Six things to be thankful for in technology, 2007

Today is Thanksgiving in the US. Typically, that means gathering with friends and loved ones, eating prodigious amounts of turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing, and watching the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys play football. Hopefully, people also take time to reflect on the things in their lives that they're thankful for. In that spirit, Ars is offering up a list of events and developments in 2007 that we think fellow geeks should be thankful for.
Finally, DRM is dying

Ken Fisher: 2007 is the year of the infamous Steve Jobs open letter on DRM, the year that EMI got brave enough to kick DRM to the curb, and even Universal is considering the idea. I've long argued that DRM isn't about piracy, it's about selling your rights back to you. With the growing backlash against DRM, smart players are realizing that their customers don't want to be treated like thieves, even if the MPAA has the gall to suggest that they do. Yet, even the MPAA knows that customers are tired of seeing their fair use rights trampled, coming out earlier this year to call for a change in the industry.

DRM isn't dead yet, but the writing is on the wall. DRM for music will likely not last another year. DRM for video is another matter, as those players remain convinced that their products need protection. Once DRM dies in the music scene, however, the pressure will be on Hollywood to explain why it continues to trample on fair use.
Gaming went mainstream in a big way

Ben Kuchera: What am I thankful for this holiday season? While it may annoy the more hardcore gaming audience, I'm going to have to say the new mainstream acceptance of gaming. With the Wii selling to every demographic and games like Guitar Hero bringing games to people who never tried the hobby before, it's a great time to be in the industry. While some people are scared that the hardcore gamers are being forgotten, there isn't much evidence of that yet; this year was chock full of wonderful games for the hardcore market as well as games that broke through to a wider audience. Just take a look at the features titles we reviewed, as well as the heap of mini-reviews this year.

I love the fact that I have plenty of games to play with my friends and family, even if they've never picked up a game controller before, they can play many Wii games, and the rhythm game genre is turning many parties into Guitar Hero gatherings. Gaming is now reaching out to more people, and that's good news for everyone.
The big disrupter: the iPhone

Eric Bangeman: I admire many of Apple's products—and I've been a Mac user for 22 years—but I also find myself irritated by some of the things the company does. But this year, I'm truly thankful for a game-changing product from Apple, the iPhone.

I've been a smartphone-PDA junkie for close to a decade and have used just about every mobile OS known to humankind during that time. The iPhone has truly made my life easier with its innovative UI, ease of use, and incredibly tight integration with Mac OS X (something no other smartphone has ever achieved). It makes me more productive (NewsGator's iPhone RSS interface is simply amazing), entertains me when I want to be entertained, and in its jailbroken form allows me to add extra functionality as I wait for official third-party apps to be released early next year.

The iPhone is significant not just because it is such a compelling product, however.The iPhone is sending a message to people at Apple and indeed everywhere that phone lock-ins aren't cool, and that the product can and will be made better by its community. In just a few short years, we'll look back and see how the iPhone caused a mobile revolution much like the BlackBerry did in the Enterprise.
Yes, we're even thankful for "Web 2.0"

Jacqui Cheng: I'm grateful for the mass proliferation of Web 2.0. Don't laugh! While some (okay, a lot) of Web 2.0 services serve little purpose, many others have done wonders to connect our online lives with our offline lives—that's what the Internet is for, after all.

Social networking sites like Facebook have exploded and brought in a huge number of users online who wouldn't have used the 'Net so much otherwise, helping them get back in touch with old classmates and friends as well as make new ones. Services like Twitter may seem like a niche catering to stream of consciousness fans, but it also serves to let me know what everyone's up to when I'm out and about, on devices ranging from laptops to just regular old mobile phones. I'm now a faithful worshipper of GrandCentral—having voicemails accessible through the web or sent to me in MP3 format is almost as good as Visual Voicemail on the iPhone. (Almost.) Flickr now serves as a photodocumentary for my life, and the numerous ways I can send photos directly to it (through my phone is my favorite) mean that everything is there.

There are numerous others that I haven't listed, and there are a lot of other technologies that tie into making these services useful (wireless broadband, near-ubiquitous WiFi, more feature-rich handhelds). Overall, the new(ish) wave of services that connect our real lives to each other through the 'Net have made both my online and offline lives more enjoyable. With the proliferation of powerful handheld devices like the iPhone and the N800, we'll be able to do even more online while enjoying life offline.
Volunteerism is at an all time high

Ryan Paul: The principle of volunteerism has elevated open source software into the public awareness and transformed the software industry. The growing importance of open source software is a poignant reminder that everyone who participates has the capacity to make a difference. Every participant, regardless of the scope or nature of their contribution, is helping to bring better software to all of us. That doesn't just mean programmers. It also includes unsung heroes, like documentation writers, artists, beta testers, bug reporters, and users who teach and support other users. Without the principled commitment of all of those people, I wouldn't be who I am today.

I feel compelled to express my gratitude for the open source software community and all of the hard-working volunteers who contribute their precious time and effort. The collective labor of the open source community has delivered technological liberty to myself and countless others. I'm grateful for the culture of volunteerism and collaboration that makes the community such a powerful and compelling medium for ideological interchange and technological progress.

I'm also thankful for the Creative Commons, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and other tireless defenders of freedom who work every day to ensure that our future will not be locked down and encumbered by increasingly draconian intellectual property laws. You can see our coverage of the EFF's battles here.

I would also like to extend my appreciation to companies like Red Hat, Novell, Canonical, Google, Nokia, Collabora, Fluendo, and so many others that are coming to the table, motivated by enlightened self interest, to collaborate with the open source software community and spread freedom for our mutual benefit.


OLED and E Ink: the future is now

Jon Stokes: The earliest mention that I can find of E-Ink's technology on Ars is a post that I made way back in 2002, when the technology was "three to five years away" from commercialization. I was excited about it then, and I'm excited about it now, in spite of some of its teething problems (i.e., the slow refresh time). I've also been covering organic LED (OLED) technology for at least this long, also as part of the "three to five years away" beat. So I'm thankful that in 2007, both of these technologies began to enter the market in a meaningful, high-profile way. Sure, there were products based on E-Ink and OLED before 2007, but 2007 feels like the year that both have rounded some kind of corner and are poised to become truly mainstream. Now if we could just see some action on the Moller Aircar front...
In all, a great 2007

2007 has been a great year for tech, but of course there's one other thing we must give thanks for. You! Ars Technica readers are some of the smartest on the 'Net, and it's for you that we're here working tirelessly day-in, day-out. Although there is much work to be done before we can close the books on 2007, we're already looking forward to a great 2008.