We're going to witness this year the spectacle of parents buying a 12.8-megapixel SLR digital camera with continuous drive capabilities of over four frames-per-second and professional-quality lenses to take pictures of their kids playing little league. And by the end of the year, they'll pay as little as US$1,500 for these extreme cameras formerly reserved for the exclusive use of professionals and formerly costing over $10,000.

Likewise, the point-and-click snapshots crowd will move from amateur to prosumer cameras, with the amateur cameras reserved for children and cheapskates.

The year of the safe laptop battery

If 2006 was "The Year of the Exploding Laptop Battery," 2007 will be "The Year of the Safety Battery."

Sony received a massive public relations black eye when it was revealed that some of the Dell laptops catching fire and exploding in videos widely downloaded on YouTube and other video services were destroyed by faulty Sony batteries.