The Most Important Tech Terms You Need To Know For 2023

As technology evolves, our collective vocabulary evolves as well.

Even if you're a Luddite who prefers to be indifferent to all new tech trends, you should probably still read on. Therefore, I am here. Just like in previous years, 2023 will bring popularity to many technical terms you may not have heard of. Existing ones or words take on a whole new meaning.

However, you must know. You are curious, I feel it. Without further ado, let's explore the lingo you need to learn before the calendar changes.

Expanded reality

Reality expands. Possible. Credit: Weiquan Lin/Getty Images

The first is Augmented Reality, commonly abbreviated to XR. It's by no means a new term, but you may hear it in the future as companies like Meta bring their vision of MetaVersion into our lives.

Thankfully, XR is easy enough to learn. This is a generic term for virtual reality, augmented reality, and everything in between. As you probably know, VR is when you put on a headset like Meta Quest 2 and get completely lost in a virtual world. AR involves digitally inserting virtual objects into the real world, such as B. snap filters . When the two come together, we call it mixed reality, which also falls under the XR umbrella.

XR will have its moment in 2023, as Meta pushes the Quest Pro mixed reality headset and Apple prepares to launch .

however

I've always wondered what Daft Punk would look like with cat ears and angel wings. Credits: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

No, it doesn't mean the proud Na'vi of Pandora, or the bald children with bows on their heads. Unfortunately, the technical definition of "avatar" is much more interesting.

At least it's easy. An avatar is simply a digital representation of yourself, whether in a video game, metaverse or elsewhere. He might look like you, or he might look like Spongebob Squarepants holding a bong or something. That's the beauty of a digital world like VRChat .

Be creative or not. I am not interested. But if you haven't already, know that you'll have to create an avatar at some point.

stable distribution

I think close enough. Credit: Stable Distribution Web

The technical details behind stable distributions are top notch for me and probably for you too. There's a medium article explaining this if you're interested, but it's more important to understand what a stable distribution does than how it works.

Simply put, Stable Distribution is a dedicated generation of text-to-image AI released in 2022. Unlike competitors like DALL-E , Stable Distribution can run directly from your computer's GPU (DALL-E is just a cloud at the comparison) and its base code is open source, so people can do whatever they want with it.

But ultimately, it's just another way to create an image of Peter Griffin playing basketball in Sonic the Hedgehog. Keep in mind that you may accidentally steal a human painter's work in the process.

TO THE

AI isn't just for robots anymore. Photo credit: Andreas Solaro/AFP via Getty Images

Artificial intelligence (or AI) is definitely a decades-old term. You probably have an idea of ​​what that means: the ability of a machine to understand and act on data. A lot of artificial intelligence is coming in 2023, so it's worth checking out at least some of the popular apps where you'll see them.

We discussed AI imaging with stable propagation and DALL-E. Another example is how AI can help phones like the Google Pixel 7 automatically edit the photos you take or provide you with a graphical user interface for automated call menus. There's also a new chatbot called ChatGPT that will answer and spit out all your questions. This is often a silly mistake, but hey, at least give it a try.

request

Apple HomePod will be compatible with the hardware. Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Smart home enthusiasts should probably pay a little more attention to this guy. Did you know that Google, Amazon and Apple all have their own smart home products? And do you know how to buy all of the brand's products so they can interact with each other to maximize their potential? Once the material is launched , it will be a thing of the past.

The material is standard for Apple's HomePod , a new line of smart home products that aim to allow products from multiple brands to work together in a single home ecosystem. The Verge has a great explanation of how it works once the Mather device comes out , but in short you need a device in your house that acts as a "controller". These can range from Amazon Echo to Apple TV 4K.

Content Controllers allow you to use other content-enabled devices nearby. While Mater devices won't be widely available until 2023, you can use Siri to send commands to Google Nest devices if you want. This is good.

Fast

Roku currently offers one of the most popular streaming services. 1 credit

Something less interesting than Matter is happening right now with streaming services like HBO Max . Shows like Westworld are being phased out, leaving fans wondering where to watch it develop. Get free ad-supported TV or instant streaming.

FAST is a new streaming trend that offers what the name suggests: a selection of free streaming content with ads. Faster services include Roku TV and Amazon's Freevee, for example. You don't pay a penny to watch anything on the Quick service, but the available content may not match that of the Premium service and you'll have to watch the ads again.

With Westworld rumors about to enter the fast-paced realm soon, you might want to familiarize yourself with the concept.

DLSS

Come to think of it, but 4K. Credit: Nielsen Barnard/Getty Images

2023 is sure to bring many new gaming buzzwords, but one to watch out for is Deep Learning Super Sampling, or DLSS. This is something Nvidia has been developing for its high-end PC graphics cards, but there have been persistent rumors over the last couple of years that Nintendo plans to use it for its next-gen Switch console. . So what is it?

A bit closer to layman's terms, DLSS uses AI (there's that word again) to enhance images beyond their true expression. Something that runs at 720p or 1080p could theoretically use DLSS to create the illusion that it runs at 1440p or 4K resolution. AI produces better picture quality than plain images and can even make games run better.

With the Switch failing miserably and Steam Deck stealing people's hearts, DLSS could (again, just in theory) be Nintendo's way of catching up on the hardware arms race a bit.

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