Apple iPad, Street View landmarks, Nexus One and tablet PCs
Photos of the month - January 2010
The first month of the year wasn't short of big announcements - and they don't come much bigger than the long-awaited, much-hyped Apple tablet, known as the iPad.
The iPad, pictured above, was launched in San Francisco last week by Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
The touchscreen device, which resembles a giant iPhone, is designed for web browsing, playing games and reading e-books.
For an in-depth look at what the iPad can do, see our photo story here.
Photo credit: James Martin/CNET
silicon.com's sister site CNET News.com had a chance to get up close and personal with the iPad at the launch.
Take a look at the device in action here.
Photo credit: James Martin/CNET
January also saw silicon.com take a look at the six BBC tech projects that are likely to prove most important for the future of the corporation and the UK's broadcasting industry as a whole.
One of these projects is moving much of the Beeb's operations to Salford's Media City in Manchester (pictured above) which is as much a technology project as an office relocation. Media City will soon be home to much of the corporation's Future Media and Technology division including the IPTV team.
See the full story here to find out what other technology initiatives the BBC is working on as it enters a new decade.
Picture credit: Peel Media
Google Goggles is an image-based search service that allows people to submit an image and get web-based search results pulled from Google's massive archive of indexed photos and images.
Last month silicon.com sister site CNET News.com put it to the test. In this picture, Goggles successfully identified the Ferry Building in San Francisco.
See the full photo story here for more from the experiment.
Photo credit: James Martin/CNET
Google Street View also made silicon.com's photo agenda in January, as we revisited the landmarks that had been added to the service following a vote by the British public to find the attractions worth of being featured.
Among them was Cornwall's Eden Project - pictured here - which has been added to Street View in all its eco-friendly glory.
You can find out which other attractions have made it onto Street View here.
Image credit: Google
Google wasn't the only one with its eye on mapping last month - phone-maker Nokia announced in January it was to make its Ovi Maps navigation software free for compatible handsets.
The Ovi software will offer turn-by-turn voice-guided navigation in the same manner as standalone sat-nav devices, and will feature lane assistance, traffic information, safety camera and speed warnings for drivers (seen above).
To see Nokia's Ovi Maps in action, click here.
Image credit: Nokia
The biggest trade show of the year, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), kicked off in January. In his CES keynote, Intel chairman and CEO Paul Otellini talked about what's in store for the chip giant this year. One of the things he showed off was this 'home of the future', which featured a wall display that will wirelessly monitor a home's energy usage.
Take a look at the full gallery for more from Otellini's keynote, including 3D demos and what's in store for processors.
Photo credit: James Martin/CNET
One of the trends making waves at CES was the advent of the tablet PC. silicon.com brought together some of the most interesting tablet devices unveiled at and before the show.
Here you can see the Lenovo Ideapad U1 Hybrid, which has a screen that detaches from the rest of the device to become a separate tablet PC.
To see what other devices were getting everyone so excited check out the full picture story.
Photo credit: Lenovo
We also took a look back at some of the tablets that have been produced in the past, including this - the Q1 by Samsung, one of the devices that kicked off the tablet sub-category known as ultra-mobile PCs.
For more on what today's tablet makers can learn from yesterday's hardware, read the full story here.
Photo credit: Samsung
Sticking with hardware, January saw phone maker LG launch its very first device running Google's Android OS for the UK market.
The social-media-focused device will be sold under the brand name InTouch Max GW620.
To see more of the device and its features, check out the full photo story here.
Photo credit: LG
Another Android handset making waves last month was the Nexus One, Google's first own-brand mobile handset.
The device, coming to the UK later this year, runs version 2.1 of Android operating system and was built by HTC.
The Nexus One also packs a five-megapixel camera, a 1GHz Snapdragon chipset and 512MB Flash and 512MB RAM of onboard memory.
For more on the Nexus One and its features, check out our photo story here.
Photo credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET
Last month also saw silicon.com take a look at some of the cutting edge tech that is protecting UK soldiers on the battlefield.
We explored some of the futuristic technology funded by the Ministry of Defence, from swarms of flying robots to lung scanners using motion-capture technology similar to that used to make the 3D blockbuster Avatar.
The MoD's research funding agency, the Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE), has supported more than 150 proposals since it launched 18 months ago.
Kit up with pictures of more 21st century battle gear here.
Photo credit: PneumaCare
Last year marked Microsoft chairman Bill Gates' first year working full time as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In this January photo story, silicon.com sister site CNET News.com looks back over the visits Gates has made in his new philanthropic role.
Gates is pictured above attending a lunch discussion with West Charlotte High School students in North Carolina in September last year.
For more, see the full Bill Gates photo story here.
Photo credit: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation