. We’re also anticipating stock issues as people hoard PS5 Pros to resell at ridiculously high prices, just like what happened when the PS5 first launched.

Nintendo’s own Switch–that incredible console that breathed new life in handhelds–is in dire need of a successor. So despite games still coming out of the Switch next year, we fully expect for Nintendo to unveil their next-generation console. Part of us believe it’s going to be something similar to the Switch. But Nintendo doesn’t like repeating itself too much. Expect something new and wild. Maybe another shot at VR, as they valiantly tried in 1995 with the Virtual Boy?

Earlier we mentioned how it was the year of flip phones. For 2024, it goes without saying that we will see more of them. I doubt we will be seeing any entry-level folding and flip phones any time soon, but we have a chance at seeing more in the upper mid-ranged segment, and along with it, more software optimization to improve the experience.

Since Google has made a big deal of having AI integrated in smartphones, we fully expect more smartphones to have some kind of AI built into it. And we mean actual AI, and not what a lot of smartphone makers have been boasting about in their cameras. It’s exciting in a way because everyone will be trying to outdo the other, toughening up the competition, leading to cool innovations.

Next year we will be seeing the Apple Vision One released into the wild. This could ignite interest in VR and AR once again. Some companies have tried to do their own version of VR. Typically in the form of slapping your phone into a pair of goggles (does anyone remember that?). Meta is already working on something like this with the Ray-Ban glasses. If successful, we can imagine Google trying for a few months before ditching the entire project, (Pixel Glasses?). 

If 2022 was the year AI made some noise, then 2023 was the year when AI began its integration to the public, and we will be seeing more of it in 2024.