2013 Tech to Watch

It’s impossible to predict next week’s weather, but all too easy to predict next year’s: In January 2014, it will be cold in Helsinki and hot in Rio. In any field, it’s the midterm prediction that hits the sweet spot—it’s neither too hard to be done nor too easy to be interesting. That’s why we’ve focused our annual technology survey on the coming 12 months.

Google Glass will bring the Internet to your eyeballs, but what will you do with it? An enormous canal in China will water that country’s parched north, but at what cost? Intel will mount a serious attack on the mobile market, but how will it do that? Of course, not all our prognostications were difficult: We absolutely guarantee that the infinitesimal vestiges of serenity remaining in airline cabins will be demolished as they are pervaded by cellphone chatter.