Andrew Smith's Profile

But back to those services. There's only one that I've used above all others: Twitter. I've been a user for sometime but it's only in the last year, with the launch of web apps like Twhirl, and the mobile client Twitterific that the service has become indispensable.

It's part communication tool, part messenger service, but for me at least, it's mainly a tool for filtering content. I use the Twitter feeds of key services and the feeds of key thought leaders to help inform me about the wider world.

My epiphany about the most important technology of 2008 was prompted by one of the better science fiction novels I read this year - Halting State by Charles Stross.

Though set in a fictional future it is, like much SF, more about the problems of today than tomorrow. Net access via mobile is central to the book's plot and that emphasis struck a chord - particularly when it is matched with some of the other things happening in the mobile world.

This year has seen the rise of the netbook - the cheap, web-connected laptop that folk can tote around and do that web stuff.

There is growing neuroscientific support for this claim. People who play video games, for example, have been found to process complex visual information more quickly. They may also be better at multi-tasking than earlier generations, which equips them better for the modern world.