2012: iPhone5, iPad3 charged wirelessly, Apple TV!

12 things to look forward to in 2012

Posted on 28 December 2011 - 04:36am

Oon Yeoh

UNLESS you believe in Mayan mythology about the end of the world, 2012 is something to look forward to. Here are 12 things on my list of things I welcome with great anticipation: 

Elections
-- Although polls don’t actually have to be held until 2013, historically they are held well before the deadline. This one will be, to borrow a phrase from the deputy prime minister, “the mother of all elections”. Was 2008 a fluke for Pakatan Rakyat? We’ll know soon enough.

-- The Selangor mentri besar has said that if a gen-eral election is called before June, the state would hold its election later. He needs time to implement the state budget for next year. Selangor is a key battleground state. This is one to watch, for sure.

-- Although the Penang chief minister has been equivocal about whether the state poll would be held together with the general election, there’s little doubt PR will retain Penang. The real question is whether any of the BN parties (Umno, MCA, Gerakan) can make significant gains.

Movies
-- What can I say about The Avengers, an ensemble film that groups together Ironman, Hulk, Thor and Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow? Never before has a multi-superhero movie been attempted. What a visual spectacle this will be.

-- The Amazing Spiderman is not a sequel but a reboot starring Andrew Garfield (last seen as Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network), who actually physically resembles Peter Parker more than Toby Maguire. The new movie, slated for July, is supposed to be grittier than its predecessors. I guess everyone’s influenced by Christopher Nolan’s darkish tone for Batman.

-- The Dark Knight Rises is probably the most anticipated movie for next year. Its trailer broke iTunes’ all-time record with 12.5 million views on its first day of release. The previous record holder was The Avengers, whose trailer had more than 10 million views. This movie will come out in July, a few weeks after Spiderman.

Music
-- I’m an oldie so all the music that I’m looking forward to is from older acts, the chief of which would be the new Bruce Springsteen album. Not much is known about it although fellow rock veteran, Bob Seger, who recently performed with The Boss, was quoted in Rolling Stone magazine as saying: “He says it’s really unusual and that it’s the best thing that he’s done in years.”

-- Former Beatle, Paul McCartney, hasn’t put out a good original album in decades. The best stuff has often been his album of cover songs, the first of which was made in 1988 and the last in 1999. In 2012, he will come out with a new collection which he says are “the songs me and John (Lennon) based quite a few of our things on”.

-- The Beach Boys are celebrating their 50th anniversary next year with a reunion tour and album that involves all the surviving core members. They probably won’t be coming to Malaysia, but their new album, the first since 1992, is something to look forward to, judging from the teaser video (http://tinyurl.com/beachboys50) which shows these old boys can still hit the high notes.

Gadgets
-- Next year’s most anticipated tech releases will be dominated by Apple because they’ll be the last gadgets that bear the mark of Steve Jobs. Other than Siri, there was little new about the iPhone4S, which means iPhone 5 will probably be radically – and insanely – different.

-- FaceTime, a video-calling application, was the only real significant thing about iPad 2. That makes iPad 3 something to look forward to. It will be thinner and faster, for sure, but the real change will probably be with the battery which is rumoured to be charged wirelessly!

-- Jobs is famously quoted as telling biographer Walter Isaacson: “I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use ... I finally cracked it.” What was it that he cracked? We’ll just have to wait and see. Apple TV could be Jobs’ best Christmas gift to all of us in 2012.