Amazon

Lists by their nature are peculiar beasts.

For me, it's not about playing favourites (OK it is a little bit), but trying to level the playing field among so many disparate moments, especially in the tech arena. Without trying to compare Apple to apples (and other such terrible word plays), here are my picks of the top moments, products and trends from this year.

Yes, I will have 4K recording on my smartphone, thankyouverymuch Samsung.
(Credit: CNET)

4K is what 3D should have been

Remember the lists of yore foretelling that 3D was going to be The Next Big Thing? Well, that didn't exactly happen. As 3D languished in the corner like some unwanted smell, we packed up our 3D lenses and displays to make way for its spiritual successor.

2013 certainly took the next video trend by the horns and ran with it. Whether you call it 4K or the more industry-approved Ultra HD, this is a technology that I actually want in my lounge room. Yes, there's very little content available, but nothing compares to that moment when you think you need an eye test after switching from a 4K screen back to a puny HD panel.

As for all those delicious high-res cameras that made their debut during the year such as the Blackmagic Production Camera and the 6K Red Epic Dragon, all that's left to say is: I'll take two, please.

I don't really listen to David Guetta. Those aren't my hands.
(Credit: Spotify)

Music discovery

Music is one of those things that people often use as a means through which to identify themselves. I fall firmly within that camp. Call me an elitist if you will — I certainly do — but I'm very picky about what I listen to. Plus, I want to be able to hear anything from my collection whenever the mood takes me. Demanding, moi?

In Australia we have a glut of streaming services to choose from. It's kind of crazy given that most of them have the same features and similar price points. Even though we're saturated to the brim, what these streaming services have helped promote is the art of discovery: whether that's by resurfacing existing classics from your own music history or uncovering new releases that you wouldn't normally want to hand over cash to download.

For me, 2013 will go down in my own personal tech history as the year I tossed in subscription download service eMusic along with my old faithful 160GB iPod, and decided to go all-out for the same price per month with a music-streaming service. All the music I can handle with the added benefit of offline caching and listening on the go. Will the affair be one to remember? Watch this space.

(Credit: CBSi)

Many megapixels make great mobiles

The megapixel war is dead. Long live the megapixel war!

No handset did it better this year than the Nokia Lumia 1020. For the record, I am totally against megapixels just for the sake of megapixels. Take, for example, the Nikon D800. Amazing camera, but try importing those 36-megapixel RAW images into Lightroom. Trust me, there will be a lot of weeping going on (not just from your computer).

The 41-megapixel sensor on the 1020 looked ridiculous on paper — until I saw the 38-megapixel still images. Sure, the image quality is not yet ready to take on the dedicated cameras of this world, but the possibilities that all that extra resolution opens up are almost endless. Who needs to zoom using your feet when you can zoom in just by cropping?

Still not my hands but I'm happy to take credit for them if I can have this camera.
(Credit: Sony)

Sony A7 and A7R

Sony certainly made plenty of photographers happy this year. All those fantasies about full-frame cameras can now be fulfilled for less than AU$2000.

The A7 and A7R were two little bundles of joy delivered by the photo stork just as everything was starting to look a little bit jaded. With 35mm full-frame sensors in a compact body, they gave the market a jolt up the backside and reignited our love affair with older lenses. After all, what's old is new again when you can grab a cheap adapter from eBay.

Not ones to be left out, Canon and Nikon's cheaper full-frame options started to edge under the magical two-grand price point later in the year. But when it comes to pure balls-out gusto, Sony takes the cake.

(Credit: Amazon)

Send in the drones

Hexacopters and octocopters did not make their debut this year. Yet 2013 became the year where the drone really began to change the tech landscape.

We can't blame the Aussie textbook delivery startup, or the paintball battle monsters for pushing these flying creatures into the foreground. It was Amazon that made the technology suddenly seem real.

For surveillance and photographic purposes, the drone seems quite out of reach of everyday life. Couple it with our irresistible consumeristic desires and, suddenly, even the least technologically-inclined is asking when we'll see these flying creatures of the sky delivering our groceries.

Also, if you ever find a spare couple of million dollars burning a hole in your back pocket, drones are now being used to sell multi-million dollar properties. The future is now.

You may have the hottest hardware under the sun, but it's nothing if your system isn't running smoothly. After all, it's the little things that make life bearable, and given the undeniable nature of software to be annoying, you'll want to set it up exactly how you like.

To that end, we've taken a dive into the highly chlorinated pool of most commonly used software, and come out itching with some handy hints to make life a little easier. So come, wade with us, the water's fine...

Note that a number of these tips require administrator access to your machine, and you may not (and most likely should not) be able to do them at work!

Windows XP SP3

Note for the sake of this article, the Classic View is used for Control Panel.

001. Turn off personalized menus

Microsoft's Personalized Menus was an interesting idea — hide the commands you don't use often to create a more streamlined interface. Unfortunately all it did was annoy users as they couldn't find the menu entry they wanted. To turn them off if you're using the Classic Start menu:

Right-click on the Start button and click on Properties
Click Customize
Scroll to the bottom of the Advanced Start menu options box and untick Use Personalized Menus and click OK

You can also get rid of the evil things in Office 2003:

Right-click on a toolbar and choose Customize
Click the Options tab
Check Always show full menus
Click the Close button

002. Stop Security Center from whinging

Security Center, which was introduced with Service Pack 2 and is still very much present in Service Pack 3, likes to tell you all the time that your system is insecure, especially if you've got Automatic Updates turned off, or a firewall or antivirus running that it doesn't recognise. To silence its complaints:

Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Security Center
On the left-hand side of the application click the link that says Change the way Security Center alerts me
Uncheck the item(s) causing you grief — either Firewall, Automatic Updates, Virus Protection — then click OK

No, we're not as insecure as you think we are.
(Credit: CNET.com.au)

003. Customise your Start menu

There's a number of options you can choose to make the Start menu a bit friendlier. For example, for faster access to Control Panel applications and your network details, you can expand their entries in the Start menu.

Right-click on an empty space on the task bar, and then click on Properties
Click on the Start Menu tab. Click the active Customize button
- If you're using the Classic Start Menu, select Expand Control Panel and Expand Network Connections
- If you're using the standard Start Menu, in the Control Panel section selectDisplay as a menu. Network Connections sadly doesn't obey the same behaviour here, but you can do the next best thing and set it to link to the right place — under the Network Connections section, select Link to Network Connections folder
Click OK, then OK again to effect the changes

There's plenty of other options here, so feel free to prod around.

An expanded Control Panel and Network Connections option should speed up your navigation.
(Credit: CNET.com.au)

004. Install TweakUI, enable tab completion

No Windows XP user should be without TweakUI. Amongst its bundle of tweaks, it can set the autocomplete function properly for Command Prompt — meaning that you only have to type the first letter of the file or directory you want, then hit TAB and Command Prompt will fill in the rest. If it brings up the wrong answer, simply hit TAB again to cycle to the next, or press SHIFT + TAB to go backwards if you've gone too far.

Download TweakUI and install it
Run the program, then go to the Command Prompt section and set Filename completion and Directory completion to TAB, then click OK

Tab completion makes Command Prompt work bearable.
(Credit: CNET.com.au)

005. Use proper search

By default, Windows XP hides a bunch of files from the search engine. It also uses a plasticine-looking dog called the "Search Companion" that you'll want to get rid of post haste.

Open Windows Explorer, and hit F3 to open the search panel
Click the Change preferences link, and then the Without an animated screen characterlink
Click Change preferences again, then click Change files and folders search behaviorlink and select the Advanced option, then click OK
Expand the newly seen More advanced options section by clicking on it, and make sure Search system folders, Search hidden files and folders and Search subfolders is selected to get the best possible search results

How the search engine should be.
(Credit: CNET.com.au)

006. No to all

When moving files, Windows XP will give four options: Yes, Yes to All, No and Cancel. Sometimes though, you want a No to All — to enable this, just hold down SHIFT while clicking No.